1857.] A Story for the Holidays. 19 



do n't think the fact you alledge a sufficient ground for making it.* 



' Well, I do, then,' said cousin Margaret. ' Why, if I were a 

 young man and engaged to be married to a lady, I 'd sell my shoes 

 but what I 'd giVe her something as a Christmas present.' 



' Yes — or borrow or beg the money,' chimed in Jane. 



' Every one must do as he or she thinks best,' replied Lizzy. ' As 

 for me, I am content to receive no holiday gift, being well satisfied 

 that meanness has nothing to do with it.' 



But notwithstanding Lizzy said this, she could not help feeling 

 a little disappointed ; more perhaps on account of the appearance 

 of the thing, than from any suspicion that meanness, as alledged by 

 Jane, had anything to do with the omission. 



' I wish Edward had made Lizzy some kind of a present,' said Mrs. 

 Grreen to her husband, a day or two after the holidays had passed ; 

 ' if it had only been for the looks of the thing. Jane has been teas- 

 ing her about it ever since, and calls it nothing but meanness in Ed- 

 ward — and I am afraid he is a little close.' 



' Better that he should be so than too free,' replied Mr. Green ; 

 though I must confess that a dollar or two, or even ten dollars, spent 

 at Christmas for his intended bride, could hardly have been set down 

 to the score of prodigality. It does look a little mean, certainly.' 



'He is doing very well.' 



' He gets a salary of eight hundred dollars, and I suppose it does 

 not cost him over four or five hundred to live — at least it oue;ht not 

 to do so.' 



' He has bought himself a snug little house I am told.' 



' If he's done that, he's doing very well,' said Mr. Green ; ' and 

 I can forgive him for not spending his money in Christmas presents 

 that are never of much use, to say the best you will of them. I 'd 

 rather Edward would have a comfortable house to put his wife in, 

 than see him loading her down with presents of one foolish thing 

 or another.' 



' True, but it wouldn't have hurt him to have given the girl some- 

 thing, if it had only been a book, a purse, or some such trifle.' 



' For which trifle he would have been as strongly charged with 

 meanness as he is now. Better let it go as it is. No doubt he has 

 good reasons for his conduct.' 



Thus Mr. Green and Lizzy defended Edward, while the mother 

 and Jane scolded about his meanness to their heart's content. 



Edward Mayfield, the lover of Lizzy Green, was a young man of 



