Peace on Earth, Good-will to Dogs | Page 6

same suit-case she began very palpably to pant again. "Yes!
Every detail is all planned out!" she asserted with a breathy sort of
pride. "You and your Father are both so flighty I don't know whatever
in the world you'd do if I didn't plan out everything for you!"
With more manners than efficiency Flame and her Father dropped at
once every helpful thing they were doing and sat down in rocking
chairs to listen to the plan.
"Flame, of course, can't stay here all alone. Flame's Mother turned and
confided sotto voce to her husband. Young men might call. The Lay
Reader is almost sure to call.... He's a dear delightful soul of course, but
I'm afraid he has an amorous eye."
"All Lay Readers have amorous eyes," reflected her husband. "Taken
all in all it is a great asset."
"Don't be flippant!" admonished Flame's Mother. "There are reasons ...
why I prefer that Flame's first offer of marriage should not be from a
Lay Reader."
"Why?" brightened Flame.
"S--sh--," cautioned her Father.
"Very good reasons," repeated her Mother. From the conglomerate
packing under her hand a puff of spilled tooth-powder whiffed
fragrantly into the air.
"Yes?" prodded her husband's blandly impatient voice.
"Flame shall go to her Aunt Minna's" announced the dominant maternal
voice. "By driving with us to the station, she'll have only two hours to
wait for her train, and that will save one bus fare! Aunt Minna is a

vegetarian and doesn't believe in sweets either, so that will be quite a
unique and profitable experience for Flame to add to her general
culinary education! It's a wonderful house!... A bit dark of course! But
if the day should prove at all bright,--not so bright of course that Aunt
Minna wouldn't be willing to have the shades up, but--Oh and Flame,"
she admonished still breathlessly, "I think you'd better be careful to
wear one of your rather longish skirts! And oh do be sure to wipe your
feet every time you come in! And don't chatter! Whatever you do, don't
chatter! Your Aunt Minna, you know, is just a little bit peculiar! But
such a worthy woman! So methodical! So...."
To Flame's inner vision appeared quite suddenly the pale, inscrutable
face of the old Butler who asked nothing,--answered
nothing,--welcomed nothing,--evaded nothing.
"... Yes'm," said Flame.
But it was a very frankly disconsolate little girl who stole late that night
to her Father's study, and perched herself high on the arm of his chair
with her cheek snuggled close to his.
"Of Father-Funny," whispered Flame, "I've got such a queer little pain."
"A pain?" jerked her Father. "Oh dear me! Where is it? Go and find
your Mother at once!"
"Mother?" frowned Flame. "Oh it isn't that kind of a pain.--It's in my
Christmas. I've got such a sad little pain in my Christmas."
"Oh dear me--dear me!" sighed her Father. Like two people most
precipitously smitten with shyness they sat for a moment staring
blankly around the room at every conceivable object except each other.
Then quite suddenly they looked back at each other and smiled.
"Father," said Flame. "You're not of course a very old man.... But still
you are pretty old, aren't you? You've seen a whole lot of Christmasses,
I mean?"

"Yes," conceded her Father.
From the great clumsy rolling collar of her blanket wrapper Flame's
little face loomed suddenly very pink and earnest.
"But Father," urged Flame. "Did you ever in your whole life spend a
Christmas just exactly the way you wanted to? Honest-to-Santa Claus
now,--did you ever?"
"Why--Why, no," admitted her Father after a second's hesitation. "Why
no, I don't believe I ever did." Quite frankly between his brows there
puckered a very black frown. "Now take to-morrow, for instance," he
complained. "I had planned to go fishing through the ice.... After the
morning service, of course,--after we'd had our Christmas dinner,--and
gotten tired of our presents,--every intention in the world I had of going
fishing through the ice.... And now your Uncle Wally has to go and
have a shock! I don't believe it was necessary. He should have taken
extra precautions. The least that delicate relatives can do is to take extra
precautions at holiday time.... Oh, of course your Uncle Wally has
books in his library," he brightened, "very interesting old books that
wouldn't be perfectly seemly for a minister of the Gospel to have in his
own library.... But still it's very disappointing," he wilted again.
"I agree with you ... utterly, Father-Funny!" said Flame. "But ...
Father," she persisted, "Of all the people you know in the
world,--millions would it be?"
"No, call it thousands" corrected her Father.
"Well, thousands," accepted Flame. "Old people, young people, fat
people, skinnys, cross people, jolly people?... Did you ever