DEB. : 205

Heaven dropped and blinded her, on that bewildering, beau-
tiful, blessed ride.

- In just an hour the sleigh was there, with the easiest
cushions, and the warmest robes, and bells,— the merriest
bells ! — and the straight young lady. And Jim McMahoney
was there, and he carried her down stairs to “set” her. And
her mother was there, and wrapped her all about in an old
red shawl, for Deb had no “things,” like other little girls.
The young lady had remembered that, and she had brought
the prettiest little white hood that Deb ever saw, and Deb’s
face looked like a bruised day-lily bud between the shining
wool, but Deb could not sce that ; and Mrs. McMahoney was
there, paring onions at the door, to wish her good luck ; and
all the little McMahoneys were there, and all the children
who did not wonder, and the grocer turned in at the alley
corner, and the baker stopped as he turned out, and every-
‘body stood and smiled to see her start. The white horse
pawed the snow and held up his head, — Deb had never seen
such a horse, — and the young lady gathered the reins into
her brown gloves, and the sleigh-bells cried for joy, — how
they cried !— and away they went, and Deb was out of the
alley in a minute, and the people in the alley hurrahed,
and hurrahed, and hurrahed to see her go.

That bewildering, beautiful, blessed ride! How warm the
little white hood was! how the cushions sank beneath her,
and the fur robes opened like feathers to the touch of her
poor thin hands! How the bells sang to her, and the snow-