264 THE RED MOUNTAIN OF ALASKA. 
make everybody else happy — and we're going to have 
just as good a time as we can — there ! " 
The girl jumped up, and at once entered into profoundly 
secret plans with her mother and Chloe, relating to ever- 
green, candles, ornaments for the tree, and even gifts, 
for these last were by no means to be omitted. Each 
of the family was occupied in manufacturing some 
kind of a surprise for the rest, and the time went 
much more quickly. On the twenty-fourth, the boys 
tramped off into the forest, and gathered armfuls of 
green boughs, as well as a lot of long, gray moss with 
which the larger trees throughout the woods were 
draped. These boughs, which were of fir and cedar, 
were tastefully fastened up about the large "living- 
room," and over the fireplace. Peeschee came in a little 
after the others, and produced several clusters of scarlet 
wild-rose hips, which " came in just right for holly 
berries," Flossie said. 
Before long the whole room was spicy with the fra- 
grance of the boughs, and it began truly to seem like 
Christmas. Solomon was trusted with the important duty 
of securing the tree, which he fulfilled to a charm, leaving 
it out-of-doors over night. 
The next day • — Christmas — what glorious weather ! 
It began with the loveliest of rosy skies, slowly growing 
to bright gold, until the sun itself peeped over the far- 
away mountains of ice, and sent its glad beams dan- 
cing down to the little clearing. All hands were up in 
