68
GERISEMAS COINS EE HOSP Al:

  

HRISTMAS was drawing near, and there was
great excitement in the wards of Beverton
Children’s Hospital. For some days there
had been mysterious whisperings amongst the
little patients ; and the knowing smiles of the
nurses, as they lovingly tended their young
charges, told plainly enough that something unusual was in
the air.

Nobody found out exactly what that “something” was,
however, until Christmas Eve; and then, into the middle of
the largest ward, where all the children who could be moved
were gathered, there was brought an immense Christmas-
tree. Oh, how the children did enjoy it! They were very
quiet—many of them were too ill to make much noise;
but their pleasure was none the less on that account. The
tree was brightly lighted with coloured candles, and there
was a gift on it for every child in the hospital. A delightful
old Father Christmas, who turned out afterwards to be one
of the kind-hearted doctors, made a little speech, and then
unfastened the gifts, which his own small daughter carried
to those of the children who were too weak to walk to the
tree themselves.

When every child in the ward had been made happy with
a gift, and all had been taken back to their cosy beds, there
still remained one gift on the tree, and that was intended for
a little girl whose illness was of such a kind that the good
doctor feared the excitement of the evening might have
harmed her. Poor little maiden! Though she was very
brave, she could not help feeling a little bit unhappy about