there. The boy spoke better than he
knew.

"And this," said little Helen eagerly, pointing proudly to her new
acquaintance, "is a friend of his, and he knows papa and he's got a
little Helen and we're going to give her a Merry Christmas."

William Carstairs had no secrets from his wife. With a flash of womanly
intuition, although she could not understand how he came to be there,
she divined who this strange guest was who looked a pale, weak picture
of her strong and splendid husband, and yet she must have final
assurance.

"Who is this gentleman, William?" she asked quietly, and John Carstairs
was forever grateful to her for her word that night.

"This," said William Carstairs, "is my father's son, my brother, who was
dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found."

And so, as it began with the beginning, this story ends with the ending
of the best and most famous of all the stories that were ever told.

[Illustration]

ON CHRISTMAS GIVING

[Illustration]

_Being a Word of Much Needed Advice_

Christmas is the birthday of our Lord, upon which we celebrate God's
ineffable gift of Himself to His children. No human soul has ever been
able to realize the full significance of that gift, no heart has ever
been glad enough to contain the joy of it, and no mind has ever been
wise enough to express it. Nevertheless we powerfully appreciate the
blessing and would fain convey it fitly. Therefore to commemorate that
great gift the custom of exchanging tokens of love and remembrance has
grown until it has become well nigh universal. This is a day in which we
ourselves crave, as never at any other time, happiness and peace for
those we love and that ought to include everybody, for with the angelic
message in our ears it should be impossible to hate any one on Christmas
day however we may feel before or after.

But despite the best of wills almost inevitably Christmas in many
instances has created a burdensome demand. Perhaps by the method of
exclusion we shall find out what Christmas should be. It is not a time
for extravagance, for ostentation, for vulgar display, it is possible to
purchase pleasure for someone else at too high a price to ourselves. To
paraphrase Polonius, "Costly thy gift as thy purse can buy, rich but not
expressed in fancy, for the gift oft proclaims the man." In making
presents observe three principal facts; the length of your purse, the
character of your friend, and the universal rul