d seen those two oldsters
exchange.

"This is my brother Tom, Norah, who has come back," she said. "I believe it
is not too late to make some preparation for Christmas Day. The stores will
still be open. Run out and order things for a grand occasion, Norah. And--O
Norah!" a sudden remembrance came to her. "If you have time, will you
please get some toys and pretty things such as a little girl would like; a
little girl of about ten, with my complexion,--I mean, with yellow hair and
blue eyes. We may have a little guest to-morrow."

"Yes'm," said Norah, moving like one in a dream.

"A guest?" exclaimed Tom. And Miss Terry told him about Mary.

"I love little girls," said Tom, "especially little girls with yellow hair
and blue eyes, such as you used to have, Angelina."

"You will like Mary, then," said Miss Terry, with a pretty pink flush of
pleasure in her cheeks.

"I shall like her, _if_ she comes," amended Tom, who, man-like, received
with reservations the account of a vision vouchsafed not unto him.

"She will come," said Miss Terry with her old positiveness, glancing
towards the window where the Christmas Angel hung.

Then arose the sound of singing outside the house. The passing choristers
had spied the quaint window, now the only one in the street which remained
lighted:--

"When Christ was born of Mary free,
In Bethlehem, in that fair citye,
Angels sang with mirth and glee,
_In Excelsis Gloria!_"

CHAPTER XV

CHRISTMAS DAY

And Mary came. The brother and sister were at breakfast,--the happiest
which either of them had known for years,--when there came a timid pull at
the front-door bell. Miss Angelina laid down her knife and fork and looked
across the table at Tom.

"She has come. Mary has come," she said. "Norah, if it is a little girl
with a package under her arm, bring her in here."

"Yes'm!" gasped Norah, who believed she was living in a dream where
everything was topsy-turvy. When had a child entered Miss Terry's
dining-room!

Norah disappeared and presently returned ushering in a little girl of ten,
with blue eyes and yellow hair. Under her arm she carried a white-paper
package, very badly wrapped.

Miss Terry exchanged with her brother a glance which said, "I told you so!"

The child seemed bashful and afraid to speak; no wonder!

Tom's kind heart yearned to her. "Good morning! Wish you a merry
Christmas, Mary!" he said smiling.

The child gave a start. "Wh