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Page 74
The tree had hopped into the room and stood there, not knowing what to
do with himself. Lucy did not see him at first, being so busy with the
rest; but as soon as she did see him, she gave him such a hug as nearly
pulled him over.
"Oh, you dear old Norway! Did _you_ come? You're so good, and I'm so
glad! Come up to the fire and get warm. Here, Jack, and Lyd, and
Fran�aise, help me get this big foot-stool into the corner. It's
getting awful late."
Lucy flew about in a ragged kind of way until she had all the rest
flying about too, doing an amount of work nobody would have believed
possible. They were all glad enough to do the work, but they needed
just such a driving, thoughtful old body as Lucy to show them what to
do and keep them at it.
[Illustration: SCRUBBY'S FRIENDS ARRANGING HER CHRISTMAS-TREE.]
The big foot-stool was put where Lucy wanted it, and Norway warmed his
foot and hopped upon the stool, pushing himself as far back in the
corner as he could get, to make sure that he would not fall.
Then Lucy climbed upon a chair in front of him, ready for business. She
took Fran�aise up on the chair beside her to help arrange the things,
for the French girl had excellent taste, and nobody could deny it. Lyd
and Peg, and Minx and Spot, and even the chicken, brought the things to
go on the tree, and faster, too, than they could possibly be used,
while Ned shouted all manner of directions.
Poor Norway fairly bowed his head under the weight of all the things
that were hung upon him. And it was astonishing how pretty those
battered old dolls, broken toys, and torn flowers looked when upon the
tree. There were so many, and they had been arranged so nicely, that
they really did make a splendid show.
"But, oh dear!" Lucy sighed, when it was all done. "It's not your fault
I know, Norway, and you are just as good as you can be; but if you only
were not quite so thin, and were just a little bit greener! And then
we've no moss to put under you. But we haven't any nice little animals
to put on the moss, if we had it."
Just then, Jumping Jack heard a queer kind of noise outside, and opened
the door to see what it was. In whisked Mrs. Squirrel; the sparrow
hopped in close beside her, and Mr. Rabbit jumped along right after
them.
"How are you getting on?" asked the gray lady. "I brought this along
because I thought it might come handy. We laid in a great deal more
than we needed for our nest last fall, and we could just as well spare
it as not."
It was a big bundle of beautiful green moss she had brought, enough to
spread all around under the tree and make a fine carpet.
"Oh, you dear, good old thing!" said Luce. "That is just exactly what
we wanted. Here, Lyd! Peg! Help me spread this down."
"Chick," said the sparrow, "will you please take charge of this?"
And there was a great long vine of shining green ivy which the sparrow
had dragged in with him from some place in the woods. Lucy was so
delighted that she fairly clapped her brown leather hands.
"Quick, Fran�aise!" she cried. "Take this and twist it around the
tree. Just the thing to hide poor old Norway's bare places. Oh, it's
just lovely!"
All this time Mr. Rabbit had been holding his ears very straight up,
and now he shook a couple of button-balls and some acorn-cups out of
one, and a lot of mountain-ash berries out of the other.
"Do to hang around on the tree. Look kind of odd and nice," he said.
"Well, I should think so!" Luce answered. "I never did see such good
creatures as you are; and we all thought you had gone home to bed."
Speaking of bed made the chicken gape a little, and they all remembered
how late it was. They never stopped chattering and laughing for a
minute; but they went to work harder than ever, and soon had all the
moss spread down, the ivy twined over the tree, and the button-balls,
acorn-cups, and berries hung up where they would show best.
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