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Written for Burke’s Weekly. THE CHRISTMAS ANGEL. fT was Christmas-eve. George and Frank and their little sisters were all assembled in the same bright sitting-room, to the visit of the Christmas Angel, which had been promised by Pelz-Nickel. Their papa and mamma and Cousin Herbert were in the drawing-room adjoining, the door of which had been mysteriously closed all the afternoon, and the children forbidden to approach it. George and Frank were whispering and laughing in a corner, and George had something wrapped in a bundle, which he had refused to show to his little sisters, telling them that they must wait until their father and mo ther and Herbert came in. Very soon one of the folding doors was opened a very little ways, and the three favored ones made their ap pearance, closing the door carefully after them. “ Oh, ho! Master Herbert,” said Frank; “ George has found something, and we know who old Pelz-Nickel was!” “You do, eh! master Frank? and how did George and you find it out?” “Why,” said master George, “I more than half believed that night that you were Pelz-Nickel, and this afternoon mamma sent me up to your room to get something for her out of the bu reau drawer, and I found this and all of Pelz-Nickel’s other things in the drawer.” And lie triumphantly brought forth the fur cap, which had so excited Frank’s wonder. “Well, little ones,” said Herbert, “you have fairly found me out. And so, as Pelz-Nickel was a humbug, you would’nt believe in Christkinchen now if you were to see him, and I suppose that I had bet ter tell you a little German story about him instead of waiting for you to sec him, after which we will see the wonders of the drawing room.” “Oh do, Cousin Herbert,” exclaimed all together, and they prepared to listen. u ht was on the holy Christmas-eve that a poor woman sat with her two children in the narrow little room of a small house in the suburbs of a city in Germany. “The father of the children died, after he had been sick a long time and had earned nothing. Therefore the family in great w T ant. But the mother could not work, for she was obliged to stay by BURKE’S WEEKLY. the youngest child, and to care for and nurse it, because it was always sick. So the poor mother sat and cried secretlv, for she had no wood to warm the cham ber with, and on the day on which every thing rejoices, and all parents light a Christmas tree for their little ones, she must sit in the dark, because the last oil in her lamp was burnt out. “When now the elder boy heard his mother sobbing, he fell upon her neck and said : “‘Ah, mother! if we only had a light! If I could only see }’Ou ! I believe I would no longer be cold then, and you would »aggaa- — not weep any more if you could see your children.’ “ Then the poor woman’s heart almost broke with grief, and she put her hand in her pocket and said : “‘Now! go, then, my child, and bring oil. Here you have my lastgroschen.* I wished to buy bread with it to-morrow, but who knows whether the hoty Christ will not bestow bread upon us in another way.’ “ The boy took the money and ran off with it, and looked on the right and on the left in hopes that he could see a Christmas tree burning behind a bright window. But in this street lived none but poor people, and most of the houses were dark, except here and there glim * A piece of money, worth between two and three cents. mered an oil lamp through small, dim panes of glass. I artlier and farther ran the boy, and came into large, broad streets, where one store ranged itself after another, out of which bright lights beamed towards him. In the high houses lived only rich people, for everywhere gleamed through the large window panes glittering Christmas trees. “ Then he came to the market, where stall after stall stood, and he could not wonder enough at all the splendid things which were there offered for sale—the uveet dainties, the bright-colored play- things, the burning Christmas trees- He ran to and fro, looked here and there, and was so happy that he did not feel how his hands and feet were benumbed with cold. “ At length he came to a booth which was illuminated particularly brightly, and before which many men had col lected. When he saw into it he was bewildered, for he beheld here exactly before him everything that his mother had so often told him, of the birth of the holy Christ-child, formed finely and skilfully out of wax. In a stall sat the Virgin Mary, who held the in fant Jesus upon her lap; before her the shepherds knelt and prayed; round about lay cows and sheep, and over the child hovered waxen angels, with waxen wings. He had never before seen anything so beautiful, and he i might have stood and wondered long | but that he was pushed away by men crowding near, and suddenly remem bered that his mother sat at home in the dark with his little sister, and that he ought to carry the oil. “ But how terrified he was when he felt that the grosehen had fallen out of his benumbed hand. He began to cry aloud, although the men pressed around and near to him, and bought, and passed hurriedly along with the purchased splen dors in their hands. Still no one asked what ailed him—he remained unnoticed in his distress. “So he now went slowly back again through the illuminated streets, and look ed neither to the right hand nor to the left, for nothing made him joyful now, until lie arrived at length again in the dark street where his mother lived. u When he now reflected how sad his mother would be over the lost groseken, he could not resolve to go home, but seated himself upon a large stone, and wept bit terly. “‘Ah!’ thought he, ‘the Christ-child brings joy to all men today; only my 205