As Jean went home the snow began to fall and the big flakes lodged on his shoulders and cap and hands, but he didn’t mind the cold for his heart was so warm.  By and by as he ran down the street he passed a tall house with the steps going up from the street, and there sitting on the bottom step he saw a little boy with soft curling hair and a beautiful face, leaning his head against the stone house, fast asleep.  Somehow as Jean looked at the sleeping face, his own heart grew still and quiet and warm, and he felt like he could look at it forever, and suddenly he caught himself singing softly under his breath, “Peace on earth, good will to men.”  And then he looked down at the little boy’s feet and he saw that he was barefooted and his little feet were purple with the cold.  As Jean looked at the feet, and then at the face of the child, and thought of the sweet song in his heart, he said, “Oh!  I wish I could give him my shoes, for I have stockings to keep me warm, but auntie would be so mad!  And the more he looked and thought, the more he longed to give his shoes away, until all at once he said, “I know what I’ll do, I’ll give him one shoe and one stocking and then he won’t be so cold,” and he felt as though he couldn’t get his shoe and stocking off fast enough to give them to the little child.  So gently and tenderly he lifted the little cold foot in his hand to put on the shoe that he did not waken the sleeping boy, even when he had put the stocking on the other foot, and then as he stood up again and took a last look at the lovely face, before he knew it he was singing aloud, “Peace on earth, good will to men.”  Then he hopped off home in the snow with the happiest heart he had ever had.

Now, I wish the story turned out differently and that his auntie said when he told her about it, “I’m so glad you did it, Jean.”  But she was so very cross, that she slapped Jean and sent him off to bed without any supper, saying, “You had no right to give away that shoe and stocking for my money paid for them!” Somehow Jean didn’t mind doing without supper that night and he soon went fast asleep and dreamed a beautiful dream, for he thought he was still singing “Peace on earth, good will to men!” And he saw a vision of the little sleeping boy, that grew into a tall and gentle man with a radiant face who walked to and fro in Jean’s dream, singing with him “Peace on earth, good will to men!” Then morning came and outside his window, Jean heard the voices of children singing, “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will to men!” And he heard a very strange sound too, for his auntie’s voice, soft and gentle, said, “Jean, wake up, and come down and see what has happened,” and Jean came down the ladder and lo! there was a wonderful tree just like the other boys were having today, and a goose, and by the fireplace his own wooden shoe, and beside it the mate that he had given to the sleeping child, and far in the distance Jean heard the children’s