On Christmas Day In The Evening

"The Fernald family alone will fill the church," observed the bachelor son of the house, Ralph. He leaned out from his place at the tail of the procession to look ahead down the line, where the dark figures showed clearly against the snow. By either hand he held a child -- his sister Carolyn's oldest, his brother Edson's youngest. "So it won't matter much if nobody else comes out. We're all here -- 'some in rags, and some in tags, and some in velvet gowns'."

"I can discern the velvet gowns," conceded Edson, from his place just in front, where his substantial figure supported his mother's frail one. "But I fail to make out any rags. Take us by and large, we seem to put up rather a prosperous front. I never noticed it quite so decidedly as this year."