Page:The New-Year's Bargain (1884).djvu/215

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HOW THE CAT KEPT CHRISTMAS.
203

and expecting the arrival of December, last of that wonderful company who had made the year so strangely interesting.

They had not long to wait. There came a lull in the wind, and far off in the distance a voice was heard raised in a commanding tone, and gradually drawing nearer.

"There! there!" were the first words they caught: "that will do. Leave the oaks alone, you rascals! Time enough for such pranks when I'm gone. As for that hemlock,—winds will be winds, I know, and what's done can never be undone; but don't let me catch you at another." Here the voice ceased; then there was a rattling at the latch, and next moment the door opened, and in came a tall figure leaning on a staff, but moving so lightly and easily that it suggested any thing rather than age or infirmity.

This was December, a fine, stately man, dressed in white and green, with a fur cloak flung about his shoulders and a hat decked with holly sprigs. Age and youth seemed funnily contrasted in his