is well
that it is so; for that I love thee Dimas, and that thou shalt
walk with me in my Father's Kingdom, I would show thee the
glories of my birthright.'

"Then all at once sweet music filled the air, and light, greater
than the light of day, illumined the sky and fell upon all that
hill-side. The heavens opened, and angels, singing joyous songs,
walked to the earth. More wondrous still, the stars, falling
from their places in the sky, clustered upon the old olive-tree,
and swung hither and thither like colored lanterns. The flowers
of the hill-side all awakened, and they, too, danced and sang.
The angels, coming hither, hung gold and silver and jewels and
precious stones upon the old olive, where swung the stars; so
that the glory of that sight, though I might live forever, I
shall never see again. When Dimas heard and saw these things he
fell upon his knees, and catching the hem of the little Master's
garment, he kissed it.

"'Greater joy than this shall be thine, Dimas,' said the little
Master; 'but first must all things be fulfilled.'

"All through that Christmas night did the angels come and go
with their sweet anthems; all through that Christmas night did
the stars dance and sing; and when it came my time to steal
away, the hill-side was still beautiful with the glory and the
music of heaven."

"Well, is that all?" asked the old clock.

"No," said the moonbeam; "but I am nearly done. The years went
on. Sometimes I tossed upon the ocean's bosom, sometimes I
scampered o'er a battle-field, sometimes I lay upon a dead
child's face. I heard the voices of Darkness and mothers'
lullabies and sick men's prayers--and so the years went on.

"I fell one night upon a hard and furrowed face. It was of
ghostly pallor. A thief was dying on the cross, and this was his
wretched face. About the cross stood men with staves and swords
and spears, but none paid heed unto the thief. Somewhat beyond
this cross another was lifted up, and upon it was stretched a
human body my light fell not upon. But I heard a voice that
somewhere I had heard before,--though where I did not know,--and
this voice blessed those that railed and jeered and shamefully
entreated. And suddenly the voice called 'Dimas, Dimas!' and the
thief upon whose hardened face I rested made answer.

"Then I saw that it was Dimas; yet to this wicked criminal there
remained but little of the shepherd child whom I had seen in all
his innocence upon the hill-side