At first she thought of taking only madame into her confidence, and preparing a small Christmas tree for Joyce; but afterwards she concluded that it would give the child more pleasure if she were allowed to take part in the preparations.

It would keep her from being homesick by giving her something else to think about.
Then madame proposed inviting a few of the little peasant children who had never seen a Christmas tree.

The more they discussed the plan the larger it grew, like a rolling snowball.

By lunch-time madame had a list of thirty children, who were to be bidden to the Noel fete, and Cousin Kate had decided to order a tree tall enough to touch the ceiling.
When Jules came over, awkward and shy with the consciousness of his new clothes, he found Joyce sitting in the midst of yards of gaily colored tarletan.

It was heaped up around her in bright masses of purple and orange and scarlet and green, and she was making it into candy-bags for the tree.
In a few minutes Jules had forgotten all about himself, and was as busy as she, pinning the little stocking-shaped patterns in place, and carefully cutting out those fascinating bags.
"You would be lots of help," said Joyce, "if you could come over every day, for there's all the ornaments to unpack, and the corn to shell, and pop, and string.