Miss Norah had
put her hand into his, and was patting his arm. There was a mist before
him--he could not see them all, though he knew his triumph.

"'Tis wid the kindness of all of y'," he murmured. "So good to me y'
all are!"

David Linton's hand was on his shoulder.

"Come on, old friend," he said, gently; "we're getting old and we're
tired, you and I." He led him away, Norah still holding his hand.
Behind them the music broke out again, cheerily, and the flying feet
made the loft echo until the dawn.

CHAPTER X

CHRISTMAS

O mellow air! O sunny light!
O Hope and Youth that pass away,
Print thou in letters of delight
Upon each heart one glorious day!
G. ESSEX EVANS.

Norah woke up early.

Close outside her open windows a magpie in the magnolia tree was
carolling as though he knew it was a special morning, and that he had a
special message to deliver. The linen blinds were rolled tight up, and
she could see him near one of the great creamy blossoms, each big
enough for his bath; his black and white coat very spruce and smart,
his head thrown back in utter enjoyment of his own song. Norah smiled
at him sleepily from her pillow.

"Nice old chap!" she said; and then she remembered.

"Oh!--Christmas." She gave a little happy laugh, for to-day was going to
be such a very good day. There was something that had taxed all her
patience; it was so hard to keep the secret until Christmas. Norah was
not a very patient person by nature, and she was glad that the need for
it was almost over.

She turned over lazily, and then burst out laughing as something caught
her eye at the foot of the bed--a huge football stocking, assuming
extraordinary shapes by reason of strange packages within it, while
from the top a monkey on a stick grinned at her. Norah jumped up and
brought the stocking back to bed for examination, weak with laughter
when she had finished. A big box of chocolates; a scarlet Christmas
cracker; a very flowery mug of thickest china, with "Love the Giver" on
it, and tied to the handle a label with "For a Good Little Girl" in the
best handwriting of Wally, who evidently considered it not sufficiently
adorned by nature; a live frog in a glass-covered box; a huge bundle,
which took her many minutes to unwrap, and was finally found to contain
a tiny pig of Connemara marble; a Christmas pudding the size of a golf
ball; and finally, in the very toe, a minute bottle labelled "Castor
O