"Alas," she grieved, "no gift have I for the infant Saviour. Would that I
had but a flower to place in His hand."

Suddenly Melampo stirred by her side, and as she turned again from the
manger she saw before her an angel, the light from whose face illumined
the darkness, and whose look of tenderness rested on her tear-stained
eyes.

"Why grievest thou, maiden?" asked the angel.

"That I come empty-handed to the cradle of the Saviour, that I bring no
gift to greet Him," she murmured.

"The gift of thine heart, that is the best of all," answered the angel.
"But that thou mayst carry something to the manger, see, I will strike
with my staff upon the ground."

Wonderingly Madelon waited. From the dry earth wherever the angel's staff
had touched sprang fair, white roses. Timidly she stretched out her hand
toward the nearest ones. In the light of the angel's smile she gathered
them, until her arms were filled with flowers. Again she turned toward the
manger, and quietly slipped to the circle of kneeling shepherds.

Closer she crept to the Child, longing, yet fearing, to offer her gift.

"How shall I know," she pondered, "whether He will receive this my gift as
His own?"

Berachah gazed in amazement at Madelon and the roses which she held. How