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Page 49
With exceeding great joy! Ah! happy magi, who (more blest than Balaam
the son of Beor) were faithful to the dim light vouchsafed to you; the
Gentile Church may well be proud of your memory. Ye travelled long and
far to bring royal offerings to the King of the Jews, with a faith not
found in Israel. Ye saw Him whom prophets and kings had desired to see,
and were glad. Wise men indeed, and wise with the highest wisdom, in
that ye suffered yourselves to be taught of GOD.
Then the parson prayed that if this were indeed a dream he might dream
on; might pass, if only in a vision, over the hill, following the
footsteps of the magi, whilst the Star went before them, till he should
see it rest above that city, which, little indeed among the thousands
of Judah, was yet the birthplace of the Lord's Christ.
"Ah!" he almost sobbed, "let me follow! On my knees let me follow into
the house and see the Holy Child. In the eyes of how many babies I have
seen mind and thought far beyond their powers of communication, every
mother knows. But if at times, with a sort of awe, one sees the
immortal soul shining through the prison-bars of helpless infancy,
what, oh! what must it be to behold the GOD-head veiled in flesh through
the face of a little child!"
The parson stretched out his arms, but even with the passion of his
words the vision began to break. He dared not move for fear it should
utterly fade, and as he lay still and silent, the wise men roused their
followers, and, led by the Star, the train passed solemnly over the
distant hills.
Then the clear night became clouded with fragrant vapour, and with a
sigh the parson awoke.
* * * * *
When the cracker snapped and the white end was left in the grandmother's
hand, she was astonished to perceive (as she thought) that the white
lace veil which she had worn over her wedding bonnet was still in her
possession, and that she was turning it over in her fingers. "I fancied
I gave it to Jemima when her first baby was born," she muttered
dreamily. It was darned and yellow, but it carried her back all the same,
and recalled happy hours with wonderful vividness. She remembered the
post-chaise and the postillion. "He was such a pert little fellow, and
how we laughed at him! He must be either dead or a very shaky old man
by now," said the old lady. She seemed to smell the scent of meadow-sweet
that was so powerful in a lane through which they drove; and how clearly
she could see the clean little country inn where they spent the
honeymoon! She seemed to be there now, taking off her bonnet and shawl,
in the quaint clean chamber, with the heavy oak rafters, and the jasmine
coming in at the window, and glancing with pardonable pride at the fair
face reflected in the mirror. But as she laid her things on the
patchwork coverlet, it seemed to her that the lace veil became fine white
linen, and was folded about a figure that lay in the bed; and when she
looked round the room again everything was draped in white--white blinds
hung before the windows, and even the old oak chest and the press were
covered with clean white cloths, after the decent custom of the country;
whilst from the church tower without the passing bell tolled slowly. She
had not seen the face of the corpse, and a strange anxiety came over her
to count the strokes of the bell, which tell if it is a man, woman, or
child who has passed away. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven! No
more. It was a woman, and when she looked on the face of the dead she
saw her own. But even as she looked the fair linen of the grave-clothes
became the buoyant drapery of another figure, in whose face she found a
strange recognition of the lineaments of the dead with all the
loveliness of the bride. But ah! more, much more! On that face there was
a beauty not doomed to wither, before those happy eyes lay a future
unshadowed by the imperfections of earthly prospects, and the folds of
that robe were white as no fuller on earth can white them. The window
curtain parted, the jasmine flowers bowed their heads, the spirit passed
from the chamber of death, and the old lady's dream was ended.
* * * * *
Miss Letitia had shared a cracker with the widow. The widow squeaked
when the cracker went off, and then insisted upon giving up the smart
paper and everything to Miss Letitia. She had always given up
everything to Mr. Jones, she did so now to Master MacGreedy, and was
quite unaccustomed to keep anything for her own share. She did not give
this explanation herself, but so it was.
The cracker that thus fell into the hands of Miss Letitia was one of
those new-fashioned ones that have a paper pattern of some article of
dress wrapped up in them instead of a bonbon. This one was a paper
bonnet made in the latest _mode_--of green tissue-paper; and Miss Letitia
stuck it on the top of her chignon, with an air that the widow envied
from the bottom of her heart. She had not the gift of "carrying off"
her clothes. But to the tutor, on the contrary, it seemed to afford
the most extreme amusement; and as Miss Letitia bowed gracefully hither
and thither in the energy of her conversation with the widow, the green
paper fluttering with each emphasis, he fairly shook with delight, his
shadow dancing like a maniac beside him. He had scattered some more
powder on the coals, and it may have been that the smoke got into her
eyes, and confused her ideas of colour, but Miss Letitia was struck
with a fervid and otherwise unaccountable admiration for the paper ends
of the cracker, which were most unusually ugly. One was of a sallowish
salmon-colour, and transparent, the other was of brick-red paper with a
fringe. As Miss Letitia turned them over, she saw, to her unspeakable
delight, that there were several yards of each material, and her
peculiar genius instantly seized upon the fact that in the present
rage for double skirts there might be enough of the two kinds to
combine into a fashionable dress.
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