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C00002 00002	At last Gussie said, ``Why it's as pretty as a picture.''
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At last Gussie said, ``Why it's as pretty as a picture.''

``Indeed it is,'' said Mrs.\ Wheland. ``I told Chester, `Now that we have the oil
money I'm going to have a tree the same as my Poppa remembered from Prussia.' Some
of the German `roughnecks' who came to work in the oil, set up trees for their
folks last year. ---But I was busy fixing cakes for the Sunday School party
and didn't think about it. ---I never dreamed I'd have a tree same as the one
Prince Albert set up for the Queen of England.''

``No indeed,'' said Lena Bernice.

``Gracious,'' said Anna, ``Horace would be fit to be tied.''

``Can I bring him over?'' asked Gussie.

``Of course, dearie,'' said Mrs.\ Wheland. ``Just be sure to keep ahold of his
hand so he doesn't grab the candles off. The bad thing about a tree is that
they catch afire so easily. I have The Girl set a fresh pail of water close
by every day.''

``Yes indeed,'' said Anna.

Everyone stood quietly looking at the tree. Lena Bernice looked very hard, trying
to see how the decorations was made. She knew Anna was doing the same.

They could hear The Girl moving dishes and rustling around in the kitchen.
Nobody could rustle the same as The Girl. Why she must have worn three underskirts,
two pinafores, and a skirt as wide as the sails on the Nina, the Pinta, and the
Santa Maria.

``An apparition in gingham and white billows,'' Ben James called her.

The Girl never said a word but she was as handy as a tinsmith. Before she became
a Methodist like the Whelands she was the featheriest dancer in Wood County.
After she was converted she gave up ``the light fantastic,'' as Ben James called
it, and took up cake frosting instead. It was all Mrs.\ Whelan could do to keep
enough powdered sugar.

``She's a sister and grandmother to me and a hard worker besides, even if she
can't say a word,'' offered Mrs.\ Whelan.

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