"Happy New Year, Son!" said Daddy Horton, catching him in his arms and
lifting him as high as the Christmas tree which still stood in one
corner of the parlor.

"Happy New Year, Sunny Boy!" cried Harriet, waving a dish towel at him
when he peeped into her kitchen.

"I think New Year is nice," said Sunny Boy, when Mother said he might
have two waffles for his breakfast because of the holiday. Usually
Mother said that hot cakes were not good for little boys.

After breakfast Sunny Boy brought down his lead soldiers from the
playroom and played with them on the rug before the fire place. This
was the last day the Christmas tree would be left standing, Mother
Horton said, so he liked to stay near it.

"When will it be time to pass the New Year cakes?" he asked Harriet,
when she came in to bring more wood for the fire.

"This afternoon," she answered. "When the callers come."

Sunny Boy's Aunt Bessie came to dinner, which was at one o'clock as on
Sunday, and Sunny Boy was very glad to see her. She brought him a
little set of bells and showed him how he could play a tune on them by
striking them with a wooden mallet. Sunny Boy could play "Annie
Laurie" before the afternoon was over.

After dinner came visitors. They were all grown up people, and Mrs.
Horton and Aunt Bessie gave them tea to drink and sandwiches from the
tea wagon and Sunny Boy, in his best white flannel sailor suit, passed