Yet have I brought a gift the Child
      May not despise, however small;
    For here I lay my heart to-day,
      And it is full of love to all. 
    Take Thou the poor but loyal thing,
    My only tribute, Christ, my King!

THE COMING OF THE PRINCE

I

“Whirr-r-r! whirr-r-r! whirr-r-r!” said the wind, and it tore through the streets of the city that Christmas eve, turning umbrellas inside out, driving the snow in fitful gusts before it, creaking the rusty signs and shutters, and playing every kind of rude prank it could think of.

“How cold your breath is to-night!” said Barbara, with a shiver, as she drew her tattered little shawl the closer around her benumbed body.

“Whirr-r-r! whirr-r-r! whirr-r-r!” answered the wind; “but why are you out in this storm?  You should be at home by the warm fire.”

“I have no home,” said Barbara; and then she sighed bitterly, and something like a tiny pearl came in the corner of one of her sad blue eyes.

But the wind did not hear her answer, for it had hurried up the street to throw a handful of snow in the face of an old man who was struggling along with a huge basket of good things on each arm.

“Why are you not at the cathedral?” asked a snowflake, as it alighted on Barbara’s shoulder.  “I heard grand music, and saw beautiful lights there as I floated down from the sky a moment ago.”

“What are they doing at the cathedral?” inquired Barbara.

“Why, haven’t you heard?” exclaimed the snowflake.  “I supposed everybody knew that the prince was coming to-morrow.”

“Surely enough; this is Christmas eve,” said Barbara, “and the prince will come to-morrow.”

Barbara remembered that her mother had told her about the prince, how beautiful and good and kind and gentle he was, and how he loved the little children; but her mother was dead now, and there was none to tell Barbara of the prince and his coming,—­none but the little snowflake.

“I should like to see the prince,” said Barbara, “for I have heard he was very beautiful and good.”

“That he is,” said the snowflake.  “I have never seen him, but I heard the pines and the firs singing about him as I floated over the forest to-night.”

“Whirr-r-r! whirr-r-r!” cried the wind, returning boisterously to where Barbara stood.  “I’ve been looking for you everywhere, little snowflake!  So come with me.”

And without any further ado, the wind seized upon the snowflake and hurried it along the street and led it a merry dance through the icy air of the winter night.

Barbara trudged on through the snow and looked in at the bright things in the shop windows.  The glitter of the lights and the sparkle of the vast array of beautiful Christmas toys quite dazzled her.  A strange mingling of admiration, regret, and envy filled the poor little creature’s heart.