CHAPTER XIV.
HOW THIS BOOK CAME TO BE WRITTEN.
"Ring out ye merry, merry bells, Your loudest, sweetest chime; Tell all the world, both rich and poor, 'Tis happy Christmas time." "Grandmother," said Ralph, at breakfast on what Molly called "the morning of Christmas Eve," "I was going to ask you, only the story last night put it out of my head, if I might ask Prosper to spend to-morrow with us.

His uncle and aunt are going away somewhere, and he will be quite alone.
Besides he and I have made a plan about taking the shawl to the old woman quite early in the morning.

You don't know _how_ pleased he was when I told him you had got it for her, grandmother--just as pleased as if he had bought it for her with his own money." "Then he is a really unselfish boy," said grandmother.

"Certainly you may ask him.

I had thought of it too, but somehow it went out of my head.
And, as well as the shawl, I shall have something to send to Prosper's old friend.