eard of
the service in the church on Christmas Eve, and had a secret plan which
they had often talked over when by themselves, to go to see the
beautiful celebration.

"Nobody can guess, Little Brother," Pedro would say; "all the fine
things there are to see and hear; and I have even heard it said that the
Christ-Child sometimes comes down to bless the service. What if we could
see Him?"

The day before Christmas was bitterly cold, with a few lonely snowflakes
flying in the air, and a hard white crust on the ground. Sure enough
Pedro and Little Brother were able to slip quietly away early in the
afternoon; and although the walking was hard in the frosty air, before
nightfall they had trudged so far, hand in hand, that they saw the
lights of the big city just ahead of them. Indeed they were about to
enter one of the great gates in the wall that surrounded it, when they
saw something dark on the snow near their path, and stepped aside to
look at it.

It was a poor woman, who had fallen just outside the city, too sick and
tired to get in where she might have found shelter. The soft snow made
of a drift a sort of pillow for her, and she would soon be so sound
asleep, in the wintry air, that no one could ever waken her again. All
this Pedro saw in a moment and he knelt down beside her and tried to
rouse her, even tugging at her arm a little, as though he would have
tried to carry her away. He turned her face toward him, so that he could
rub some of the snow on it, and when he had looked at her silently a
moment he stood up again, and said:

"It's no use, Little Brother. You will have to go on alone."

"Alone?" cried Little Brother. "And you not see the Christmas festival?"

"No," said Pedro, and he could not keep back a bit of a choking sound in
his throat. "See this poor woman. Her face looks like the Madonna in the
chapel window, and she will freeze to death if nobody cares for her.
Every one has gone to the church now, but when you come back you can
bring some one to help her. I will rub her to keep her from freezing,
and perhaps get her to eat the bun that is left in my pocket."

"But I cannot bear to leave you, and go on alone," said Little Brother.

"Both of us need not miss the service," said Pedro, "and it had better
be I than you. You can easily find your way to church; and you must see
and hear everything twice, Little Brother--once for you and once for me.
I am sure the Christ-Child must know how I should