ldren and the eldest girl
were long since asleep, but the mother could not rest for thinking of
her wayward boy. Where was he to-night; where at this very moment? And
he had promised, promised faithfully to turn over a new leaf with this
Christmas eve. Christmas eve was here, nay, it was come and gone for
midnight had sounded and it was now Christmas morning. Still, this night
must be for her as all those other nights when she had lain awake hour
after hour listening in silent anguish for the footstep that did not
come. She had hoped much from that promise of his to Father Xavier and
to her, and her disappointment was proportionately bitter.

The mother walked to the window and looked out upon the silent, frosty
night. Low down upon the horizon myriads of stars were twinkling
merrily, but high up in the heavens the moon shone with a brilliant
radiance that totally eclipsed all lesser lights. The night was very
still, very beautiful, but the silence and the beauty failed to bring
peace to the mother's heart. She looked up into the heavens. How
placidly cold the moon looked back at her, the same moon that was
probably shedding its beams upon her boy at that moment and could tell
her where he was if it could but speak. Why, oh why, could those beams
not speak and tell her what they saw; why could they not bring her some
message from the absent one! She had never felt like this before, she
had never felt so restless, so uneasy. It was impossible to think of
sleep; she would pray still longer. Perhaps the boy needed her prayers;
perhaps he was in danger, danger of body, danger of soul, and needed her
help. Her rosary in her fingers, she knelt by the window praying,
praying, while the moonbeams danced and played around the kneeling
figure. Perhaps it was just as well they could not speak and tell her
what they saw out there upon the river. Perhaps they were trying to tell
her and could not; trying to tell her of the three men, one of whom was
scarce more than a boy, struggling out there in the icy water,
struggling for life as the current sought to drag them down beneath the
frozen surface. Their fingers clutched desperately at the ragged edges
of the ice that had broken through with them and cracked and crumbled
away at their touch.

Now but two figures were visible to the watching moonbeams; one had been
dragged down into the black waters, down to his death in the freezing
depths below.

For a moment a cloud covered the