This flag was a wonder. . . . The stripes were made of a rich
red and white striped satin, which must have been manufactured for the
express purpose of composing the American flag. The stars were
embroidered in silver on a dark blue satin sky. On the reverse, a rich
white satin lining bore Julian's cipher, surrounded with silver
embroidery. . . . The children amused themselves with their presents
all day. But first I took my new Milton and read aloud to them the
Hymn of the Nativity, which I do every Christmas." "How easy it is,"
my mother writes of a Christmas-tree for poor children, "with a small
thing to cause a great joy, if there is only the will to do it!" But
most deeply did we delight in the presents given to our beloved
parents, whom we considered to be absolutely perfect beings; and there
was nothing which we ever perceived to make the supposition
unreasonable. In one of Una's girlish letters she declares: "I will
tell you what has given me almost--nay, quite as great pleasure as any
I have had in England; that is, that Mamma has bought a gold
watch-chain. She bought it yesterday at Douglas." We had such
thorough lessons in generosity that they sometimes took effect in a
genuine self-effacement, like this. A letter from my mother joyfully
records of my brother:--
"Julian was asking Papa for a very expensive toy, and his father told
him he was very poor this year, because the Consulate had not much
business, and that it was impossible to buy him everything that struck
his fancy.
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