the local milliner's store. How many she had composed, and how many of
them (said Mrs. Popham) might have been rejected, nobody knew, though
there was much speculation; and more than one citizen remarked on the
size of the daily package of mail matter handed out by the rural
delivery man at the parsonage gate.

No one but Mrs. Larrabee and Letty Boynton were in possession of all
the thrilling details attending the public appearance of these works
of art; the words and letters of appreciation, the commendation, and
the occasional blows to pride that attended their acceptance and
publication.

Mrs. Larrabee's first attempt, with the sketch of Letty at the window
on Christmas Eve, her hearth-fire aglow, her heart and her door open
that Love might enter in if the Christ Child came down the snowy
street,--this went to the Excelsior Card Company in a large Western
city, and the following correspondence ensued:

MRS. LUTHER LARRABEE,
_Beulah, N.H._

DEAR MADAM:--

Your letter bears a well-known postmark, for my father and
my grandfather were born and lived in New Hampshire, "up
Beulah way." I accept your verses because of the beauty of
the picture that accompanied them, and because Christmas
means more than holly and plum pudding and gift-laden trees
to me, for I am a religious man,--a ministerial father and
three family deacons saw to that, though it doesn't always