fitful sounds of talk and laughter. Otherwise the darkness was
complete.

On the outskirts of the town, just at the foot of a steep hill, stood
a cottage somewhat more pretentiously built than the others, and
surrounded by something of a lawn, laid out with flower-beds and
shrubbery, now almost buried in deep drifts of snow. From one window
of this cottage, too, a most heartsome glow streamed out over the snow
from a lamp placed, as could be seen, with loving intent upon the
window-ledge, and out of the darkness there presently emerged the
figure of a man, making his way up the foot-path toward the house, his
feet ringing sharply against the hard-trodden snow.

Along one side of the house--planted without doubt to break the force
of the northern gales--extended a grove of pines and firs, looking
now, in the darkness, like the advance guard of a mighty host with
banners slowly waving, and strange instruments giving forth weird,
unearthly harmonies. As the man passed this spot he slackened his
steps once or twice, and seemed to listen for some sound that had
caught his ear, and again, when his foot was already on the lower step
of the flight leading to the door, he stopped suddenly, his face
turned toward the sombre wall of trees.

The light of the lamp illumined their slender trunks and lower boughs,
leaving their tops wrapped in utter darkness. It also threw into
strong relief the powerful figure of the man, and projected his
shadow, huge, wavering and grotesque, across the intervening space.
For an instant another shadow seemed to start forward from the
mysterious recesses of the pines as if to meet this one, only to fall
back and be gathered into the blackness beyond.

The man shrugged his broad shoulders, and, turning, entered the
house. A fair, slender woman rose from her seat by the open fire, and
went to him.

"Oh! Jamie," she said, "here you are, at last! I'm so glad! I was so
afraid something had happened?"

The man threw off his heavy coat with a good-humored laugh.

"Were you afraid I might blow away?" he asked, straightening his large
figure. "Why are you always imagining vain things, like a foolish
little wifie? I'm big enough to take care of myself, eh, lassie?"

The little wife answered with a smile of loving admiration.

"Come," she said, "supper has been ready a long time, and Bab asleep
this half-hour."

She took the lamp from the window and set it on the table, where it
shone full on her