, for I was quite willing to agree
with the boys, and the mother's eyes were full of joy as she led the way
to the dining room. That was a jolly meal. Nothing was said that could
be remembered, and yet we all talked a great deal and laughed a great
deal more. City, country, farm, college, and seminary were touched with
merry jests. Light wit provoked heavy laughter, and every one was the
better for it. It was nine o'clock before we left the table. I heard
Jarvis say:--

"Miss Jane, I count it very unkind of Jack not to have let me go to
Farmington with him last term. He used to talk of his 'little sister' as
though she were a miss in short dresses. Jack is a deep and treacherous
fellow!"

"Rather say, a very prudent brother," said Jane. "However, you may come
to the Elm Tree Inn in the spring term, if Jack will let you."

"I'll work him all winter," was Jarvis's reply.

CHAPTER XXXIV

CHRISTMAS

Christmas light was slow in coming. There was a hush in the air as if
the earth were padded so that even the footsteps of Nature might not be
heard. Out of my window I saw that a great fall of snow had come in the
night. The whole landscape was covered by fleecy down--soft and white as
it used to be when I first saw it on the hills of New England. No wind
had moved it; it lay as it fell, like a white mantle thrown lightly over
the world. Great feathery flakes filled the air and gently descended
upon the earth, like that beautiful Spirit that made the plains of Judea
bright two thousand years ago. It seemed a fitting emblem of that nature
which covered the unloveliness of the world by His own beauty, and
changed the dark spots of earth to pure white.

It was an ideal Christmas morning,--clean and beautiful. Such a wealth
of purity was in the air that all the world was clothed with it. The
earth accepted the beneficence of the skies, and the trees bent in
thankfulness for their beautiful covering. It was a morning to make one
thoughtful,--to make one thankful, too, for home and friends and
country, and a future that could be earned, where the white folds of
usefulness and purity would cover man's inheritance of selfishness and
passion.

For an hour I watched the big flakes fall; and, as I watched, I dreamed
the dream of peace for all the world. The brazen trumpet of war was a
thing of the past. The white dove of peace had built her nest in the
cannon's mouth and stopped its awful roar. The federation of the world