able shopping that a coming wedding necessitates; and set in train
of preparation certain matters beyond the range of Kinnicutt capacity
and resource.

Mr. Armstrong, too, was obliged to be absent from his parish for a
little time. Affairs of his own required some personal attention. He
chose these weeks while the others, also, were away.

It was decided that the marriage should take place in the coming spring;
and that then the house at Cross Corners should become the home of Mr.
Armstrong and Faith; and that Mr. Gartney should remove, permanently, to
New York, where he had already engaged in some incidental and
preliminary business transactions. His purpose was to fix himself there,
as a shipping and commission merchant, concerning himself, for a large
proportion, with California trade.

The house in Mishaumok had been rented for a term of five years. One
change prepares the way for another. Things never go back precisely to
what they were before.

Mr. Armstrong, after serious thought, had come to this conclusion of
accepting the invitation of the Old Parish at Kinnicutt to remain with
it as its pastor, because the place itself had become endeared to him
for its associations; because, also, it was Faith's home, which she had
learned to love and cling to; because she, too, had a work here, in
assisting Glory to fulfill the terms of her aunt's bequest; and because,
country parish though it was, and a limited sphere, as it might seem,
for his means and talents, he saw the way here, not only to accomplish
much direct good in the way of his profession, but as well for a wider
exercise of power through the channel of authorship; for which a more
onerous pastoral charge would not have left him the needful quiet or
leisure.

So, with these comings and goings, these happy plans, and helpings and
onlookings, the late autumn weeks merged in winter, and days slipped
almost imperceptibly by, and Christmas came.

Three little orphan girls had been welcomed into "Miss Henderson's
Home." And only one of them had hair that would curl. But Glory gave the
other two an extra kiss each, every morning.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

CHRISTMASTIDE.

"Through suffering and through sorrow thou hast past,
To show us what a woman true may be;
They have not taken sympathy from thee,
Nor made thee any other than thou wast;
. . . . .
"Nor hath thy knowledge of adversity
Robbed thee of any faith in happiness,
B