child.  While he sat thus in his waking dream, he looked fixedly at the locket and the blue thread which tied together those golden rays of a summer sun, now all set and vanished and gone, but which was once the morning light of all his promised days; and as his eyes, full of waking dreams, fell on the fire again, a handsome young woman seemed to come forth from between the brands, and the locks of her hair floated out and turned into boys and girls, of various ages, from babyhood to youth; all looking somewhat like him and also like the fair young woman.  But the brand rolled over, and they all vanished in a little puff of smoke.

Aunt Kindly sat at the table reading the Bible.  I don’t know why she read the Gospels, for she knew them all four by heart, and could repeat them from end to end.  But Sunday night, when none of the neighbors were there, and she and Nathan were all alone, she took her mother’s great squared Bible and read therein.  This night she had been reading, in chapter xxxi. of Proverbs, the character of a noble woman; and, finishing the account, turned and read the 28th verse a second time,—­

"Her children rise up and call her blessed."

I do not know why she read that verse, nor what she thought of it; but she repeated it to herself three or four times,—­

"Her children rise up and call her blessed."

As she was taking up the venerable old volume to lay it away for the night, it opened by accident at Luke xiv., and her eye fell on verses 12, 13—­

"But when thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends not thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbor, lest they also call thee again, and a recompense be made thee.  But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind; and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee."

She sat a moment recollecting that Jesus said,—­

"Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven;" and had also denounced woe on all such as cause these little ones to offend, and declared that in heaven their angels continually behold the face of the Father.

After a few minutes she turned to Nathan, who had replaced the brands in hopes to bring back the vision by his “faculty divine,” and said,—­“Brother, I wonder if it would not be better to make a little change in our way of keeping Christmas.  It is a good thing to call together the family once a year,—­our brothers and sisters and nephews and nieces,—­we all of us love the children so much, and have a good time.  I would not give that up.  The dinner is very well; but the evening goes off a little heavy; that whist playing, we both dislike it; so much talk about such trifles.  What if we should have a Child’s Festival on Christmas night, and ask all the little folks in the town to your nice New Hall,—­it will be done before that time, won’t it?  It will be a good christening for it; and Mr. Garrison, whom you have asked to speak there on New-Year’s day, will like it all the better if baptized by these little ones, who ‘are of the kingdom of heaven.’  Surely little children may run before the great Liberator.”