he saw now were not revolting in appearance. They were
unarmed and did not murder a single baby.

But--Femke was not in the party.

Mrs. Claus was at the wash-tub, while Father Jansen was quietly
smoking.

"Is that you, young man? Very nice! That's the young man who gave
Femke the picture, you remember, father?"

The father nodded to him kindly and smoked away, without manifesting
any special Godliness.

"Yes, Juffrouw, I wanted to----"

"Very nice of you! Won't you have a slice of bread and butter? And how
is your mother? Is she better now? She was sick, wasn't she? That's
a good boy, father. Femke said so. Is your mother better again? It
was fever, wasn't it? or apoplexy--or what was it then?"

"Oh, no! Juffrouw."

"You mustn't call me Juffrouw. I am only a wash-woman. Everyone must
stay in his own class, mustn't he, father? Well, it's all the better;
I thought she had been sick. It must have been somebody else. One
has so much to think of. Do you like cheese?"

The good woman prepared a slice of bread and butter, with cheese. If
Trudie could have seen it, she would have fainted. In the "citizen's
class," such and such a sub-class, according to Pennewip, is found
a certain scantiness that does not obtain in the common laboring
class. In the matter of eating, laborers, who do not invest their
money in Geneva, are not troubled so much by "good form" as people
who give their children French names.

Walter had never seen such a slice of bread. He didn't know whether he
ought to bite through the width, or the thickness. The bit of cheese
gave him his cue.

He liked Mrs. Claus much better this time. And Father Jansen, too;
even if he wasn't like Walter had imagined him to be.

He had never conceived a preacher as being anything else but a very
supernatural and spiritual and celestial sort of person. Father Jansen
didn't seem to be that kind of a man at all.

He visited the sheep of his fold, especially the plain people, not
to make a display of beneficence--for he had nothing, but because he
was happiest among simple people. He was fond of bread and butter of
the Mrs. Claus variety. For the rest, he said mass, preached about
sin, catechised, confirmed, absolved, and did whatever needed to be
done. He performed the functions of his office, and did not think
it at all strange that he should have gone into the church, while
his brother in Nordbrabant succeeded to the business of his father,
who was a farrier