with, and court somebody he never laid
eyes on till a year ago. It's a free country, but I must say I don't
think it's very refined for a man to go clear off somewheres and marry
a perfect stranger!"

Births, marriages, and deaths, however, paled into insignificance
compared with the spectacular debut of the minister's wife as a writer
and embellisher of Christmas cards, two at least having been seen at
the local milliner's store. How many she had composed, and how many of
them (said Mrs. Popham) might have been rejected, nobody knew, though
there was much speculation; and more than one citizen remarked on the
size of the daily package of mail matter handed out by the rural
delivery man at the parsonage gate.

No one but Mrs. Larrabee and Letty Boynton were in possession of all
the thrilling details attending the public appearance of these works
of art; the words and letters of appreciation, the commendation, and
the occasional blows to pride that attended their acceptance and
publication.

Mrs. Larrabee's first attempt, with the sketch of Letty at the window
on Christmas Eve, her hearth-fire aglow, her heart and her door open
that Love might enter in if the Christ Child came down the snowy
street,--this went to the Excelsior Card Company in a large Western
city, and the following correspondence ensued:

MRS. LUTHER LARRABEE,
_Beulah, N.H._

DEAR MADAM:--

Your letter bears a well-known postmark, for my father and
my grandfather were born and lived in New Hampshire, "up
Beulah way." I accept your verses because of the beauty of
the picture that accompanied them, and because Christmas
means more than holly and plum pudding and gift-laden trees
to me, for I am a religious man,--a ministerial father and
three family deacons saw to that, though it doesn't always
work that way!--Frankly, I do not expect your card to have a
wide appeal, so I offer you only five dollars.

A Christmas card, my dear madam, must have a greeting, and
yours has none. If the pictured room were a real room, and
some one who had seen or lived in it should recognize it, it
would attract his eye, but we cannot manufacture cards to
meet such romantic improbabilities. I am emboldened to ask
you (because you live in Beulah) if you will not paint the
outside of some lonely, little New Hampshire cottage, as
humble as you like, and make me some