o consult about our service. He is a very
clever, moderate man, a great friend of ours, and I was sure he would
help us and arrange a service of some kind for the children. Of course I
was rather vague about a Catholic service; a Protestant one I could have
arranged myself, with some Christmas carols and a short liturgy, but I
had no idea what Christmas meant to Catholic minds. We had asked him to
come to breakfast, and we would go over to the village afterward, see
the church and what could be done. He was quite pleased at the idea of
doing anything for his poor little parish, and he is so fond of children
and young people that he was quite as much interested as we were. He
knew the church, having held a service there three or four times. We
walked over, talking over the ceremony and what we could do. He said he
would give a benediction, bring over the Enfant Jesus, and make a small
address to the children. The music was rather difficult to arrange, but
we finally agreed that we would send a big omnibus to bring over the
harmonium from La Ferte, one or two Sisters, two choir children, and
three or four of the older girls of the school who could sing, and he
would see that they learned two or three canticles.

We agreed to do everything in the way of decoration. He made only one
condition: that the people should come to the service. I could answer
for all our household and for some of the neighbours--almost all, in
fact--as I was sure the novelty of the Christmas Tree would attract
them, and they wouldn't mind the church service thrown in.

We went of course to see the Mayor, as the cure was obliged to notify
him that he wished to open the church, and also to choose the day. We
took Thursday, which is the French holiday; that left us just two
days to make our preparations. We told Madame Isidore (the
school-mistress) we would come on Wednesday for the church, bringing
flowers, candles, etc., and Thursday morning to dress the Tree. The
service was fixed for three o'clock--the Tree afterward in the
school-room. We found our big ballots[9] from the bazaars and other
shops, when we got home, and all the evening we wrote tickets and
names (some of them so high-sounding--Ismerie, Aline, Leocadie, etc.),
and filled little red and yellow bags, which were very troublesome to
make, with "dragees."

[9] Big packages.

Wednesday we made a fine expedition to the woods--the whole party, the
donkey-cart, and one of the keepers t