GWENDOLINE.

T was such a mixed-up family that you never in
the world could tell how they were related to one
another. First there was Curtis: he was Aunt
Mary’s brother; and then there were Clare and

Allen, who were Mr. Danforth’s children, for he was a

widower when he married Theo’s mother, a widow, whose only

child Theo was; last of all came Gwendoline, who belonged to
everybody, for Clare and Allen’s father was her papa, and

Theo’s mother was her mamma, while Curtis was her mother’s

 

brother, and Aunt Mary her mother’s sister. It was a very
mixed-up household as far as relationship goes, but it was a
very harmonious one in every other respect. |

It was Christmas-eve, and even Curtis, though he was
_ fourteen, was not too big to hang up his stocking; only Allen
declared he wanted to see what was going on, and hung his

stocking at the foot of his bed, though the rest hung theirs
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