not help noticing the difference between the expressions of the men he
had seen down town and of those who were thronging the shops and the
sidewalks in Fifth Avenue. In Wall Street and adjacent Broadway a great
many looked like more or less discontented birds of prey looking out for
the next meal, and a few might have been compared to replete vultures;
but here all those who were not alone were talking with their
companions, and many were smiling, and now and then a low laugh was
heard, which is a very rare thing in Fifth Avenue, though you may often
hear children laughing in the Park and sometimes in the cross streets
up-town.

Then there was another eagerness in the faces, that was not for money,
but was the anticipation of giving pleasure before long, and of being
pleased too; and that is a great part of the Christmas spirit, if it is
not the spirit itself. It is doubtless more blessed to give than to
receive, but the receiving is very delightful, and it is cruel to teach
children that they must not look forward to having pretty presents. What
is Christmas Day to a happy child but a first glimpse of heaven on
earth?

Overholt glanced at the faces of the passers-by with a sort of vague
surprise, wondering why they looked so happy; and then he remembered
what they were doing, and all at once his heart sank like lead. What was
to become of the turkey and the ice-cream on which Newton had built his
hopes for Christmas? Would there be any dinner at all? Or any one to
cook it? How could he go and get things which he would not be able to
pay for on the first of next month, exactly a week after the feast? His
imagination could glide lightly over three weeks of starvation, but at
the thought of his boy's disappointment everything went to pieces, the
present, the future, everything. He would have walked all the way down