in the attic. Grieved to the heart, the child went to
bed in the dark, and soon went to sleep, his pillow wet with tears.

On the morrow morning, when the old woman went downstairs--oh, wonderful
sight!--she saw the great chimney full of beautiful playthings, and sacks
of magnificent candies, and all sorts of good things; and before all these
splendid things the right shoe, that her nephew had given to the little
waif, stood by the side of the left shoe, that she herself had put there
that very night, and where she meant to put a birch rod.

As little Wolff, running down to learn the meaning of his aunt's
exclamation, stood in artless ecstasy before all these splendid gifts,
suddenly there were loud cries and laughter out of doors. The old woman
and the little boy went out to know what it all meant, and saw the
neighbors gathered around the public fountain. What had happened? Oh,
something very amusing and extraordinary! The children of all the rich
people of the village, those whose parents had wished to surprise them
with the most beautiful gifts, had found only rods in their shoes.

Then the orphan and the old woman, thinking of all the beautiful things
that were in their chimney, were full of amazement. But presently they saw
the cure coming toward them, with wonder in his face. In the church porch,
where in the evening a child, clad in a white robe, and with bare feet,
had rested his sleeping head, the cure had just seen a circle of gold
incrusted with precious stones.

Then the people understood that the beautiful sleeping child, near whom
were the carpenter's tools, was the Christ-child in person, become for an
hour such as he was when he worked in his parents' house, and they bowed
themselves before that miracle that the good God had seen fit to work, to
reward the faith and charity of a child.

THE LITTLE FRIEND

ABBIE FARWELL BROWN

"Oh! I am so cold, so cold!" sobbed little Pierre, as he stumbled through
the snow which was drifting deep upon the mountain side. "Oh, I am so
cold! The snow bites my face and blinds me, so that I cannot see the road.
Where are all the Christmas candle-lights? The people of the village must
have forgotten. The little Jesus will lose His way to-night. I never
forgot to set our window at home full of lights on Christmas Eve. But now
it is Christmas Eve, and there is no home any more. And I am so cold, so
cold!"

Little Pierre sobbed again and stumbled in the snow, whic