just time to catch a smile from his lips and then he,
too, was gone as silently and as strangely as he had appeared.

Was it a dream? No, there was the telegram in his hand! Had he sent it?
Again he called up the office on the telephone.

"Did you get a message from me just a minute ago?"

"Yes, do you want to recall it?"

The man thought a second.

"No," he said quietly--was it to himself or to his vanished
visitors?--"let it go. Merry Christmas."




III

The Friend




"INASMUCH AS YE HAVE DONE IT UNTO ONE OF THE LEAST OF THESE, MY
BRETHREN"




III

The Friend


"Is the story of the Christ Child true, Mommy?" quivered one little,
thin voice.

"Yes, they told us it was over at the mission Sunday-school," said the
littlest child.

"I don't believe it," answered the mother. "God ain't never done much
for me."

"It's Christmas eve, ain't it?" asked the boy, climbing up on the thin
knees of the threadbare woman and nestling his thin face against a
thinner breast which the rags scarcely covered decently.

"Yes, it's Christmas eve."

"And that's the day He came, ain't it?" urged the oldest girl.

"They say so."

"Don't you believe it, Mommy?"

"I used to believe it when I was a girl. I believed it before your
father died, but now--"

"Don't you believe it now?" repeated the first child.

"How can I believe it? You're old enough to understand. That's the last
scuttle of coal we got. We ate the last bit of bread for supper
to-night."

"They say," put in the little boy, "that if you hang up your stockings,
Santa Claus'll fill 'em, 'cause of the Christ Child."

"Don't you believe it, Sonny," said the mother desperately.

"I'm going to hang up mine and see," said the littlest girl.

"He's got too many other children to look after," said the woman, "to
care for the likes of us, I'm afraid, and--"

"But my Sunday-school teacher said He came to poor people special. He
was awful poor Himself. Why, He was born in a stable. That's awful poor,
ain't i

William Babington Maxwell (18661938) was a British novelist. He was a son of novelist Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Though nearly 50 years old at the outbreak of the First World War, he was accepted as a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers and served in France until 1917.

Cyrus Townsend Brady (December 20, 1861 January 24, 1920) was a journalist, historian and adventure writer. His most well-known work is Indian Fights and Fighters. He was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1883. He was also a deacon in the Episcopal church. His first wife was Clarissa Guthrie, who died in 1890. His second wife was Mary Barrett.

Rebecca Sophia Clarke (1833-1906), also known as Sophie May, was an American author of childrens fiction. Using her nieces and nephews as inspiration, she wrote realistic stories about children. She wrote 45 books between 1860 and 1903. The most popular being the Little Prudy books. She lived most of her life in her native town of Norridgewock, Maine, where she lived out her life with her sister, who was also a successful author.