Men-folks are such cowards. I'll dress Dick while you're gone. Mebbe
it's a Providence!"

On the whole, Dick agreed with Mrs. Todd as he stood ready to make his
entrance. The School Committee was in the church and he had had much
to do with its members in former days. The Select-men of the village
were present, and he had made their acquaintance once, in an executive
session. The deacons were all there and the pillars of the church and
the choir and the organist--a spinster who had actively disapproved
when he had put beans in the melodeon one Sunday. Yes, it was best to
meet them in a body on a festive occasion like this, when the rigors
of the village point of view were relaxed. It would relieve him of
several dozen private visits of apology, and altogether he felt that
his courage would have wavered had he not been disguised as another
person altogether: a popular favorite; a fat jolly, rollicking
dispenser of bounties to the general public. When he finally discarded
his costume, would it not be easier, too, to meet his father first
before the church full of people and have the solemn hour with him
alone, later at night? Yes, as Mrs. Todd said, "Mebbe 'twas a
Providence!"

* * * * *

There was never such a merry Christmas festival in the Orthodox church
of Beulah; everybody was of one mind as to that. There was a momentary
fear that John Trimble, a pillar of prohibition, might have imbibed
hard cider; so gay, so nimble, so mirth-provoking was Santa Claus.
When was John Trimble ever known to unbend sufficiently to romp up the
side aisle jingling his sleigh bells, and leap over a front pew
stuffed with presents, to gain the vantage-ground he needed for the