und the heart of little Ted's mother when his nurse, who
was older and wiser than she, shook her head sadly as she owned that he
was about the tiniest baby she had ever seen. But the cold chill did not
stay there. Ted, who was scarcely a month old, gave a sudden smile of
baby pleasure as she was anxiously looking at him. He had caught sight
of some bright flowers on the wall, and his blue eyes had told him that
the proper thing to do was to smile at them. And his smile was to his
mother like the sun breaking through a cloud.

"I will not be afraid for my darling," said she. "God knows what is
best for him, but I think, I do _think_, he will live to grow a healthy,
happy boy. How could a Christmas child be anything else?"

And she was right. Day after day, week by week, month after month,
the wee man grew bigger and stronger. It was not all smooth sailing,
however. He had to fight pretty hard for his little share of the world
and of life sometimes. And many a sad fit of baby-crying made his
mother's heart ache as she asked herself if after all it might not be
better for her poor little boy to give up the battle which seemed so
trying to him. But no--that was not Master Ted's opinion at all. He
cried, and he would not go to sleep, and he cried again. But all
through the crying and the restlessness he was growing stronger and
bigger.

"The world strikes me as not half a bad place. I mean to look about me
in it and see all that there is to be seen," I could fancy his baby mind
thinking to itself, when he was held at his nursery window, and his
bright eyes gazed out unweariedly at the beautiful sights to be seen
from it--the mountains in the distance lifting their grand old heads to
the glorious sky, which Ted looked as if he knew a good deal about if he
chose to tell; the sea near at hand with its ever-changing charm and the
white sails scudding along in the sunlight. Ah yes, little Ted was in
the right--the world _is_ a very pretty place, and a baby boy whose
special corner of it is where his was, is a very lucky little person,
notwithstanding the pains and grievances of babyhood.

And before long Ted's fits of crying became so completely a thing of the
past that it was really difficult to believe in them. All his grumbling
and complaining and tears were got over in these first few months. For
"once he had got a start," as his nurse called it, never was there a
happier little fellow. Everything came right to him, and th