Chapter 15

HOW THIS BOOK CAME TO BE WRITTEN.

"Ring out ye merry, merry bells, Your loudest, sweetest chime; Tell all the world, both rich and poor, 'Tis happy Christmas time."

"Grandmother," said Ralph, at breakfast on what Molly called "the morning of Christmas Eve," "I was going to ask you, only the story last night put it out of my head, if I might ask Prosper to spend to-morrow with us. His uncle and aunt are going away somewhere, and he will be quite alone. Besides he and I have made a plan about taking the shawl to the old woman quite early in the morning. You don't know _how_ pleased he was when I told him you had got it for her, grandmother--just as pleased as if he had bought it for her with his own money."

"Then he is a really unselfish boy," said grandmother. "Certainly you may ask him. I had thought of it too, but somehow it went out of my head. And, as well as the shawl, I shall have something to send to Prosper's old friend. She must have a good dinner for once."

"That'll be awfully jolly," said Ralph. Sylvia and Molly listened with approval, for of course they had heard all about the mystery of Ralph's wood-carrying long ago.

"At Christmas time we're to try to make other people happy," said Molly, meditatively. "_I_ thought of something that would make a great lot of people happy, if you and aunty would do it, grandmother dear?"

"I don't think you did _all_ the thinking about it, Molly," said Sylvia, with a slight tone of reproach. "I do think I did some."

"Well, I daresay you did. We did it together. It couldn't be for _this_ Christmas, but for another."

"But what is it?" asked grandmother.

"It is that you and aunty should make a book out of the stories you've told us, and then you see lots and lots of other children would be pleased as well as us," said Molly. "Of course you'd have to put more to it, to make it enough. I don't _mind_ if you put some in about me, grandmother dear, if you would _like_ to very much."

"No," said Sylvia, "that would be very stupid. Grandmother couldn't make a book about _us_. We're not uncommon enough. We couldn't be _heroines_, Molly."

"But children don't care about heroines," said Molly. "Children like to hear about other children, just really what they do. Now, don't they, grandmother dear? And _isn't_ my plan a good one?"

* * * * *

Will _you_ answer little Molly's question, children dear? For dear you all are, whoever and wherever you be. Boys and girls, big and little, dark and fair, brown-eyed and blue-eyed, merry and quiet--all of you, dear unknown friends whose faces I may never see, yet all of whom I love. I shall be so glad--so very glad, if this little simple story-book of mine helps to make this Christmas Day a happy and merry one for you all.

THE END.

* * * * *

_Macmillan's Prize Library_

A Carefully Selected Series of Illustrated Books suitable for Presentation.

_Baker, Sir Samuel W._ Cast up by the Sea.

_Besant, Sir Walter._ Life of Captain Cook.

_Bradley, A. G._ Life of Wolfe.

_Buckland, Frank._ Curiosities of Natural History. Vols. I.-III.

_Buckley, A. B._ Through Magic Glasses.

_Butler, Sir William._ General Gordon.

_Cooper, J. Fenimore._ The Last of the Mohicans. The Deerslayer. The Pathfinder. The Pioneers.

_Corbett, Sir Julian._ For God and Gold. Sir Francis Drake.

_Creasy, Sir E._ The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World.

_Dickens, Charles._ Oliver Twist. The Old Curiosity Shop. Christmas Books. Barnaby Rudge.

_Edgeworth, Maria._ Lazy Lawrence and other Stories.

_Eliot, George._ Scenes of Clerical Life.

_Finny, Violet Geraldine._ Revolt of the Young MacCormacks.

_Fowler, W. Warde._ A Year with the Birds. Tales of the Birds. More Tales of the Birds.

_Fraser, Edward._ Famous Fighters of the Fleet.

_Gilmore, Rev. John._ Storm Warriors; or Life-Boat Work on the Goodwin Sands.

_Grimm, The Bros._ Household Stories.

_Henley, W. E._ Lyra Heroica. A Book of Verse for Boys.

_Hooper, G._ Life of Wellington.

_Hughes, T._ Tom Brown's School Days. Alfred the Great.

_Keary, A. and E._ Heroes of Asgard.

_Kingsley, Charles._ Hereward the Wake. Westward Ho! The Heroes. The Water-Babies. Madam How and Lady Why. Glaucus.

_Kipling, Rudyard._ Selected Stories.

_Laughton, Sir J. K._ Life of Nelson.

_Marryat, Captain._ Newton Forster. The Pirate and the Three Cutters. Peter Simple. Japhet in Search of a Father. Mr. Midshipman Easy. Masterman Ready. The Phantom Ship.

_Metelerkamp, Sanni._ Outa Karel's Stories.

_Mitchell, S. Weir._ The Adventures of François.

_Molesworth, Mrs._ Carrots. Tell Me a Story. The Tapestry Room. The Cuckoo Clock. Grandmother Dear. Herr Baby. Us. The Rectory Children. Two Little Waifs. Four Winds Farm. The Ruby Ring. Mary. Nurse Heatherdale's Story. The Woodpigeons and Mary. The Story of a Year. Edmée. A Tale of the French Revolution.

_Morier, James._ The Adventures of Hajji Baba.

_Norton, H. E._ A Book of Courtesy.

_Oman, Sir C. W._ Warwick the Kingmaker.

_Perry, W. C._ The Boy's Iliad. The Boy's Odyssey.

_Scott, Sir Walter._ Kenilworth. Count Robert of Paris.

_Sharp, Evelyn._ Micky. The Children Who Ran Away. The Other Boy. The Youngest Girl in the School.

_Thackeray, W. M._ Henry Esmond.

_Yonge, Charlotte M._ Little Duke. The Prince and the Page. Unknown to History. The Dove in the Eagle's Nest. The Chaplet of Pearls.