demurely.

Mr. Coventry smiled, and hurried away. But he soon came back to say that
the candles were all out, the windows open, and the servants laying the
cloth for supper.

"Oh, never mind, then," said Grace; "when we go in to supper I'll look
myself."

But a considerable time elapsed before supper, and Mr. Coventry spent
this time in making love rather ardently, and Grace in defending herself
rather feebly.

It was nearly eleven o'clock when Mr. Raby rejoined them, and they all
went in to supper. There were candles lighted on the table and a few
here and there upon the walls; but the room was very somber: and Mr.
Raby informed them this was to remind them of the moral darkness,
in which the world lay before that great event they were about to
celebrate.

He then helped each of them to a ladleful of frumety, remarking at the
same time, with a grim smile, that they were not obliged to eat
it; there would be a very different supper after midnight. Then a
black-letter Bible was brought him, and he read it all to himself at a
side-table.

After an interval of silence so passed there was a gentle tap at the
bay window. Mr. Raby went and threw it open, and immediately a woman's
voice, full, clear, and ringing, sang outside:

"The first Noel the angels did say,
Was to three poor shepherds, in fields as they lay,
In fields where they were keeping their sheep,
On a cold winter's night that was so deep.
Chorus.--Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel,
Born is the King of Israel."

The chorus also was sung outside.

During the chorus one of the doors opened, and Jael Dence came in by it;
and the treble singer, who was the blacksmith's sister, came in at the
window, and so the two women met in the room, and sang the second verse
in sweetest harmony. These two did not sing like invalids, as their
more refined sisters too often do; from their broad chests, and healthy
lungs, and noble throats, and above all, their musical hearts, they
poured out the harmony so clear and full, that every glass in the room
rang like a harp, and a bolt of ice seemed to shoot down Grace Carden's
backbone; and, in the chorus, gentle George's bass was like a diapason.

"They looked up and saw a star
That shone in the East beyond them far,
And unto the earth it gave a great light,
And so it continued both day and night.
Chorus--Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel,
Born is