Betty leaned against her mother’s shoulder within the happy circle of her arm.
“You too,” she whispered, “just like we always do?”
“Yes, darling, in our own way.”
The child’s glance went round the room, taking in the joyful faces that smiled back at her in friendly fashion; then she met her father’s eyes, and, reaching out, she took his hand in hers, drawing it close, until it rested on that other hand above her heart. A moment later she began to sing in her sweet little thread of a voice:
“‘I saw three ships come sailing in,
On Christmas Day—on Christmas Day,
I saw three ships come sailing in,
On Christmas Day in the morning.’”
Elisabeth Shawe took up the next verse:
“‘Oh! they sailed into Bethlehem,
On Christmas Day—on Christmas Day,
Oh! they sailed into Bethlehem,
On Christmas Day in the morning.’”
It was Betty’s turn:
“‘And all the bells on earth shall ring
On Christmas Day—on Christmas Day,
And all the bells on earth shall ring
On Christmas Day in the morning.’”
Again there came the fuller, richer tones of the sweet antiphony: