lf saw
at a glance what was underneath.

Children's shoes, and dresses of warmest stuffs; tippets and mittens;
a full suit for a little boy, boots and all; a jackknife and whistle;
two dolls dressed in brave finery, with flaxen hair and blue eyes; a
little hatchet; a huge ball of yarn, and a hundred and one things
needed in the household; and underneath all a Bible; and under that a
silver star on a blue field, and pinned to the silk a scrap of paper,
on which was written,--

"Hang this over the picture of the lad."

"Ay, ay," said the Trapper in a tremulous voice, as he looked at the
silver star, "it shall be done as ye say, boy; but the lad has got
beyend the clouds, and is walkin' a trail that is lighted from eend to
eend by a light clearer and brighter than ever come from the shinin'
of any star. I hope we may be found worthy to walk it with him, boy,
when we, too, have come to the edge of the Great Clearin'."

To the Trapper it was perfectly evident for whom the contents of the
box were intended; but the sender had left nothing in doubt, for, when
the old man had lifted from the floor the board that he had flung out,
he discovered some writing traced with heavy penciling on the wood,
and which without much effort he spelled out to Wild Bill,--

"Give these on Christmas Day to the woman at the dismal hut, and a
merry Christmas to you all."

"Ay, ay," said the Trapper, "it shall be did, barrin' accident, as ye
say; and a merry Christmas it'll make fur us all. Lord-a-massy! what
_will_ the poor woman say when she and her leetle uns git these warm
garments on? There be no trouble about fillin' the basket now; no, I
sartinly can't git half of the stuff in. Wild Bill, I guess ye'll have
to do some more sleddin' to-morrow, fur these presents must go over
the mountain in the mornin', ef we have to harness up the pups." And
then he told his companion of the poor woman and the children, and his
intended visit to them on the morrow.

"I fear," he said, "that they be havin' a hard time of it, 'specially
ef her husband has desarted her."

"Little good he would do her, if he was with her," answered Wild Bill,
"for he's a lazy knave when he is sober, and a thief as well, as you
and I know, John Norton; for he's fingered our traps more than once,
and swapped the skins for liquor at the Dutchman's; but he's thieved
once too many times, for the folks in the settlement has ketched him
in the act, and they put him in the jai