Santa Claus's Partner

constantly before his eyes might have seemed to warrant. He was sitting sunk deep in his cushioned arm-chair. The tweaks in his fore

e his eyes, whilst, in place of the glow which they had brought at first, he now at

t to-morrow was Christmas Day, and he had forgotten it. This was remarkable. He had never forgotten it before, but this year he had been working so hard and had been so engros

thing! He must go out to dinner, of course. He glanced over at his table where James always put his mail. Everything was in perfect order: the b

glanced across the room towards it. What

ertained,-not one had thought to invite him to the Christmas dinner. A dozen families at whose houses he had often been entertained flashed across his mind. Why, years ago he used to have a half-dozen invitatio

was left out and forgotten;-yes, forgotten. A list of the people who he knew would have such reunions came to hi

ang almost of envy

y desolate,-abandoned-alone-ill! He glanced around at his pictures. They were col

ting up was a relief. He stared around him. Dead silence and stony faces were all about him. The capacious room seemed a vast, empty cavern, and

n the other;-on into the dining-room;-the bare table in the dim light looked like ice; the sideboard with its silv

ed, but the stimulant helped him a little. It enabled him to collect his i

t have any friends! He had only acquaintances. He stopped suddenly, appalled by the fact. He had not a friend in the world! Why was it? In answer to the thought the seven figures flashed into sight. He put his hand to his e

mirror. He did look at himself and he was confounded. He was not only no longer young-he was prepar

ble ebb as if the tide about his heart had suddenly sunk lower. Perhaps, it was the

not ten minutes, but ten yea

himself as he was; he now saw himself as he had been long ago, and saw how he

ere it began-in an old ho

berless good things preparing for the next day's feast. Friends were arriving from the distant railway and were greeted with universal delight. The very rigor of the weather was deemed a part of the Christmas joy, for it was known that Santa Claus with his jingling sleigh came the better through the deeper snow. Everything gave the little boy joy, particularl

low, and his father and mother moving

be free from the drudgery of books and the slavery of classes, and should be able to start for home with the friends who had leave to go with him. How slowly t

feel again the thrill that set him quivering with delight;

used somehow to be warming, not chilling, in those days; and then, through the growing dusk, the first sight of the home-light, set, he knew, by the mother in her windo

ke a sort of pervading warmth, the fact that that day Christ came in

in his office flashed across Livingstone's mind like a sudden light. It lit up the faces of many whom Livingstone had not thought of for years. The

man in the chair put his hand to his eyes to try and hold the b