[figure description] Page 143.[end figure description]

yelled Ike, as he skipped into Mrs. Partington's kitchen,
where the old dame was busily engaged in cooking breakfast
on Christmas morning.

“Don't make such a noise, dear,” said the kind old
lady, holding up her hand; “you give me a scrutinizing
pain in my head, and your young voice goes through my
brains like a scalpel knife. But what did the good Santa
Cruz put in your stocking, Isaac?”

And she looked at him with an arch and pleased expression
as he took out of his pocket a jacknife, and a humtop
painted with gaudy colors. Ike held them up joyously,
and it was a sight to see the two standing there, she
smiling serenely upon the boy's happiness, and he grateful
in the possession of his treasures.

“Ah!” said she, with a sigh, “there 's many a home
to-day, Isaac, that Santa Cruz won't visit, and many a
poor child will find nothing in his stocking but his own
little foot!”

It might have been a grain of the snuff she took, it
might have been a floating mote of the atmosphere, but
Mrs. Partington's eyes looked humid, though she smiled
upon the boy before her, who stood trying to pull the
cord out of her reticule to spin his new top with.

p677-161

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