easting.

* * * * *

Long and merry was the meal. As the hours passed the eating ceased,
and the feast of reason and the flow of soul began. Memories of other
days were recalled, confessions made, sorrow for misdoings felt and
spoken, and, gradually growing, as grows the light of dawn, a fine
atmosphere of hope, charity, and courage spread from heart to heart,
until at last it filled with its genial and illuminating presence
every bosom. In such a mood on the part of the host and guests alike
the feast came to its close. His Christmas dinner had been all that
the Old Trapper had hoped, and his heart was filled with happiness. He
rose from his chair, and, standing erect in his place, said:--

"Ye tell me that the time has come for ye to go, and I dare say ye be
right, but I be sorry we must part, for in partin' we be never sure of
a meetin', and, therefore, as I conceit, all the partin's on the 'arth
be more or less sad, but all parted trails, it may be, will come
together in the eend. But afore ye go I want to thank ye for comin',
and I hope ye will all come agin, and whenever yer needs or yer
feelin's incline ye this way. One thing I want to say to ye in goin',
and I want ye to take it away with ye, for it may help some of ye to
aid some onfortunit man and to feel as happy as I feel to-night. It is
this"--and here the old man paused a moment and looked with the face
of an angel at his guests as they stood gazing at him; then he
impressively said:--

"I've lived nigh on to eighty year, and my head be whitenin' with the
comin' and goin' of the years I have lived, and the Book has long been
in my cabin. I have kept many a Christmas alone and in company, both,
but never afore have I knowed the raal meanin' of the day nor read the
lesson of it aright. And this be the lesson that I have larned and the
one I want ye all to take away with ye as ye go--that Christmas is a
day of feastin' and givin' and laughin', but, above everythin' else,
it is the day for forgivin' and forgittin'. Some of ye be young and
may yer days be long on the 'arth, and some of yer heads be as white
as mine and yer years be not many, but be that as it may, whether our
Christmas days be many or few, when the great day comes round let us
remember in good or ill fortun', alone or with many, that Christmas,
above all else, is the day for forgivin' and forgittin'."

* * * * *

The guests we