INSIDE the Stone cabin, oil lamps had been lighted, so the Brownies could see the Christmas tree quite plainly. It stood at a slight angle in the window, its branches brushing against the icy panes.
“Why, it is our tree!” agreed Sunny indignantly. “Of all the nerve!”
“I don’t think the tree we selected for the birds was that tall,” protested Connie, after a second glance.
“Neither do I,” declared Eileen promptly. “Maybe it isn’t the same evergreen, even though it looks a little like it.”
The Brownies trudged on, deliberately breaking trail so that they would pass close to the Stone cabin.
“I still think it’s our tree,” insisted Jane when they were quite near the window.
“And I say it isn’t,” Eileen argued.
152 “Wait here!” Jane directed the Brownies. “I’ll find out for sure!”
Before Miss Gordon or the other girls could stop her, she scrambled over a big snowdrift and crept through the dark to the kitchen window. Half hidden by an ice-coated bush, Jane was able to look closely at the evergreen without being seen by anyone in the lighted room.
At first glance she saw that the tree was not the one which had been taken from Mr. Jeffert’s land, though it was a beautiful spruce.
The lower branches were a little scraggly, and viewed at close range, one side of the tree appeared slightly mis-shapen.
Satisfied that the evergreen was not the same one, Jane started to turn away. Then she waited a moment, for she saw the Stone children playing on the floor of the kitchen.
Mrs. Stone was setting food on the table for supper. One dish contained potatoes and another held turnips. Jane did not see anything else.
“Mom, may we have a new sled for Christmas?” she heard Barbara ask her mother.
“No, dear, and I’ve asked you not to keep pestering me about it,” sighed her mother wearily. “With your father out of work, we can’t afford toys this year. We’ll be lucky to keep food on the table.”
153 “Jane!” called Miss Gordon. She did not consider it proper for the little girl to peep through a window.
Jane quickly rejoined the Brownies. She knew she had not been seen by anyone in the cabin.
“It wasn’t the same tree,” she announced as the Brownies waited for her opinion.
“I thought it wouldn’t be,” declared Connie, while Miss Gordon nodded agreement.
“This proves that one shouldn’t leap to hasty conclusions,” added the leader of the Brownie troop. “How easy it is to misjudge a person.”
As the Brownies started on at a brisk pace toward the Gordon farm, Jane was rather quiet. She kept thinking about what she had heard Mrs. Stone tell Barbara.
Finally, she said: “Miss Gordon, I wish we could give the Stone family more than just a sled. They need all sorts of toys and Christmas food—turkey, cranberries, plum pudding and everything.”
The remark surprised Miss Gordon. She asked Jane why she thought the Stones might be in dire need.
“I heard Mrs. Stone say there would be no money for Christmas toys and maybe not any for food,” Jane related. “All they were having for supper was potatoes and turnips.”
154 “Oh, surely Mrs. Stone had other food prepared, Jane. Perhaps it was in the oven, or out of sight.”
“That’s all I saw at any rate.”
“What was the kitchen like?” inquired Connie curiously.
“I didn’t notice anything except the Christmas tree and the supper table. Miss Gordon called me before I had a chance to really see very much.”
Now what Jane had reported deeply troubled Miss Gordon. She promised the Brownies she would make inquiries before Christmas to learn if the Stones actually were in need.
“If they are, we’ll send a big basket of food,” she said. “However, the Stones have lived in this community many years and I understand, are quite proud. They might resent charity.”
“Will they be offended if we give them the sled, and perhaps a few other toys?” Connie asked anxiously.
“The children will enjoy the presents—I’m certain of that,” declared Miss Gordon.
After the Brownies reached Grandmother Gordon’s farmhouse they talked over what they could do to help the Stone children.
“We could stuff stockings and make them into dolls,” proposed Eileen eagerly.
“And we could bake things,” suggested Rosemary,155 who loved to cook. “That is, if Mrs. Gordon wouldn’t mind having us use her kitchen.”
“It’s yours for the asking,” laughed Mrs. Gordon.
The Brownies divided into two groups, one to sew and the other to work in the kitchen. Veve, Rosemary and Connie elected to cook, while the other girls sewed stocking dolls.
“What shall we make?” demanded Veve, after the three girls, wrapped in huge kitchen aprons, had taken possession of the kitchen.
“I have a recipe here for brownies,” said Miss Gordon. “You might start with that. Then if you like, we can make sand tarts and regular Christmas cookies, decorating them with red and green sugar, citron and candied cherry.”
“Are brownies a cookie too?” asked Veve, who never had done much cooking.
“A very rich and delicious variety,” declared the troop leader.
She set out the ingredients and gave the girls Mrs. Gordon’s favorite brownie recipe. It read:
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 squares chocolate
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup chopped nut meats.
156 “I’ll chop the nuts!” offered Connie, digging in the kitchen cabinet drawer for the cracker.
Rosemary and Veve under Miss Gordon’s direction blended the sugar and the shortening.
“Now while you add the two eggs, I’ll step into the living room and see how our champion sewers are progressing,” Miss Gordon said.
Left to themselves, Veve and Rosemary scarcely knew how to add the eggs to the creamy white mixture.
“You break one and I’ll smash the other,” proposed Veve. “That way, we’ll both have a turn.”
Rosemary cracked her egg squarely in the middle and let the yolk and white drop into the pan. A tiny piece of shell fell in too, but she fished it out with a spoon.
“Now it’s my turn,” laughed Veve. Though she never had cracked an egg, she was sure it would be easy.
Selecting the largest one in the pan, she tapped it smartly against the table edge as she had seen Rosemary do.
Now Veve............