, and her lips half parted as if she had sung herself to
sleep; and when they touched her she did not move--for Old Effie was
dead.

[Illustration]

A Christmas Stocking

With a Hole in it

BEN'S STORY

I.

The Stocking is Hung.

[Illustration]

At Christmas-tide in New York, the people who live in the upper part of
the city cannot hear the chimes that ring from Trinity steeple; but in
the dwelling streets which run in and out among the warehouse streets,
and in the courts which stand stock still and refuse to go a step
further,--there the Trinity music is heard and the "merry Christmas" of
the bells is flung out to all however poor. Beside Trinity there are
but few chimes of bells in the city, neither do poor children there sing
Christmas carols in the streets and thus unlatch the doors of even
crabbed hearts.

But the merriest chimes of bells are played and the sweetest carols sung
even in New York. For when at Christmas one walks in the crowded streets
he may hear on all sides the merry Christmas! merry Christmas to you! to
you! rung out on every key and the chiming makes perfect music; the poor
children sing carols too, for are they not each little songs as they
stand in their rags before well-to-do folk--songs without
words--reminding us of the poor child Jesus and the blessings which He
brought? Yes, the bells ring in our hearts and we hear carols then at
least if not at other times; and in some old cobwebbed heart does
Christmas fancy or Christmas memory enter and ring disused bells that
sound but a hoarse blessing, so rusty has their metal become, but a
blessing at least well-meant. Blessed be Christmas that it knocks so at
the door of our hearts.

Now it was on a certain Christmas that some very pleasant chimes were
rung, and that too within hearing of Trinity bells. In the street on
Christmas eve were Bundles of great coats and furs tied together with
tippets, who hurried along like locomotives, puffing and snorting and
leaving behind a line of smoke. But all the people in the streets were
not Bundles, by any means. Some scarcely had any wrappings, let alone
such heavy coverings as great coats and furs. Little boys may be Bundles
if they are properly wrapped up and tied with a tippet or scarf, but not
all little boys are Bundles. On this eve one might see many who were
not. They kept their hands in their pockets or breathed upon their red
fingers, and drew their shoulders together an