"Indeed it does, mem. I feel as if I'd taken a sup myself, I'm that
easy in my mind."

And she looked so, too, for she seemed to have left all her cares in
the little house when she locked the door behind her, and now
stood smiling with a clean apron on, so fresh and cheerful, that Jill
hardly knew her own mother.

"Things taste better when you have someone to eat with you,"
observed Jack, as they devoured sandwiches, and drank milk out
of little mugs with rosebuds on them.

"Don't eat too much, or you won't be ready for the next surprise,"
said his mother, when the plates were empty, and the last drop
gone down throats dry with much chatter.

"More surprises! Oh, what fun!" cried Jill. And all the rest of the
morning, in the intervals of talk and play, they tried to guess what
it could be.

At two o'clock they found out, for dinner was served in the Bird
Room, and the children revelled in the simple feast prepared for
them. The two mothers kept the little bed-tables well supplied, and
fed their nurslings like maternal birds, while Frank presided over
the feast with great dignity, and ate a dinner which would have
astonished Mamma, if she had not been too busy to observe how
fast the mince pie vanished.

"The girls said Christmas was spoiled because of us; but I don't