l water.
The vision trembled, and then broke, and the young lady found herself
still sitting by the table and fingering the cracker paper, whilst the
tutor chuckled and rubbed his hands by the fire, and his shadow
scrambled on the wall like an ape upon a tree. But her "Yes" had passed
into the young man's dream without disturbing it, and he dreamt on.

It was a cracker like the preceding one that the grandmother and the
parson pulled together. The old lady had insisted upon it. The good
rector had shown a tendency to low spirits this evening, and a wish to
withdraw early. But the old lady did not approve of people "shirking"
(as boys say) either their duties or their pleasures; and to keep a
"merry Christmas" in a family circle that had been spared to meet in
health and happiness, seemed to her to be both the one and the other.

It was his sermon for next day which weighed on the parson's mind. Not
that he was behindhand with that part of his duties. He was far too
methodical in his habits for that, and it had been written before the
bustle of Christmas week began. But after preaching Christmas sermons
from the same pulpit for thirty-five years, he felt keenly how
difficult it is to awaken due interest in subjects that are so
familiar, and to give new force to lessons so often repeated. So he
wanted a quiet hour in his own study before he went to rest, with the
sermon that did not satisfy him, and the subject that should be so
heart-stirring and ever-new,--the Story of Bethlehem.

He consented, however, to pull one cracker with the grandmother, though
he feared the noise might startle her nerves, and said so.

"Nerves were not invented in my young days," said the old lady, firmly;
and she took her part in the ensuing explosion without so much as a
wink.

As the cracker snapped, it seemed to the parson as if the fragrant
smoke from the yule log were growing denser in the room. Through the
mist from time to time the face of the tutor loomed large, and then
disappeared. At last the clouds rolled away, and the parson breathed
clear air. Clear, yes, and how clear! This brilliant freshness, these
intense lights and shadows, this mildness and purity in the night air--

"It is not England," he muttered, "it is the East. I have felt no air
like this since I breathed the air of Palestine."

Over his head, through immeasurable distances, the dark blue space was
lighted by the great multitude of the stars, whose glittering r