gathered in from cheerless and miserable homes.

Meantime, the carvers had been very busy at work on the forty
turkeys--large, tender fellows, full of dressing and cooked as nicely as
if they had been intended for a dinner of aldermen--cutting them up and
filling the plates. There was no stinting of the supply. Each plate
was loaded with turkey, dressing, potatoes that had been baked with the
fowls, and a heaping spoonful of cranberry sauce, and as fast as filled
conveyed to the tables by the lady attendants, who had come, many of
them, from elegant homes, to assist the good missionary's wife and the
devoted teachers of the mission-school in this labor of love. And so,
when the four hundred hungry children came streaming into the rooms,
they found tables spread with such bounty as the eyes of many of them
had never looked upon, and kind gentlemen and beautiful ladies already
there to place them at these tables and serve them while eating.

It was curious and touching, and ludicrous sometimes, to see the many
ways in which the children accepted this bountiful supply of food. A
few pounced upon it like hungry dogs, devouring whole platefuls in a few
minutes, but most of them kept a decent restraint upon themselves in the
presence of the ladies and gentlemen, for whom they could not but feel
an instinctive respect. Very few of them could use at fork except in the
most awkward manner. Some tried to cut their meat, but failing in the
task, would seize it with their hands and eagerly convey it to their
hungry mouths. Here and there would be seen a mite of a boy sitting in
a kind of maze before a heaped-up dinner-plate, his hands, strangers, no
doubt, to knife or fork, lying in his lap, and his face wearing a kind
of helpless look. But he did not have to wait long. Eyes that were on
the alert soon saw him; ready hands cut his food, and a cheery voice
encouraged him to eat. If these children had been the sons and daughters
of princes, they could not have been ministered to with a more gracious
devotion to their wants and comfort than was shown by their volunteer
attendants.

Edith, entering into the spirit of the scene, gave herself to the work
in hand with an interest that made her heart glow with pleasure. She had
lost sight of the little boy in whom she had felt so sudden and strong
an interest, and had been searching about for him ever since the
children came up from the chapel. At last she saw him, shut in and
hidden bet