"'He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us, every one!'"
There was a great deal of applause, as the reader concluded, made his bow and left the platform, and there was more, again, when Mr. Alden in due form put a vote of thanks to Mr. Graeme for the pleasure he had given them, adding a few words on true Christmas-keeping, in his own terse and characteristic way.
Nora found her particular trio as the assemblage broke up. "Oh, wasn't it splendid!" was Lizzie's enthusiastic verdict, as Miss Blanchard asked how they had enjoyed it. "My! doesn't Mr. Graeme read beautiful! It was just like as if we could see it all!"
And Lizzie's eyes were glistening still, with the pleasure caused by the new mental pictures called up by the reading that had carried her, for a brief space, out of the ruts and grooves of her monotonous life. Nelly, too, looked as if she had, for once, been interested in something outside of herself, and even Jim admitted, in a sort of reluctant, awkward way, that the entertainment was "first-class."
"Yes, indeed, miss," added Lizzie, who thought Jim was hardly effusive enough in his appreciation, "Jim was real tickled at that Christmas dinner Mr. Graeme read about—and all the rest of it."
"I was afraid you were giving us a little too much of what was intended for a different class of readers," said Mr. Alden to Roland, as they all walked home together, while Grace, arm in arm with Nora, was artlessly expressing her enjoyment of Mr. Graeme's reading.
"I suppose it mightn't have been a good thing if we had had a more thoughtful audience; as it was, it didn't hurt them, and it pleased me to do it!" replied Roland, laughing. "But, anyhow, if we can't wake up the rich, why mayn't we wake up the poor?"
"Let the horrors of the French Revolution answer that question, once for all!" returned Mr. Alden. "'That boy Ignorance,' you know, can be a real devil when he is roused, and though a thunder-storm may sometimes have to come, we don't want to play tricks to bring it down. There is enough to wake up the poor to, in regard to their own shortcomings. Let us try to wake each class up as to what lies in its own power to reform!"
Roland again undertook to escort Miss Blanchard from Mr. Alden's house to her own door.