Ida and the twins cooked that dinner all by themselves . To be sure , Cousin Myra had helped some , and Frank and Darby had stoned all the raisins and helped pull the home-made candy ; and all together they had decorated the small dining room royally with Christmas greens . Then their guests came . First , all the little Rolands from the Hollow arrived -- seven in all , with very red , shining faces and not a word to say for themselves , so shy were they . Then came a troop from French Joe 's -- four black-eyed lads , who never knew what shyness meant . Frank drove down to the village in the cutter and brought lame Sammy back with him , and soon after the last guest arrived -- little Tillie Mather , who was Miss Rankin 's `` orphan ` sylum girl '' from over the road . Everybody knew that Miss Rankin never kept Christmas . She did not believe in it , she said , but she did not prevent Tillie from going to the Osbornes ' dinner party . Just at first the guests were a little stiff and unsocial ; but they soon got acquainted , and so jolly was Cousin Myra -- who had her dinner with the children in preference to the grown-ups -- and so friendly the junior Osbornes , that all stiffness vanished . What a merry dinner it was ! What peals of laughter went up , reaching to the big dining room across the hall , where the grown-ups sat in rather solemn state . And how those guests did eat and frankly enjoy the good things before them ! How nicely they all behaved , even to the French Joes ! Myra had secretly been a little dubious about those four mischievous-looking lads , but their manners were quite flawless . Mrs. French Joe had been drilling them for three days -- ever since they had been invited to `` de Chrismus dinner at de beeg house . '' After the merry dinner was over , the junior Osbornes brought in a Christmas tree , loaded with presents . They had bought them with the money that Mr. and Mrs. Osborne had meant for their own presents , and a splendid assortment they were . All the French-Joe boys got a pair of skates apiece , and Sammy a set of beautiful books , and Tillie was made supremely happy with a big wax doll . Every little Roland got just what his or her small heart had been longing for . Besides , there were nuts and candies galore .
Then Frank hitched up his pony again , but this time into a great pung sleigh , and the junior Osbornes took their guests for a sleigh-drive , chaperoned XXXXX Cousin Myra .
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