dly
turned the conversation, and actually managed to go to bed with his secret
still kept.

So did Bella and Tom, but theirs weighed on Bella's mind far more heavily
than did Charlie's on his, and she was never more glad to get up than she
was on that Christmas morning.

It was still so dark that she could not see Margery in her little bed
across the room, but she heard her breathing steadily and deeply, and as
she did not speak when Bella moved about the room a little, Bella knew she
must be fast asleep. She did not even move when Bella struck a match and
lighted a candle, nor when she opened the bedroom door and crept
downstairs.

It had become Bella's habit now to go down first and light the kitchen
fire, so if they heard her no one would take any notice, and, once
downstairs, it was easy enough to open the front door and slip out.
It was not so easy to grope one's way to the tool-house and find the
hamper and its contents. It was a bitterly cold morning, a keen wind
swept along the garden path, and every now and then something soft and
cold touched Bella's face, or rested on her hair.

"I believe it is snowing," she said, as she held out her hand to try to
catch a flake. In the sky the stars were still twinkling, and suddenly
from somewhere in the distance the bells rang out their glad peal.

To Bella out there alone with the stars and the snow and the bells, it all
seemed wonderfully beautiful and impressive. Her thoughts flew to her
mother, and the past Christmases when she had been with them, and, as she
turned her face up to the sky and the stars, it seemed to Bella as though
they must be looking straight into each other's eyes.

"We don't forget you, mother," she whispered. "Even when we are talking
and laughing, we'll be thinking of you too, and wanting you;" and one
little star flashed and gleamed as though it understood and answered her.

In the tool-house she found the hamper and its precious contents quite
safe, and gathering all the parcels in her apron, she replaced the cabbage
leaves, and scurried back to the house. How she got in and up the stairs
she scarcely knew.

Margery stirred as she entered and spoke, "Is that you, Bella?"

"Yes," said Bella, "I'm going down now to light the fire and get father
some tea. You go to sleep again; it is too early to wake up yet;" and
sleepy Margery turned over in her snug bed and was asleep almost before
Bella had ceased speaking.

It was not easy