To touch their harps of gold.”
What was Mother doing? She had lighted the lamp on the parlor table, but what was keeping her now?
“Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled:
And still their heavenly music floats
O’er all the weary world.”
Dora looked up at the sky. The moon was so bright that only the largest stars could show to-night. There was Orion with his flaming belt and sword. Dora knew several star-groups now. She and Uncle Dan and Olive had gone out one night with a flash-light and the star-book from the Public Library and traced them. Still, Mrs. Merrill did not come.
“Father,” asked Dora, “do you think angels come down to earth now?”
“If they ever come, it is at Christmas,” said Father, and he went on humming the words which were now faint in the distance.