am; at Miss Henderson's, where I have been ever
since."

She never thought of triumphing. She never dreamed of what it would be
to electrify her former mistress with the announcement that she whom she
had since served had died, and left her, Glory McWhirk, the life use of
more than half her estate. That she dwelt now, as proprietress, where
she had been a servant. Her humbleness and her faithfulness were so
entire that she never thought of herself as occupying, in the eyes of
others, such position. She was Miss Henderson's handmaiden, still; doing
her behest, simply, as if she had but left her there in keeping, while
she went a journey.

So she bade good-by, and courtesied to Mrs. Grubbling and gathered up
her little parcels, and went out. Fortunately, Mrs. Grubbling was half
stunned, as it was. It is impossible to tell what might have resulted,
had she then and there been made cognizant of more. Not to the shorn
lamb, alone, always, are sharp winds beneficently tempered. There is a
mercy, also, to the miserable wolf.

Glory had one trouble, to-day, that hindered her pure, free and utter
enjoyment of what she had to do.

All day she had seen, here and there along the street, little forlorn
and ragged ones, straying about aimlessly, as if by any chance, a scrap
of Christmas cheer might even fall to them, if only they kept out in the
midst of it. There was a distant wonder in their faces, as they met the
buyers among the shops, and glanced at the fair, fresh burdens they
carried; and around the confectioners' windows they would cluster,
sometimes, two or three together, and _look_; as if one sense could take
in what was denied so to another. She knew so well what the feeling of
it was! To see the good times going on, and not be in 'em! She longed so
to gather them all to herself, and take them home, and make a Christmas
for them!

She could only drop the pennies that came to her in change loose into
her pocket, and give them, one by one, along the wayside. And she more
than once offered a bright quarter (it was in the days when quarters yet
were, reader!), when she might have counted out the sum in lesser bits,
that so the pocket should be kept supplied the longer.

* * * * *

Down by the ---- Railway Station, the streets were dim, and dirty, and
cheerless. Inside, the passengers gathered about the stove, where the
red coals gleamed cheerful in the already gathering dusk of the winte