For many years afterward the musician lived on in the old place at the foot of the hill, but he never again could be prevailed upon to strike a note of any instrument or listen to a strain of any music. More rarely than ever did he speak to a soul, and then it was only at the Christmas time, to tell again of the little Alice, his spirit of sound, to tell of that wonderful _gloria_ of immortal praise sung by a multitude of the heavenly hosts, whose splendor, almost blinding to his eyes, had lighted up earth and sky over the far-off plains of Palestine, where the shepherds, centuries ago, were watching their flocks by night. Strangers heard his tale with a scarcely concealed smile, and shook their heads sorrowfully as the old man, feeble and palsied, with a singular brilliance in his sunken eyes, turned away. But all the villagers spoke of him with respect, almost with awe, and the children learned to hush their mirth in reverence as he passed by. Margery, with a face quieter than ever, said little, but served her master with an untiring devotion, and after she had closed his eyes in death, when she was an old, old woman, sometimes in the evening she would suddenly break her long silence to tell a wondering group of Franz and the little Alice, and of the mysterious melody that played about the child. And so the people of Paint Valley relate the story yet, and show the graves in the long grass of the village church-yard, where, side by side, they wait to join at the last day the throng whose immortal _gloria_ shall surpass even that grand Christmas anthem—the song of the angels heard by the shepherds upon the plains of Judea. THE END. [Illustration] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PUBLICATIONS OF JANSEN, MCCLURG & CO. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. =CATON.—A Summer in Norway=, with Notes on the Industries, Habits, etc., of the People, the History of the Country, the Climate and Productions, and of the Red Deer, Reindeer, and Elk, by Hon. J. D. CATON, LL.D. 8vo., 401 pages. Illustrated. Price, $2.50. “The tone of the book is frank, almost colloquial, always communicative and leaves a favorable impression both of the intelligence and good nature with which the author pursued his way through unknown wilds. * * They are excellent specimens of terse and graphic composition, presenting a distinct image to the mind, without any superfluous details.”—_New York Tribune._ “The book of travels, which Judge Caton has presented to the public, is of a high order of merit, and sets forth the interesting natural phenomena and popular characteristics of the land of the ‘unsetting sun’ with great strength and clearness.”—_Boston Post._