"My
little daughter never had anything like that in all her life," said one
grateful mother as Joyce laid a doll in the child's outstretched arms.
"She'll never forget this to her dying day, nor will any of us, dear
mademoiselle! We knew not what it was to have so beautiful a Noel!"
When the last toy had been stripped from the branches, it was Cousin
Kate's turn to be surprised. At a signal from madame, the children began
circling around the tree, singing a song that the sisters at the village
school had taught them for the occasion. It was a happy little song
about the green pine-tree, king of all trees and monarch of the woods,
because of the crown he yearly wears at Noel. At the close every child
came up to madame and Cousin Kate and Joyce, to say "Thank you, madame,"
and "Good night," in the politest way possible.
Gabriel's accordion led them out again, and the music, growing fainter
and fainter, died away in the distance; but in every heart that heard it
had been born a memory whose music could never be lost,--the memory of
one happy Christmas.
Joyce drew a long breath when it was all over, and, with her arm around
Madame Desire's shoulder, smiled down at Jules.
"How beautifully it has all ended!" she exclaimed. "I am sorry that we
have come to the place to say 'and they all lived happily ever after,'
for that means that it is time to shut the book.
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