hing in that." Truedale looked earnest. "She's a great
Betty."

"So it's up to Betty and me, now," Lynda went on. "We can take off the
shabby, faded little duds, but we've got to have something to put on at
once, or the kiddies will take cold."

"Surely."

"We think that to start a child out in stripes is almost as bad as
finishing him in them. To make a child feel--different--is sure to damn
him."

"And so you are going to make the Saxe Home an example and set the ball
rolling."

"Exactly, Con. And we're going to slam the door in the faces of the
dramatic rich this Christmas. The lambies at the Saxe are going to have
a nice, old-fashioned tree. They are going to dress it themselves the
night before, and whisper up the chimney what they want--and there is
not going to be a speech on Christmas Day within a mile of that Home!"

"That's great. I'd like to come in on that myself."

"You can, Con, we'll need you."

"Christmas always does set the children in one's thoughts, doesn't it? I
suppose Betty is particularly keen--having had her baby for a day or
so." Truedale's eyes were tender. Betty's baby and its fulfilled mission
were sacred to him and Lynda.

"Betty is going to adopt a child, Con."

"Really?"

"Yes. She says she cannot stand Christmas without one. It's a rebuke
to--to her boy."

"Poor little Bet!"

"Oh! it makes me so--so humble when I see her courage. She says if she
has a dozen children of her own it will make no difference; she must
have her first child's representative. She's about decided upon the
one--he's the most awful of them all. She's only hesitating to see if
anything awfuller will turn up. She says she's going to take a baby no
one else will have--she's going to do the biggest thing she can for her
own dead boy. As if her baby ever could be dead! Sometimes I think he is
more alive than if he had stayed here and got all snarled up in earthly
things--as so many do!"

Conning came close to Lynda and drew her head back against his breast.

"You are--crying, darling!" he said.

"It's--it's Betty. Con, what is it about her that sort of brightens the
way for us all, yet dims our eyes?"

"She's very illuminating. It's a big thing--this of adopting a child.
What does Brace think of it?"

"He adores everything Betty does. He says"--Lynda smiled up into the
face above her--"he says he wishes Betty had chosen one with hair a
little less crimson, but that doubtless he'll grow to like th