The Imp's Christmas Dinner
finished her shoe and was looking with interest at the Imp, who returned her stare with a pleasant smile. She looked very much like a little girl he knew at home, only her hair was redder and curlier, and the Imp loved red-haired people even at the age of seven and a half, a taste he never lost in after life. They smiled at each other, and the Imp had just said, "Hello!" when the tall man walked up to them.
"Get up immediately and hurry up—you're wanted," he said severely. The little girl pouted and scowled as much as she dared.
"I was just tyin' m' shoe," she mumbled.
"No answering back," he said crossly. "You dawdle half your time, I don't doubt."
The little girl slunk away with a very angry look and presented her basket to the young lady behind the counter. The Imp followed her, immensely interested. She darted away with a basketful of little fluffy things and the Imp ran after her. Into an elevator she jumped and then he lost her. But as he waited disconsolately where she had entered the little square room that sailed up and down, it came back again and she appeared. As his face lit up with the
103
