All rejoiced in the possession of little dolls.

“Look at them!” exclaimed Sister Felecitie, gleefully.

“We tried the least little ones with other toys:  but, bless you, nothing else pleases them so well as dolls.  We once tried the little yearlings with rattles, which we thought, it being noisy nuisances, would please them better; but save us!  If any one doubts the doctrine of original sin and total depravity, they should have seen the three year-old babies fling down their rattles in a passion and go for the other babies’ dolls, to seize and take them by force and violence; and the corresponding rage and resistance of the latter.”

“All that was very natural,” said Salome, with a smile.

“Oh, yes, natural, and perhaps something else too, beginning with a ‘d.’  They call children ‘little angels.’  Yes.  I know they are, when they are sound asleep,” exclaimed the sister, laughing.

“If they are not angels, they have angels with them.  I feel they have, for when I am in their sphere, I possess my soul in peace.”

As the young lady said this, the children noticed her presence for the first time, and all who could walk ran to her, clustered around her and thrust their dolls upon her, for inspection and approval.

All this Salome bestowed freely with many caresses and gentle, playful words.

Then the children sitting on the mats reached out their dolls at arm’s-length, and screamed to have them noticed.

Salome made her way to these little sitters, while all the other children, clinging to her skirt, attended her, impeding her progress.

It was a great confusion.

The merry little sister laughed aloud.

“Now!” she said, gayly.  “You are in their sphere, do you possess your soul in peace?”

“Something even better.  My soul goes out to them, delighting in their innocent delight!” answered Salome.

And after she had patted their heads and praised their dolls, and pleased them all with loving notice, she followed her conductress from the children’s play-room through the long rectangular passage that led to the nun’s refectory.

The sisterhood, abstemious nearly all the days of the year, feasted on certain high holidays.

The Christmas dinner, laid for the young nuns in the refectory, would have satisfied the most fastidious epicure.  But I doubt if any epicure could have enjoyed it half as well as did these abstemious young women, whose appetites were only let loose on certain high days and holidays.

Salome wondered at herself, who but two hours before had given way to a storm of passionate sobs and tears, yet now felt a strange peace of mind that enabled her to enter sincerely into the happiness of those around her.

In the afternoon, the convent was visited by a large number of benevolent people in the neighborhood, who brought their Christmas offerings to the poor and needy of the house.