tle Italian singing-girl.
I--"

"Keep them in your heart," answered the spirits, softly; and then one
of them bent over and kissed her upon the lips.

"Ah, _gracia_, _gracia_,--thanks, thanks!" she cried; but even as she
spoke she sank back in dismay, for everything about her was dark and
still, and for a moment she did not know where she was. Then groping
blindly about in the shadow, she felt the wooden back of the pew in
which she sat, and then she remembered.

But the gifts,--the spirits' Christmas gifts to her. Where were they?
For a long time she searched, stretching out her hand and passing it
over cushion, bench, and floor; but all in vain. No heavenly object
met her grasp, and at last she gave a poor little moan of
disappointment and sorrow,--

"It was only a dream after all,--only a dream."

But now through the tall windows stole a faint streak of light. It
grew ever stronger, and by its aid Nina made her way to the doors, in
order to escape from the church in which she had slept away the night.
But alas! they were closed and fastened tight. She could not get out.
She wandered to and fro through the silent aisles, growing quite
familiar with the dusky place and feeling not at all afraid. She
thought over her dream, and recalled the fact that it was Christmas
Day,--the Festa del Gesu Bambino.

"It was a dream," she mused; "but it was a beautiful one! Perhaps the
spirits gave it to me for my Christmas gift. Perhaps the Gesu bade
them give it me for my Christmas gift;" and just as a glorious burst of
sunshine struck through the illuminated windows, she took up her little
fiddle, raised her bow and her voice at the same time, and sang out in
worshipful gratitude,--

"Mira, cuor mio durissimo,
Il bel Bambin Gesu,
Che in quel presepe asprissimo,
Or lo fai nascer tu!"

She did not hear a distant door open, nor did she see through it the
man who had unconsciously lured her into the church the evening before
by the power of his playing. No; she was conscious of nothing but her
singing and the sweet, long notes she was drawing with her bow from the
strings of her beloved violin.

But she did hear, after she had finished, a low exclamation, and then
she did see that same man hastening toward her with outstretched hands.

"Child, child," he cried, "how came you here! And such a voice! _such_
a voice! Why, it is a gift from Heaven!"

And amid all the excitement that followed,--the exci