being for the most part ill or delicate, were
less uproarious in their pleasure than would
have been the case had all been in full health.
The most uproarious of all was a self-assertive
mite, who could just toddle and tumble
about alone, and whose organ of acquisitiveness
was decidedly large, for she wanted
all she saw, and screamed lustily when she
did not get it.

Now began to come in the physicians
connected with the hospital, and the ladies
belonging to them; and it was pretty
and eloquent to see how the faces of the
children lightened up as they entered,
some of the bolder indeed running across
the floor for a kindly word or look; and
one pretty babe holding up her mouth to be
kissed, as confidingly as if she had been at
home. One of the ladies, the wife of one of
the chief physicians, a young mother herself,
seemed to be a veritable centre of
happiness wherever she moved; and beautiful
as she is, she never looked more lovely
than when talking to these poor little ones,
playing with the babies, and soothing the
sick and fractious, with just as much
tenderness and dear maternal sympathy as
if she had been in her own nursery at
home. God bless her for her good work in
the "Ralli," so lovingly and faithfully
performed!

The ward was now quite full. The toys
were hung, the blinds drawn down, the
wax tapers and coloured gelatine lamps
were lighted, and the full glories of the
tree were revealed. The place was all
alive with sickly little creatures, with pale
faces and large bright eyes, brighter and
larger from illness, clustering nearer and
nearer to the magic garden in the centre.
For not only the children in the Ralli ward
itself, but all the children in the hospital
who could be taken from bed, and such of
the out-patients as were brought, were
admitted to the festival. Some invalid
women came tottering in from the nearer
wards, one looking like an Orphic ghost,
with only a white pinched face seen from
the folds of the blanket she had wrapped
round her; a few douce, fatherly, invalid
men gathered quietly at the end of the
room, near the door; grown girls and boys,
all pale and wan, and feeble yet, poor
young things! were also admitted—all to
see the tree, and all apparently as well
pleased with the joy of the children as if it
had been their own especial treat. And
then the names of the fortunate possessors
of certain lovely toys were called, and the
gentle widow of the founder of the ward
handed them to their owners as they came
forward to receive them. All did not come
or answer to their names. A certain
Tommy was called for loudly, once or
twice, in vain, when a voice at last shouted
out, "In bed in the Albert;" which was
reason enough why poor Tommy should not
receive his New Year's gift to-day, from the
hands of the foundress herself. But his
toy, and all the other toys and treasures
apportioned to the absentees were set aside,
to be given when the fitting time came.
After this the outsiders and the little ones
had their innings, without the ultimate
neglect or overlooking of a single child.

One small woman, herself little more than
a baby, lugged a huge baby in her arms, to
which, because a baby, and now specially
fine and fat owing to the good nursing of
the ward, more than one distributor had
given something; but the miniature nurse
had been left out, when the dear young
wife and mother of whom I have spoken
before—how I should like to give her
name!—spied out the truth, and asked the
Moloch-bearer if she herself had had
anything? "No, ma'am," said the child, with
a beaming face; "I have baby." "Well,
then, because you are such a good little
nurse you shall have this," said the lady,
giving her a divine doll, with real hair, and
a glorified robe of muslin and ribbon.

I would not have exchanged that child's
intense happiness at that moment for the
coronation day of a queen.

The physicians, being only men, got into
great coils at times, and were overwhelmed
with their responsibilities. I saw one going
about helplessly with another divine doll,
which he did not know what to do with—
it was too responsible a thing to decide,
unassisted, who should have it; so at last he
gave it to one of the Sisters, and cleared
his conscience. Another had a lovely horse
and cart in tin, which he was going to bestow
on a girl baby, until quietly reminded that
it was fitter for a boy who could run alone
and drag the cart after him. These were the
frailties of man's nature, and occasions on
which the superior intelligence of woman
triumphed.

The children were wonderfully well
behaved. The word is no exaggeration. It
would have been impossible to find better
manners in any West-end drawing-room.
There was no snatching, no asking, no crying.
When one tiny philosopher of three
saw her baby sister with a silver cracker,
which it was frantically desirous of stuffing
into its mouth on the instant, all she said,