He commenced unpacking the basket and arranging the contents upon the
table: home-baked bread, pies, cakes; a package of tea, another of
tobacco; oranges, nuts, candy; warm mittens and socks that John's wife
had knit for him. She was a good woman, John's wife, kind-hearted and
thoughtful; she must have guessed how badly he needed socks and mittens
now that Martha was no longer there to make them for him. He started for
the cupboard, a pie in one hand, a loaf of bread in the other, then
stopped in the middle of the room and eyed them meditatively. What was
it Martha used to say?
"Never, never let Christmas pass without doing something for some one.
No matter how poor one may be, Tony, they're always others poorer still.
If it be no more'n a loaf of bread, give something to the poor at
Christmas time in the name of the little Babe that had none but the
shepherds to do a hand's turn for Him."
Each year he and Martha had found some one to whom they gave in the
Christ-Child's name, for the sake of the girl who was never absent from
their thoughts by day or by night. Even last year, as poor as he was, he
had met with one more needy still and sent him on his way rejoicing--a
poor lad, out of work, out of money, tramping from city to city in
search of employment. They had taken him in for Sallie's sake, given him
food and shelter, and when the boy left the farm a silver dollar, nearly
the last of Tony's small store, was pressed into his hand.
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