r a short time, to the black. So
on a little card that showed a cottage standing in a field of snow, she
sent to foster-mother and sister her greeting of love and her assurance
of health and happiness. To Tom she sent a top, his favorite toy. He had
been famous at spinning his top, and it was pleasant to send him a
child's gift. And when she had dropped both card and toy in the box at
the post-office she turned away winking the drops from her eyes.

William Applebaum at this time was a great comfort. He was a whole
Christmas, in himself, for he loved every custom associated with the
day, German, English, American, and carried them all to Kathleen's home.
With Hertha he hung up wreaths of holly in the four windows, and two
days before Christmas he appeared carrying a ten-pound turkey. "I bought
it myself," he said, as Kathleen glared as though she thought it might
have come from the Salvation Army. "I wanted to make sure of my dinner
here, and if Miss Hertha will let me, I'll cook it under her
supervision." On Christmas eve, which happened to be Sunday, he took
them to a concert given by his choral society, and leaving them in the
best seats in the house, went upon the stage and sang the choruses in
The Messiah with a rapture of happiness and good-will. When the two
women returned home, after saying good-night to him at the door, they
found within a little tree, not four feet in height, but set out in the
regalia of the season, tinsel, cornucopias, candles, and at the top a
golden star. They lighted the candles and sat for a time in their
radiance until Hertha declared that they must be blown out that they
might be lighted again to-morrow.

"He's a good man," Kathleen said as she examined the little gilt toys on
the boughs, "but he lacks vision."

Christmas morning was lowering, but after she had tidied up her room,
Hertha went out to church. She walked through the park, a gray and
cheerless place to-day, and felt aggrieved that no one was there to meet
her. There was, of course, no reason why she should have thought to see
her new acquaintance, but she had half expected it both Sunday and now
and his absence was a disappointment. And at the library, while she had
scrupulously kept to her usual routine, visiting it neither more nor
less than usual, she had not seen him either. Her life, whether set in
the South, where roses and purple clematis were blooming now over the
doorways, or in the North of gray clouds and snow