What joyful good humor there was in those simple men and women!--enough to temper the woes of a city if it could have been applied to their relief.

They stood thick around the stove warming themselves and taking off its griddles and opening its doors and surveying it inside and out with much curiosity.
Suddenly Uncle Hiram tried to put Uncle Jabez in the wood-box while the others laughed noisily.

I remember that my aunts rallied me on my supposed liking for "that Dunkelberg girl." "Now for the Chris'mas tree," said Uncle Peabody as he led the way into our best room, where a fire was burning in the old Franklin grate.

"Come on, boys an' girls." What a wonderful sight was the Christmas tree--the first we had had in our house--a fine spreading balsam loaded with presents! Uncle Hiram jumped into the air and clapped his feet together and shouted: "Hold me, somebody, or I'll grab the hull tree an' run away with it." Uncle Jabez held one foot in both hands before him and joyfully hopped around the tree.
These relatives had brought their family gifts, some days before, to be hung on its branches.

The thing that caught my eye was a big silver watch hanging by a long golden chain to one of the boughs.