Ethelyn's Mistake

"It won't be much," she said to Betty, "but it will show she is not

forgotten;" and so the stocking grew, and was shaped from a half-worn

pair which Ethelyn used to wear, and on which Aunt Barbara's tears

dropped as she thought of the dear little feet, now wandered so far

away, which the stockings used to cover.

Christmas came, and Susie Granger sang of Bethlehem in the old stone

church, and other fingers than Ethie's swept the organ keys, and the

Christmas tree was set up, and the presents were hung upon the boughs,

and the names were called, and Aunt Barbara was there, but the

lamb's-wool stockings were at home in the bureau drawer; there was no

one to wear them, no one to take them from the tree, if they had been

put there; Ethie had not come.