"Now, I'm going to speak my piece."
He walked to the middle of the room and made a low, circular bow. In the effort to recall that "piece" he had spoken the year previous in Sunday-school, his brow puckered and his grey eyes took on a look of intense thought. His emphasis fell in strange places:
"'Twas the night before Christmas
An' all through the house
Not-ta creature . . . was . . . Was stirring
Not-teven a mouse . . . not-teven a mouse . . .
Not-teven a mouse!"
All efforts to remember further having proved vain, Lollie, far from being embarrassed, bowed low again with the poise of one who has recited brilliantly, and took his seat amid the applause. . . .
Harlan rose at last to say goodnight. From Loll's bunk, where she was helping the sleepy boy to bed, Ellen called after him her Christmas wishes. Jean slipped into her coat and followed the young man out to the porch.
The night had turned wondrously clear, but it did not seem cold to the two who stood silently looking out on its beauty.
"Never was there such a night for Christmas carols, Gregg," said the girl after some minutes had gone by. "Wait."
She darted into the cabin and returned almost immediately with her violin tucked beneath her coat.
"I may never have a chance like this again. . . . I'm going up as far as the Lookout with you. Come."
They climbed up through the white, star-lit silence to the top of the hill. From the height they looked down through the weird half-light reflected from the snow. The formless waters kissed the ermine-wrapped shores of the Island. The sweet, hoarse voice of the sea had in it the cadence of happy child calls. There was an effect of illimitable space, of wonderful freedom. Up from the north into the night-blue bowl of the sky mystic lights unfurled themselves in pulsing, wreathing chiffon-like streamers of changing rose and violet, green and amber, red and gold—unfurled . . . trembled . . . rippled into opal splendor, and then swiftly and softly swept across the heavens and entangled themselves in the calm, friendly stars that looked down on Kon Klayu.