Karl Metzerott and Ernest Clare work and wait for the day of the Lord, hand in hand. The shoemaker has grown very gentle, and is much beloved by children, to whom he tells stories by the hour of Louis and the Christ-child, until the small minds become at times confused, as to which one it was who ’vided the tin soldiers, and invited the Prices to share his dinner of soup. But, as to the filling of the shoes at Christmas, that Karl considers a vain superstition. The fathers and mothers do it, he says, and ought to have the credit of it. He is not yet able to see that, under the old legend, the truth, in its fairest form, lies sweetly hidden; but one day, perhaps, he will see even this. Among all the children he has two favorites, the boy who was saved from the waves of the river, and Pinkie’s eldest son, who is called Louis, and who gazes into his face with blue, serious eyes, as he sits cross-legged upon the floor before the shoemaker’s bench. Well, well, Karl has no picture over his mantel-shelf wherewith to compare those eyes. He does not need one, he says. Mr. Dare is still rich and prosperous. Annie Rolf has never married. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES 1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling. 2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. 4. Denoted superscripts by a caret before a single superscript character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}. 5. Enclosed blackletter font in =equal signs=.