ying something together,--strange words that Hansei had never
heard. Nearer and nearer! He felt them passing close where he and his
mother stood; he raised his head and looked.

He saw a long dark line of men, some riding and some walking. Their
heads were bent, and they said the strange words together. Sometimes
there was a burst like song, then the words again. There was one torch.

Slowly they made their way down the yellow road. Hansei and his mother
watched them as they went.

He whispered, "Where are they going?"

"Down there," said the mother softly. "It is the Christ-child's night."

"Why do they go?"

"To pray."

"What will they ask?"

"Light! light!"

"Can all go?"

"Yes, all."

"Let us go, Mother; let us go! There is a voice down there that calls me
often."

The mother looked back at the little dark house, then down the road
where the one point of light moved on.

"Come, let us go; let us follow it," she said, taking his hand and
hurrying down the steep way in the darkness.

Through the long, wild night they toiled on and on. Always the little
light went before, and always Hansei and his mother followed where it
led.

Once Hansei cried out: "See, Mother, the torch is the star, and we are
the shepherds seeking the little Christ-child!" And he laughed.

In the gray dawn they came to the misty city. "How strange! how
strange!" thought Hansei, as they went down the narrow streets. "How
many houses, and lights, and people! But the real light, the little
star, we must not lose it."

Just before them went the dark line of men and the torch. People who met
them stepped aside and always made strange signs on their breasts.
Suddenly the light went out, and the men disappeared into what seemed a
great shadow.

Hansei asked: "What is it?"

His mother said: "A church."

"Let us go in, too; the star went;" and Hansei, with all his strength,
pushed back the great door.

"People! people!" little Hansei had not dreamed there were so many of
"the others." There in the dim light they were kneeling, praying for
"light, light," his mother had told him.

Far beyond there were small lights, like stars shining, and a man in a
white robe, who said the strange words he had heard on the yellow road.
Then the kneeling people all said something together. Hansei thought,
"They are trying to tell him they want the light, and he does not
understand." Hansei's mother knelt where she stood, and he crept down
be