n springtime?'

'Don't ask _me_, my dear; I don't know. The thing began in the ages of
ignorance, I suppose; and as all it means now is a time of feasting and
jollity, the dead of winter will do as well as another time. But it is
a Popish observance, my child; it is a Popish observance.'

'There's no harm in it, papa, is there? if it means only feasting and
jollity, as you say.'

'There is always harm in superstition. This is no more the time of
Christ's birth than any other day that you could choose; but there is a
superstition about it; and I object to giving a superstitious reverence
to what is nothing at all. Reverence the Bible as much as you please;
you cannot too much; but do not put any ordinance of man, whether it be
of the Popish church or any other, on a level with what the Bible
commands.'

The colonel had finished his toast, and was turning to his book again.

'Pitt has been telling me of the way they keep Christmas in England,'
Esther went on. 'The Yule log, and the games, and the songs, and the
plays.'

'Godless ways,' said the colonel, settling himself to his
reading,--'godless ways! It is a great deal better in this country,
where they make nothing of Christmas. No good comes of those things.'

Esther would disturb her father no more by her words, but she went on
pondering, unsatisfied. In any question which put Mrs. Dallas and her
father on opposite sides, she had no doubt whatever that her father
must be in the right; but it was a pity, for surely in the present case
Mrs. Dallas's house had the advantage. The Christmas decorations had
been so pretty! the look of them was so bright and festive! the walls
she had round her at home were bare and stiff and cold. No doubt her
father must be right, but it was a pity!

The next day was Christmas day. Pitt being in attendance on his father
and mother, busied with the religious and other observances of the
festival, Esther did not see him till the afternoon. Late in the day,
however, he came, and brought in his hands a large bouquet of hothouse
flowers. If the two had been alone, Esther would have greeted him and
them with very lively demonstrations; as it was, it amused the young
man to see the sparkle in her eye, and the lips half opened for a cry
of joy, and the sudden flush on her cheek, and at the same time the
quiet, unexcited demeanour she maintained. Esther rose indeed, but then
stood silent and motionless and said not a word; while Pitt paid