t
up! Have I talked too much, Aunt Hetty?"

By this time they were at the church door and, trembling with
excitement, they entered. Pearl and Periwinkle took their places in the
children's choir, beaming with happiness and joy, while Aunty Hetty,
with a sparkle in her eyes and a new warmth in her heart, took her place
near the front.

Joe Smith occupied an advantageous position from which he could see
everything that was going on. There for the first time did he realize
all that the children of the circus had done for the parish.

His heart was gladdened when he saw an old lady of the Grey "clan"
smiling sweetly as she accepted Alois Maise's proffer of her little
gilt-edge hymnbook. He smiled to himself as Hetty Maise made room for
Kitty Farwell when the latter, arriving late, found her own pew
occupied. His smile broadened into a grin as he watched them singing
from the same book, held at arm's length, as if they still were afraid
of each other.

The program "passed off" much as all Christmas Eve services do, an
occasional prompting, a song a trifle off key, a crying baby quickly
hushed with peppermints or crackers.

But beneath it all there was a deep undercurrent of some unexplainable
feeling. A ruddy glow suffused Miss Hetty's cheeks. Robert Grey felt the
presence of some great unknown joy. The primary youngsters lisping their
faltering words, the men lighting the candles that sent forth the
glorious message sparkling from the trees, all seemed moved.

"Was the angels' song, 'Peace, good will,' at last to be realized? was
it finally to find its true response in the forgiving, loving hearts of
his faction-split congregation?" that was the minister's hopeful
thought. Wise in experience, he recognized this pervading
influence--knew that it only needed an impulse, like a spark in a powder
magazine, to bring about its expression.

At last it was all over but Pearl's song. A dainty figure dressed
entirely in white stepped reverently before the altar--the sweet charm
of childish innocence making its appeal even before a note was sung.

The tense silence was broken. Sweet tones with throbbing notes of
appeal, carrying with them that Christmas message of immeasurable love,
penetrated every corner of the house of worship and the heart of every
listener. The story that she sung--that oft-repeated but never old
message of love, of peace, of good-will, that binds the heart to God and
makes the whole world kin--yes they