The Cecil Whig., 1885-12-26

! fires in the western sky, had gone out,
nothing was heard under the thatched
roof but an evening hymn, a prayer,
and then the light and quiet breathing
of the sleeping fisherman and his son.
In the morning the goats bleated in
their stall for fodder, and throughout
the day the father and son made no
more noise in the world than the waves
which beat against the side of their
little boat.
The fisherman did not like going up
to the castle. He was one of the Bo-
hemian Brethren, who always loyed
quiet and retirement and the baths
and bad language which he heard at
the castle he detested as a cart horse
does the buzzing, singing flies. When
he had to take fish up to the castle he
meyer allowed his boy who helped him
to carry the fish, to enter the court
yard, but always made HIM wait out
side the gate till the cook had weighed
his carp and trout, and paid for them
My head and my heart thought the
good man, ARE too old to dance to
this music but my Toni does not yet
stand so firm
1t happened one Christmas eve, that
as Toni was leaning against the post at
the castle-gate, and whistling, the Bar
oness called him into the house, put a
heavy piece of gold into his hand, and
said, Toni, run quick down to Zwiesel
to the grocer's, and buy SIX pounds of
wax-lights. We have a banquet aud
dance tonight, and the yard dog has
bitten the scullion.'
The boy got leave from his father
and ran down to the little town, which
stands by the river that runs out of the
lake. There had as yet fallen no
snow this year the birds were singing
in the hedges, and the mountain shin
ing in the sun. There was fine weather
too, at the grocer's; he was IN
friendly, and, together with the long
white candles, gave the boy three
small coloured ones, saying, Toni, you
may light those tonight in honour of
Christmas and this gingerbread you
can share with your father. When the
family at the castle are gone he may
bring his fish to me again The boy
| was pleased with his Christmas-box :;
and although the way home was up
hill he took half-an hour less to do it
than before. At the castle he received
a slxpence for his trouble, which he
brought to his father.
The father wished to keep Toni's
candles and burn them one at a time :;
but Toni thought that one ought to do
something in honour of Christmas eve,
and he got his own way. He made
little stands of soft clay, stuck the col
cured candles into them, and as soon
as it got dusk he lighted all three to-
9ether; SO that the little hut had never
been SO brightly lighted up since it
was built. He sat and watched them
burning, and his father read aloud the
two first chapters of St. Luke's Gospel.
And then they ate their gingerbread
with their evening coffee.
Outside the hut, on the bench where
the fisher man used to mend his nets,
there sat in the moonlight an angel of
the Lord. The night was cold but
the angels nature is different from
ours, and they are never cold, even
among the ice-mountains over which
the northern lights play. This angel
had received the command to guard the
fisherman and his hut What there was
to guard it from he did not know for,
although there may have been some
things in the hut which moth and rust
could corrupt, there was nothing which
thieves could break through after and
steal. And no storm was threatening !;
the sky was thick with star, the
lake under it was like glass Birror,
in which the white lights dpheaven and
the yellow ones which cleaned in the
castle windows @ere reflected. Neither
was there any danger Of fire, for the
last ashes were quickly going out on
the hearth. But the holy angels are
obedient, and the one who now sat un-
seen at the fisherman door said in his
heart, IF l know not what have to do
or to guard here, the Lord of Hosts,
who hath sent me knoweth.'
Meanwhile the chief of the evil an
gels, Satan, was i'll at ease in his wan
derings that night. If he drew near q
church, light shone from the windows,
the organ sounded, and the people
singing, Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace If he looked
through the believed windows into a
brightly lighted room he saw nothing
| but Christmas-trees and Managers, and
little golden angels, and innocent chill
dren who clapped their hands with de-
light. If he put his hea d in at tavern
window all was dark and still So at
last he got quite out of temper and
mounted on the back of the North
Wind, which carried him up the valleys
that lead to the foot of the Arber.
There, in the underground caverns of
the mountain, he meant to hide his
rage Near the isherman's hut the
wind set him down but when he turn
ed the corner of rock and saw the
brilliantly lighted castle before him, he
changed his mind, and said to himself,