d to all as he "fired the star." The company saw a dark, swift
object ascending. It was soon lost to sight, and then appeared a
wonder--a new star high in the heavens, that burned a long time with a
steady flame and grew. How beautiful it was! At last it began to
descend. When near the earth it burst into a hundred stars of seven
colors. In all Boston there was no firework as wonderful as Sky-High's.

The day after he began to inquire about the next American holiday.

Mrs. Van Buren told him about Thanksgiving Day. Then she told him of
Christmas, and how the Christmas festival was kept. She related the
story of the birth of the Christ Child, and of the Bethlehem star, of
the singing angels in the sky, of the Magi, and the manger; of the
presents of gold and myrrh and nard. She told him how that now all
people of "good will" made presents to each other like the magi to the
Christ Child.

"So will Sky-High make you presents on the Christ Child day, then, he
has good will. You have treated him as though he were no servant but
a prince."

Charlie and Lucy told him of the Christmas-tree, and the plays under the
misletoe. Their mother ordered misletoe from Florida every year, for
Christmas decorations, from a plantation which their father owned near
Tampa, a plantation of grape-fruit groves. She had a mistle-thrush among
her caged birds, that always sang very sweetly when she hung it under
the newly-gathered waxy misletoe.

From that time on, the little Chinaman dreamed of Christmas. One day he
said to Mrs. Van Buren, "You will surely let Sky-High come up-stairs on
the night of the Christmas-tree?"

"Yes, yes, you shall come up-stairs with us, and you shall hear the
Christmas thrush sing under the misletoe."

Sky-High's heart fluttered, not at what he hoped to see, but at the
thought of the presents that he hoped to make.

Shortly before Christmas Mrs. Van Buren went to her little servant to
pay him his wages, for he had accepted no payment as yet.

"Keep it all for me," he said, as usual; "I will ask for it when I need
it."

Mrs. Van Buren was very much surprised. "Young people in this country,"
said she, "think they need a little money before Christmas day to buy
presents."

"Sky-High needs none. He will make you presents on the Christ Child day.
He has them now in his chest."

Mrs. Van Buren could not but wonder what the presents would be.
Everything that Sky-High did had a surprise in it. All things that ca