tisan's family. At first many came to see and wonder at
its beauty; but with the advent of a colder creed men wanted not such
tokens of a vanished fervor, and the little Christ-Child was soon
forgotten by the world. Perhaps Kala's sturdy grandchildren destroyed it
as a useless toy; perhaps it perished by fire, or flood, or evil
accident. No memory of it lingers in the streets of Nuremberg; and
Gabriel, lifted beyond the everlasting hills, knoweth the vanity of all
human wishes.

_The Italian Guest's Selection._

"He is a Tuscan born, of an old
noble race in that part of Italy."

_Hawthorne._

A PICTURE OF THE NATIVITY BY FRA FILIPPO LIPPI

AS EXPLAINED BY A PIOUS FLORENTINE GOSSIP OF HIS DAY.

"Now, I cannot affirm that things did really take place in this manner,
but it greatly pleases me to think that they did."--FRA DOMENICO
CAVALCA: _Life of the Magdalen_.

The silly folks do not at all understand about the birth of our Lord.
They say that our Lord was born at Bethlehem, and because the inns were
all full, owing to certain feasts kept by those Jews, in a stable. But I
tell you this is an error, and due to little sense, for our Lord was
indeed placed in a manger, because none of the hostleries would receive
Joseph and the Blessed Virgin; but it took place differently.

For you must know that beyond Bethlehem, which is a big village walled
and moated, of those parts, lies a hilly country, exceeding wild, and
covered with dense woods of firs, pines, larches, beeches, and similar
trees, which the people of Bethlehem cut down at times, going in bands,
and burn to charcoal, packing it on mules, to sell in the valley; or tie
together whole trunks such as serve for beams, rafters, and masts, and
float them down the rivers, which are many and very rapid.

In these mountains, then, in the thickest part of the woods, a certain
man, of the wood-cutting trade, bethought him to build a house wherein
to store the timber and live, himself and his family, when so it pleased
him, and keep his beasts; and for this purpose he employed certain
pillars and pieces of masonry that stood in the forest, being remains of
a temple of the heathen, the which had long ceased to exist. And he
cleared the wood round about, leaving only tree stumps and bushes; and
close by in a ravine, between high fir-trees, ran a river, always full
to the brim even in midsummer, owing to the melting snows, and of
greenish