"THE LITTLE RUGGLESES BORE IT BRAVELY (Page 36)"

CONTENTS AND LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

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• "The little Ruggleses bore it bravely" (page 36) Frontispiece
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• VignetteTitle
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• I. A Little Snow Bird 1
• "She is a little Christmas Child" 7
• II. Drooping Wings 10
• III. The Birds' Nest 15
• Carol at her window 21
• IV. "Birds of a Feather Flock Together" 22
• The "Window School" 31
• V. Some Other Birds are taught to Fly 32
• "I want ter see how yer goin' ter behave" 39
• VI. "When the pie was opened,
• The birds began to sing!" } 48
• "The Ruggleses never forgot it" 55
• "I beat the hull lot o' yer!" 62
• VII. The Birdling flies away 63
• "My Ain Countree" 65
• "I thought of the Star in the East" 69

THE BIRDS’ CHRISTMAS CAROL

I

A LITTLE SNOW BIRD

t was very early Christmas morning, and in the stillness of the dawn, with the soft snow falling on the house-tops, a little child was born in the Bird household.

They had intended to name the baby Lucy, if it were a girl; but they had not expected her on Christmas morning, and a real Christmas baby was not to be lightly named—the whole family agreed in that.

They were consulting about it in the nursery. Mr. Bird said that he had assisted in naming the three boys, and that he should leave this matter entirely to Mrs. Bird; Donald wanted the child called "Dorothy," after a pretty, curly-haired girl who sat next him in school; Paul choose "Luella," for Luella was the nurse who had been with him during his whole babyhood, up to the time of his first trousers, and the name suggested all sorts of comfortable things. Uncle Jack said that the first girl should always be named for her mother, no matter how hideous the name happened to be.

Grandma said that she would prefer not to take any