r Sawyer was furtively driving Peggy
into a village that knew him only by repute and Aunt Judith, having
slipped away in white defiance to Cousin Lemuel's down the road, was
driving into Lindon with the surreptitious savings of many years in the
old-fashioned pocket of her gown.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

V

THE PROVING

The clock struck six. It was Christmas morning! Jimsy awoke with the
thought of turkey uppermost in his mind, to find Aunt Judith by his bed,
a wonderful look of Christmas, he thought, in her gentle face.

"Dress quickly, Jimsy," she whispered, "and don't make a sound--not a
sound! I'll wait outside by the door. It--it's a Christmas secret that
nobody but you and I must know."

Jimsy tumbled into his clothes and opened the door.

"W-w-w-w-what is it, Aunt Judith?" he whispered.

But for answer Aunt Judith only hurried him in a flutter to the
sewing-room, safe this many a year from the measured tread of
first-citizen feet, and closed the door.

"Oh, Aunt Judith!" gulped the boy. "Aunt Judith!"

A Christmas tree winked and rainbowed glory in a window by the eaves,
everything beneath its tinselled branches that the heart of boy could
wish. The radiance in Jimsy's eyes brought Aunt Judith to her knees
beside him, her sweet, tired eyes wet with tears of pleasure.

"You like it, Jimsy?" she whispered. "You're sure you like it, dear?"

Jimsy buried his face on Aunt Judith's shoulder with a strangled sob of
excitement and delight.

"Aunt Judith," he blurted, "I--I can't 'mos' tell ye what I think."

Aunt Judith's arms clung tightly to him.

"Cousin Lemuel helped me," she whispered. "The house was dark and Mr.
Sawyer in bed. There wasn't even a light in the work-shop. We tiptoed up
and down the back-stairs. You mustn't breathe a word of it, Jimsy! Not a
word! It's for you and me."

Jimsy sighed.

[Illustration]

"Whisht," he said, "whisht Uncle Ab believed in Chris'mus."

Aunt Judith kissed him.

"Bless your heart, Jimsy," she said bravely. "So do I."

[Illustration]

But even bewildering hours with gifts and trees must come to an end, and
presently Aunt Judith and Jimsy went down hand in hand to attend to the
fire and breakfast.... And the opening of the sitting-room door froze
Aunt Judith Sawyer to the threshold, her face whitely unbelieving.
Something was wrong with the primness of the sitting-room--something in
evergreen and tinsel and a hundred candles that showe