Page 57 (1/2)

Silently I nodded "All right If you want to enjoy yourself at the home of your friend, that's fine, but please do your best not to rile Bart tomorrow You know his proble ideas planted in his head when he was very young Help hi him up"

"I will, Momma, I promise I will"

I closed the door and was soon saying good night to Jory He was unusually quiet "It's going to be all right, darling Just as soon as the baby is here, Melodie will see you again"

"Will she?" he asked bitterly "I doubt it She'll have the baby then to occupy her tihts She'll need me even less than she does now"

Half an hour later, Chris opened his arerly I surrendered to the only love in h to let rip on happinessdespite everything that could have ruined e had cultivated and grown in the shade

Theme out of sleep even before the alar out the s The snow had stopped Thank God for that; Bart would be pleased I hurried back to the bed to kiss Chris awake "Merry Christ Doctor Christopher Sheffield," I whispered in his ear

"I'd rather you call ," he mumbled as he came awake and looked around in a disoriented way

Detered hi for the breakfast room

For two dayswhat had been done in the summer, only this time the entire downstairs had been transformed into a Christmas fantasy

I watched with a certain indifference as the workers fro our ho all they did to turn the rooms into extraordinarily festive roo Christmas tree that outdid our family tree by ten feet

All she saw soon had Cindy convinced she didn't want to spend the better part of her day in bed She forgot Lance and loneliness, for Christic than Christmas Eve

"Look at that pie, Moe Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie," she sang, all of a sudden gloith life "Sorry I've acted ugly I've been thinking, there'll be boys here tonight, and lots of handsoive more than misery after all"

"Of course it can," Bart said as he ca as he surveyed all that had been done He seemed thrilled by his expectations "You just be sure and wear a decent dress, and don't do anything outrageous" Then he was following the work Jory, Cindy, Melodie and iven now that it was Christmas

Day after day, like soloomy shadow, Joel had trailed behind Bart, his old voice cracking as he intoned words fro, fully dressed at six-thirty, "It is easier for a cah the eye of a needle than for a rich dom of God"

"What the hell are you trying to say, old man?" shouted Bart