? No? Then write
her, please, enclosing my check for two hundred dollars, and wish her a
very Merry Christmas in my name, will you? And hereafter will you always
let me see such letters as that one--of course after careful
investigation? I fancy perhaps I may have been too rigid in the past."

"Certainly, sir," answered the bewildered secretary. He began fumbling
excitedly for his note-book.

"I found the little dog," continued the philanthropist. "You will be
glad to know that."

"You have found him?" cried the secretary. "Have you got him back, Mr.
Carter? Where was he?"

"He was--detained--on Oak Street, I believe," said the philanthropist.
"No, I have not got him back yet. I have left him with a young boy till
after the holidays."

He settled himself to his papers, for philanthropists must toil even on
the twenty-fourth of December, but the secretary shook his head in a
daze. "I wonder what's happened?" he said to himself.

FOOTNOTE:

[Q] This story was first published in the _Youth's Companion_, vol. 82.

XXV

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS-TREE

BY LUCY WHEELOCK

TWO little children were sitting by the fire one cold winter's night.
All at once they heard a timid knock at the door and one ran to open it.

There, outside in the cold and darkness, stood a child with no shoes
upon his feet and clad in thin, ragged garments. He was shivering with
cold, and he asked to come in and warm himself.

"Yes, come in," cried both the children. "You shall have our place by
the fire. Come in."

They drew the little stranger to their warm seat and shared their supper
with him, and gave him their bed, while they slept on a hard bench.

In the night they were awakened by strains of sweet music, and looking
out, they saw a band of children in shining garments, approaching the
house. They were playing on golden harps and the air was full of melody.

Suddenly the Strange Child stood before them: no longer cold and ragged,
but clad in silvery light.

His soft voice said: "I was cold and you took Me in. I was hungry and
you fed Me. I was tired and you gave Me your bed. I am the
Christ-Child, wandering through the world to bring peace and happiness
to all good children. As you have given to Me, so may this tree every
year give rich fruit to you."

So saying, He broke a branch from the fir-tree that grew near the door,
and He planted it in the ground and disappeared. And the branch grew
into a great tree, and every yea