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the twentieth of December, Dot's perfidious stomach had settled down to a condition resembling normal. If she took no more than chicken broth, crackers, an occasional poached egg, gelatine, and food of that type, she had no difficulty at all. This new-found ability to eat though pregnant drove all interest in the approaching Yuletide right out of Dot's mind. She bought two pairs of black silk stockings for Edna. A tie with collegiate stripes of red and blue seemed just the thing for Eddie, and it was only a dollar. She worried for a whole day about Maude and Sue. Money was not too plentiful, what with the approaching confinement; besides, she didn't feel like shopping; but suppose they gave her something. Wouldn't that be terrible, if they gave her a present and she didn't have one to give them? She grew quite alarmed over the situation. A girl like Maude you'd have to give something kind of expensive to, and money had to be watched closely. Still, how would Dot feel if Maude gave her something? At length she decided that Maude and Sue would have no Christmas so far as she was concerned. If either of them gave her anything she would frankly tell them that they had to excuse her as she was saving money for her baby.

The stockings and the tie had been bought in the little department store whence Dot's pink curtains had come. She wouldn't have faced the downtown crowds this year for anything in the world. On a sudden impulse she