d been a trifle immodest
in embracing, and especially in kissing, his father in front of the
congregation; venturing the conviction that kissing, an indecorous
custom in any event, was especially lamentable in public.

"Pity Letty Boynton missed this evenin'," said Mrs. Todd. "Her an'
Dick allers had a fancy for each other, so I've heard, though I don't
know how true. Clarissa Perry might jest as well have stayed with the
twins as not, for her niece that spoke a piece forgot 'bout half of it
an' Clarissa was in a cold sweat every minute. Then the niece had a
fit o' cryin', she was so ashamed at failin', an' Clarissa had to take
her home. So they both missed the tree, an' Letty might 'a' been here
as well as not an' got her handkerchief an' her card. I sent John
Trimble's to him by the doctor, but he didn't take no notice, Isaac
said, for the doctor was liftin' off the hot flat-iron an' puttin'
turpentine on the spot where I'd had my mustard.--Anyway, if John had
to have the colic he couldn't 'a' chosen a better time, an' if he gets
over it, I shall be real glad he had it; for nobody ever seen sech a
Santa Claus as Dick Larrabee made, an' there never was, an' never will
be, sech a lively, an' amusin' an' free-an'-easy evenin' in the
Orthodox church."

[Illustration]

X

"Bless the card!" sighed David thankfully as he sat down to smoke a
good-night pipe and propped his feet contentedly against the little
Hessian soldiers. The blaze of the logs on his own family
hearth-stone, after many months of steam heaters in the hall bedrooms
of cheap hotels, how it soothed his tired heart and gave it visions of
happiness to come! The card was on his knee, where he could look from
its pictured scene to the real one of which he was again a glad and
grateful part.

"Bless the card!" whispered Letty Boynton to herself as she went to
her moonlit bedroom. Her eyes searched the snowy landscape and found
the parsonage, "over the hills and far away." Then her heart flew like
a bird across the distance and beat its wings in gladness, for a faint
light streamed from the parson's study windows and she knew that
father and son were together. That, in itself, was enough, with David
sleeping under the home roof; but to-morrow was coming and to-morrow
might be hers--her very own!

"Bless the card!" said Reba Larrabee, the tears shining in her eyes as
she left the minister alone with his son. "Bless everybody and
everything! Above al