e to the dear God who had answered his little
prayer so much more joyously and wonderfully than he had ever dared to
dream of!

In his excitement he ran out of the house and hurried into the
sheepfold, where he patted the soft woolly backs of each of the sheep,
and then he raced around the snowy meadows trying to realize that all
these belonged to his family for ever! And that Count Pierre could never
again imprison his father or worry him with heavy taxes!

But the wonders of this wonderful day were not yet over; for presently,
as Gabriel raised his eyes, he saw a strange horseman coming down the
road and looking inquiringly in the direction of the Viaud cottage. Then
seeing the boy standing in the meadow, the horseman called out:

"Ho, lad! Is this the farm of the peasant Viaud?"

"Yes, sir," answered Gabriel, coming up to the road; and then,

"Art thou Gabriel?" asked the rider, stopping and looking curiously at
the little boy.

When again Gabriel wonderingly answered, "Yes, sir," the stranger
dismounted, and, after tying his horse, began deliberately unfastening
the two fat saddle-bags hanging over the back of the latter; and loading
himself with as much as he could carry, he gave Gabriel an armful, too,
and walked toward the cottage.

To the surprised looks and questions of Gabriel's father and mother, he
only said that the Christ-child had been in the castle of the Lady Anne
of Bretagne, and had ordered him to bring certain things to the family
of a Norman peasant boy named Gabriel Viaud.

And such delightful things as they were! There was a great roll of
thick, soft blue cloth, so that they could all be warmly clad without
waiting for the mother to spin the wool from the sheeps' backs. There
were nice little squirrel-fur caps for all the children; there were more
yellow gold pieces; and then there was a large package of the most
enchanting sweetmeats, such as the Bretons make at Christmas-time;
little "magi-cakes," as they were called, each cut in the shape of a
star and covered with spices and sugar; curious old-fashioned candies
and sugared chestnuts; and a pretty basket filled with small round
loaves of the fine, white bread of Bretagne; only instead of the
ordinary baking, these loaves were of a special holiday kind, with
raisins, and nuts, and dried sweet-locust blossoms sprinkled over the
top.

Indeed, perhaps never before had so marvellous a feast been spread under
a peasant roof in Normandy! Al