You make me a truly happy Christmas, dear child.

C. I think I feel somewhat as St. Thomas did, in to-day's Gospel.
It went home to my heart

MR. A. Ah, child, to us that 'Blessed are they who have not seen
and yet have believed,' must mean those who are ready to know by
faith instead of material tangible proof.

CHOPS

You ask me why I call that old great-grandmother black cat Chops?
Well, thereby hangs a tale. I don't mean the black tail which is
standing upright and quivering at your caresses, but a story that
there will be time to tell you before Charlie gets home from market.

Seven years ago, Charlie had just finished his training both at an
agricultural college and under a farmer, and was thinking of going
out to Texas or to Canada, and sending for me when he should have
been able to make a new home for me, when his godfather, Mr. Newton,
offered to let him come down and look after the draining and
otherwise reclaiming of this great piece of waste land. It had come
to Mr. Newton through some mortgages, I believe, and he thought
something might be made of it by an active agent. It was the first
time Mr. Newton had shown the least interest in us, though he was a
cousin of our poor mother's; and Charlie was very much gratified,
more especially as when he had 150 pounds a year and a house, he
thought I might leave the school where I was working as a teacher,
and make a home with him.

Yes, this is the house; but it has grown a good deal since we
settled down, and will grow more before you come to it for good.
Then it was only meant for a superior sort of gamekeeper, and had
only six rooms in it--parlour, kitchen, and back kitchen, and three
bedrooms above them; but this we agreed would be ample for ourselves
and Betsey, an old servant of our mother's, who could turn her hand
to anything, and on the break-up of our home had begged to join us
again whenever or wherever we should have a house of our own once
more.

We have half a dozen cottages near us now; but then it seemed to us
like a lodge in a vast wilderness--three miles away from everything,
shop, house, or church. Betsey fairly sat down and cried when she
heard how far away was the butcher, and it really seemed as if we
were to have the inconveniences of colonisation without the honour
of it. However, contrivances made us merry; we made our rooms
pretty and pleasant, and as a pony and trap were essential to
Charlie in his work, we were