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When the children began to carry hos that had been said to her as a child;

then tightly closed it She began getting up earlier, sitting up

later, knitting feverishly Luckily the merchant could sell all

she could furnish As the tiathered from the

talk of the children as the deepest desire of their hearts

One day a heavy wind driving ice-coated trees in the back yard

broke quite a large lied it into

the woodhouse to ainst the wall to

wait until the ice ht how like a small tree the branch was shaped, and

how pretty it looked After the children had gone to school the

next day she shaped it with the hatchet and saw, and fastened it

in a small box This she carried to her bedroooing to do, but she

kept thinking Soon she found enough time to wrap every branch

carefully with the red tissue paper her red knitting wool caht of the country

Christmas trees she had seen decorated with popcorn and

cranberries She popped the corn at night and the following day

athered all the bittersweet

berries, swamp holly, and wild rose seed heads she could find