ndmother. "The punishments for housebreaking and such
things in those days were so frightfully severe, that kind-hearted people
often refrained from accusing the wrong-doers. This man had been in sore
want of money for some reason or other; he was not a dishonest character.
I believe the end of it was that my grandfather forgave him, and put him
in the way of doing better."

"That was very nice," said Molly, with a sigh of relief.

"Good-bye," said Ralph, who was just then strapping his books together
for school. "Thank you for the story, grandmother. If it is fine this
afternoon," he added, "may I stay out later? I want to go a walk into the
country."

"Certainly, my boy," said grandmother. "But you'll be home by dinner."

"All right," said Ralph, as he marched off.

"And grandmother, please," said Sylvia, "may Molly and I go out with
Marcelline this afternoon to do some shopping? The pretty Christmas
things are coming in now, and we have lots to do."

"Certainly, my dears," said grandmother again, and about two o'clock the
little girls set off, one on each side of good-natured Marcelline, in
high spirits, to do their Christmas shopping.

Grandmother watched them from the window, and thought how pretty they
looked, and the thought earned her back to the time--not so very long ago
did it seem to her now--when their mother had been just as bright and
happy as they--the mother who had never lived to see them more than
babies. Grandmother's eyes filled with tears, but she smiled through the
tears.

"God is good and sends new blessings
When the old He takes away,"

she whispered to herself. It was a blessing, a very great blessing and
pleasure to have what she had so often longed for, the care of her dear
little grand-daughters herself.

"And Ralph," she added, "I cannot help feeling the responsibility with
him even greater. An old woman like me, can I have much influence with a
boy? But he is a dear boy in many ways, and I was pleased with the way he
spoke yesterday. It was honest and manly. Ah! if we could teach our boys
what _true_ manliness is, the world would be a better place than it is."

The days were beginning to close in now. By four o'clock or half-past it
was almost dark, and, once the sun had gone down, cold, with a peculiar
biting coldness not felt farther north, where the temperature is more
equable and the contrasts less sudden.

Grandmother put on her fur-lined cloak and set off to