a coffee-pot, and a half-dozen of the tall
brass or pewter lamps for burning olive-oil--which long ago superseded
the primitive _caleu_, dating from Roman or from still earlier times,
and which now themselves practically have been superseded by lamps
burning petroleum.

To the right of the fire-place was the stone sink, with shelves above it
on which was a brilliant array of polished copper and tin pots and pans.
To the left was the covered bread-trough, above which hung the large
salt and flour boxes and the grated bread-closet--this last looking like
a child's crib gone wrong--all of dark wood ornamented with carving and
with locks and hinges of polished iron. On the opposite side of the
room, matching these pieces in colour and carving and polished
iron-work, were a tall buffet and a tall clock--the clock of so
insistent a temperament that it struck in duplicate, at an interval of a
minute, the number of each hour. A small table stood in a corner, and in
ordinary times the big dining-table was ranged along one of the walls,
with benches on each side of it supplemented by rush-bottomed chairs.
Near the bread-trough was hung a long-armed steel-balance with a brass
dish suspended by brass chains, all brilliant from scouring with soap
and sand; an ancient fowling-piece rested in wooden crutches driven
between the stones on one side of the clock, and on the other side was
hung a glittering copper warming-pan--a necessary comfort here of cold
nights in fireless rooms. By way of ornament, three or four
violently-colored lithographs were tacked against the walls, together
with a severely formal array--a pyramidal trophy--of family photographs.

Excepting the warming-pan and the two arm-chairs ordinarily in the
chimney-corners, there was no provision in the room for bodily ease or
comfort: a lack unperceived by its occupants, but which an American
house-wife--missing her many small luxuries and conveniences--would have
found sharply marked.

XI

The creche, around which the children were gathered in a swarm, was
built up in one corner; and our coming was the signal for the first of
the ceremonies, the lighting of the creche candles, to begin. In this
all the children had a part--making rather a scramble of it, for there
was rivalry as to which of them should light the most--and in a moment a
constellation of little flames covered the Bethlehem hill-side and
brought into bright prominence the Holy Family and its strange