attuned to finer issues than their
neighbours? They are the stuff that poets are made of. You are not a
poet, are you?'

'No, indeed!' said Esther, laughing.

'Don't! I think it must be uncomfortable to have to do with a poet. You
may notice, that in nature the dwellers on the earth have nothing to do
with the dwellers in the air.'

'Except to be food for them,' said Esther.

'Ah! Well,--leaving that,--I should never have thought about the
partridge berries in that motto, and my mother would never have thought
of it. For all that, you are right. What shall we do? take 'em down?'

'Oh, no, they look so pretty. And besides, I suppose, Pitt, by and by,
poison itself will turn to peace.'

'What?' said Pitt. 'What is that? What can you mean, Queen Esther?'

'Only,' said Esther a little doubtfully, 'I was thinking. You know,
when the time comes there will be nothing to hurt or destroy in all the
earth; the wild beasts will not be wild, and so I suppose poison will
not be poison.'

'The wild beasts will not be wild? What _will_ they be, then?'

'Tame.'

'Where did you get that idea?'

'It is in the Bible. It is not an idea.'

'Are you sure?'

'Certainly. Mamma used to read it to me and tell me about it.'

'Well, you shall show _me_ the place some time. How do you like it,
mother?'

This question being addressed to Mrs. Dallas, who appeared in the
doorway. She gave great approval.

'Do you like the effect of the partridge berries?' Pitt asked.

'It is excellent, I think. They brighten it up finely.'

'What would you say if you knew they were poison?'

'That would not make any difference. They do no hurt unless you swallow
them, I suppose.'

'Esther finds in them an emblem of the time when the message of peace
shall have neutralized all the hurtful things in the world, and made
them harmless.'

Mrs. Dallas's eye fell coldly upon Esther. 'I do not think the Church
knows of any such time,' she answered, as she turned away. Pitt
whistled for some time thereafter in silence.

The decorations were finished, and most lovely to Esther's eyes; then,
when they were all done, she went home to tea. For getting the greens
and putting them up had taken both the morning and the afternoon to
accomplish. She went home gaily, with a brisk step and a merry heart,
at the same time thinking busily.

Home, in its dull uniformity and stillness, was a contrast after the
stir and freshness and prettiness of life in the Da