ew Covenant, the New
Commonwealth, the New Kingdom is to be."

But I did not dare tell Dod Dalton what Campbell had been doing for
Todd, nor did I dare tell Campbell by what unconscious arts old Dod had
been helping Lycidas. Perhaps the sermon would have been better had I
done so.

But, when we had our tree in the evening at home, I did tell
all this story to Polly and the bairns, and I gave Alice her
measuring-tape,--precious with a spot of Lycidas's blood,--and Bertha
her Sheffield wimble. "Papa," said old Clara, who is the next child,
"all the people gave presents, did not they, as they did in the picture
in your study?"

"Yes," said I, "though they did not all know they were giving them."

"Why do they not give such presents every day?" said Clara.

"O child," I said, "it is only for thirty-six hours of the three hundred
and sixty-five days, that all people remember that they are all brothers
and sisters, and those are the hours that we call, therefore, Christmas
eve and Christmas day."

"And when they always remember it," said Bertha, "it will be Christmas
all the time! What fun!"

"What fun, to be sure; but Clara, what is in the picture?"

"Why, an old woman has brought eggs to the baby in the manger, and an
old man has brought a sheep. I suppose they all brought what they had."

"I suppose those who came from Sharon brought roses," said Bertha. And
Alice, who is eleven, and goes to the Lincoln School, and therefore
knows everything, said, "Yes, and the Damascus people brought Damascus
wimbles."

"This is certain," said Polly, "that nobody tried to give a straw, but
the straw, if he really gave it, carried a blessing."

_EDWARD E. HALE'S WRITINGS._

THE GOOD TIME COMING; or, Our New Crusade.

Square 18mo. Paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00

"It has all the characteristics of its brilliant author,--unflagging
entertainment, helpfulness, suggestive, practical hints, and a
contagious vitality that sets one's blood tingling. Whoever has read
'Ten Times One is Ten' will know just what we mean. We predict that the
new volume, as being a more charming story, will have quite as great a
parish of readers. The gist of the book is to show how possible it is
for the best spirits of a community, through wise organization, to form
themselves into a lever by means of which the whole tone of the social
status may be elevated, and the good and highest happiness of the
helpless many be attained through the self