for Christmas, and go home and
enjoy yourself."

"I have no home, and the shops are all closed," she said, brushing the
wet snow from her hair.

"No home!" exclaimed the lady, incredulously, "and the world is
overflowing with wealth and has homes innumerable. Is it possible that
the world's goods are so unevenly divided?"

The girl began to cry.

"Come and have your Christmas dinner with us," said the lady.

The girl, still weeping, followed in her utter innocence and
helplessness.

Ding-dong, went the merry bells. Tramp, tramp, went the feet of the big,
voluptuous world. Honk, honk, went the horns of the automobiles; for it
was Christmas, and all went merry as a marriage bell.

The fire was burning brightly. The room was warm and cozy. The house was
clean, tidy, and cheery. It was a dazzling scene to one who had been
accustomed to the cold, bare, concrete pavements only.

"My!" exclaimed the girl as they entered. It was a perfect fairyland to
her. It was a story. It was a dream.

"Now, we are going to have the realest, cutest, Christmas dinner you
ever saw," said the lady, producing a steaming turkey from the warming
oven. The girl danced in her glee and anticipation. "But first you must
dress for dinner. We will go and see Santa Claus," smiled the
foster-mother. She retired with a waif, and returned with a fairy, and
they sat down to a fairy dinner.

"What a spotless tablecloth! What clean cups and saucers, and plates and
dishes! What shining knives and forks! What kind friends!" thought the
orphan. "I had no idea such things existed outside of Heaven," she
exclaimed aloud in her rapture.

"It is all very commonplace, I assure you," said the man, "but it takes
money to buy them."

"And yet," philosophized the lady, "if we are dissatisfied in our
prosperity, what must a life be that contains nothing?"

Ding-dong, went the bells. Tramp, tramp, went the feet of the big world
outside. Honk, honk, went the horn of the automobile; but the happiest
heart of them all was the little waif who had been, until now, so
lonely, so cold, so hungry, so neglected. They were the happiest moments
in her whole life. Her time began from that day. But that is many years
ago. The orphan is a lady now in Vancouver; and every Christmas she
gives a dinner to some poor people in honor of those who adopted her and
saved her from the slums.

Of the Retreat from Moscow

Once upon a time four Ashcroft Napoleons, known l