gain and dressed myself," she explained. "Nurse
is in the kitchen, dancing with the young man from Penare, who can't
afford to marry her for _ever_ so long, father says. I saw them
twirling, as I slipped out--"

"You have done a wrong thing," said I: "you might catch your death."

Her lip fell:--she was but five. "Dick, I only wanted to see if
'twas true."

"What?" I asked, covering her shoulders with the empty sack that had
been my pillow.

"Why, that the cows pray on Christmas-eve. Nurse says that at twelve
o'clock to-night all the cows in their stalls will be on their knees,
if only somebody is there to see. So, as it's near twelve by the
tall clock indoors, I've come to see," she wound up.

"It's quig-nogs, I expect. I never heard of it."

"Nurse says they kneel and make a cruel moan, like any Christian
folk. It's because Christ was born in a stable, and so the cows know
all about it. Listen to Dinah! Dick, she's going to begin!"

But Dinah, having heaved her moan, merely shuddered and was still
again.

"Just fancy, Dick," the little one went on, "it happened in a chall
like ours!" She was quiet for a moment, her eyes fixed on the glossy
rumps of the cows. Then, turning quickly--"I know about it, and I'll
show you. Dick, you must be Saint Joseph, and I'll be the Virgin
Mary. Wait a bit--"

Her quick fingers began to undress the sailor-doll and fold his
clothes carefully. "I _meant_ to christen him Robinson Crusoe," she
explained, as she laid the small garments, one by one, on the straw;
"but he can't be Robinson Crusoe till I've dressed him up again."
The doll was stark naked now, with waxen face and shoulders, and
bulging bags of sawdust for body and legs.

"Dick," she said, folding the doll in her arms and kissing it--
"St. Joseph, I mean--the first thing we've got to do is to let people
know he's born. Sing that carol I heard you trying over last week--
the one that says 'Far and far I carry it.'"

So I sang, while she rocked the babe:--

'Naked boy, brown boy,
In the snow deep,
Piping, carolling
Folks out of sleep;
Little shoes, thin shoes,
Shoes so wet and worn'--
'But I bring the merry news
--Christ is born!

Rise, pretty mistress,
In your smock of silk;
Give me for my good news
Bread and new milk.
Joy, joy in Jewry,
This very morn!
Far and far I carry it