Almost in silence, Christmas and his daughter trod the familiar churchyard paths once again together, trodden so many hundreds of times by them both; but never as now. He bore his beloved burden, groaning heavily from time to time. If he lost this disowned grandson, he felt as though his heart must break. They laid Chrissie in his grandfather's own bed, and both of them watched beside him all night. The doctor, who had to be brought from his home five miles off, and who could not reach them till the day was breaking, told them that Chrissie was suffering from the effects of a severe shock, but that there was no reason to dread any abiding and serious results, if he was treated with common care. Common care! It was no common care that was lavished upon the boy by Christmas. All the pent-up tenderness of these long years overflowed upon Chrissie and upon his daughter, now she was at home again. To his great amazement, he discovered that the world, so far from jeering at the reconciliation, applauded it far more cordially than it had ever done his stern resentment. He was congratulated on every hand for having taken home his daughter and her son; and old friends flocked about him again as they had not done for years. The whole village seemed to rejoice over the event. And when Christmas sent for the lad who had been Chrissie's predecessor in the old crib, and took him his word to into his own service, pledging his word to make a man of him if possible, his popularity had never stood so high. It was then, after giving up his own self-righteousness, and pulling down the wall he had built up to shut out the light of heaven, that Christmas Williams became able to learn how man can believe in God and in Jesus Christ who died for our sins. The creed he had uttered so often with his lips became the true expression of his heart. As he stood in the churchwarden's pew, reverently saying, "I believe in God the Father Almighty," and in "the forgiveness of sins," he would often glance towards Easter, who had taught him the meaning of those words; and there was nothing he loved better than to hear Chrissie's voice repeating them with him. It is probable that Christmas Williams would have been the first to have helped, churchwarden as he was, in building a chapel, where the simple Gospel of Christ could have been preached to the villagers; but there was no longer any need for it. The clergyman who soon came to occupy the place of the old rector was an earnest, true, and enlightened servant of Christ, who knew his Master's will, and was intent upon doing it. "A man can't be true," says Christmas, "until he is true towards God. I prided myself upon being a man of my word, and meaning all I said, though I spoke a lie every time I said, 'I believe.' I didn't believe in God, nor in Jesus Christ our Lord, nor in having any sins to be forgiven. A man must be made true in the darkest corners of his heart before he can be a man of his word."