whence they came! There was a buzzing in the church, a buzzing that
grew louder and more persistent when Santa Claus threw a lace scarf
around Mrs. Larrabee's shoulders and approached her husband with a
fine beaver collar in his hands: hands that trembled, as everybody
could see, when he buttoned the piece of fur around the old minister's
neck.

And the minister? He had been half in, and half out of, a puzzling
dream for ten minutes, and when those hands of Santa Claus touched
him, his flesh quivered. They reminded him of baby fingers that had
crept around his neck years ago when he patiently walked the parsonage
floor at night with his ailing child in his arms. Every drop of blood
in his veins called out for answer. He looked above the white cotton
beard and mustache to a pair of dark eyes; merry, mischievous, yet
tender and soft; at a brown wavy lock escaping from the home-made wig.
Then those who were near heard a weak voice say, "My son!" and those
who were far away observed Santa Claus tear off his wig and beard,
heard him cry, "Father!"--and, as Mrs. Todd said afterwards, saw him
"fall on to the minister's neck right there before the whole caboodle,
an' cling to him for all the world like an engaged couple, only they
wouldn't 'a' made so free in public."

No ice but would have thawed in such an atmosphere! Grown-up Beulah
forgot how much trouble Dick Larrabee had caused in other days, and
the children had found a friend for all time. The extraordinary number
of dolls, trumpets, handkerchiefs, and Christmas cards circulating in
the meeting-house raised the temperature considerably, and induced a
general feeling that if Dick Larrabee had really ever been a bit wild
and reckless, he had evidently reformed, and prospered, besides.