30 Gleason con tin ued, turning to Miss Hughes, on her other side "What fatigue?" Miss Hughes said, hid- eously embarrassed. It had, indeed, fled awa) like the trolls and the nIXIes L L 'L- T HERE was an extra air of mys- tery about what was inside the living room, thjs ChrIstmas Eve. A great deal of whis- pering and nodding went on between Miss Strasser and Karl dur- Ing dinner; then they disappeared. I twas Mrs. Martin who cleared away the dessert dishes while the patients drank theIr coffee at the table. When at length the double doors were thrown open and the patients went slowly into the darkened living room, they not only saw what the mystery had been about but heard it. The only light came from the enor- mous decorated spruce standing in the corner by the door to the porch. Wreathing its trunk were presents of every size and shape, wrapped In tin- sel paper, in tissue paper, in white paper with red ribbon And seated fac- ing each other at a square table in the middle of the room were Miss Strasser and Karl, plaYIng on two flat instru- ments that lay before them on the table and made a plucking, buzzing mu- . " h . l ' N h I" h SIC. ... ellgr ac t. t ey sang as they played. "A lies schläft, einsam h " wac t... "Zithers!" exclained Miss Percy, who had travelled In a moment someone discovered the other surprise. Before one of the win- dows on the garden side of the living room was a low table, on which was set a large wooden crate. Inside the box, lighted by concealed candles and visible only through a round hole cut in the top, was arranged a crèche. The viewer stood looking straight down into the scene. "My Irma, she fixes it!" cried Karl as he set down his plectrum. "Alvays she fixes dir K rzppe. In de voodshed she goes and mit die Messer, de knifes, she fixes it." There was a move to turn on a lamp, but the Doctor's voice called out, " the patients, to the accompanIment of the zithers. Even Miss Diggs, sitting in the most comfortable chair, was singing, too, in a baritone voice. "Late in time behold him come," she boomed. "Victim of the Virgin's womb." Mrs. Gleason, seated besIde Miss Diggs, glanced at her with some surprise. But Miss Diggs sang right on, oblivious as usual of anybody but herself. Miss Hughes was still staring down into the scene of the Nativity. She had forgotten what her vision in the barn had been about, but she had had another vision A#I to make up for Ît-a Vi vision about visions She might not be able to re- mem ber to be spiritual, she thought; she mIght he disorganized and neurotic and unstable and formless and every- thing awful; but the form that her formlessness took was that its swinging tides would always bring her something new. "Come on, now, the third verse," the Doctor's voice called encouragIngly. "But I don't know the third verse! " Miss Percy cried, much agitated. "Fake it," the Doctor commanded. "Make it up. 'Born that man no more mav die,' " he sang, off key, with im- mense gusto. "'Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second b . h ' " 1 rt ... "Oh, Doctor, it's all so beautiful," Miss Percy breathed when the music had died away "We mustn't break the spell. Can't we an steal away to our rooms now, and then, tomorrow-" "Pish," said the Doctor. "Mrs. Mar- tin! Let's have a little light on the sub- ject." -NANCY HALE O\,Jt N <, (\ J( C H.. .. 2. 40 LOGr ..... 2. .40 gAle. ..... a.80 ---.. """'\ ) tl)) __ ,S -r (( (þ \ :7 1 s;' ' n ø 6 ,. - :g-- l "1;I? htch commandment are they up to?" . . ('Leave it be. We'll sit by the light of the tree for awhIle." The patients began finding chairs. Miss Strasser nodded to Karl and picked up her plectrum again "A ch, now ve play de Mendelssohn, ja?" Karl said joyfully. He nodded and smIled to his wife, who had come and stood leaning against the doorway into the living room, a bulky figure beaming in the flickering light. " 'Hark! the herald angels sing,' " Miss Strasser began, and by the middle of the first verse most of the patients had summoned the courage to join in. Miss Hughes went over to the WIn- dow and stood looking down into the candlelit world within the wooden box. The animals whose habitation was the scene for the tiny, eternal event in time stood around its outer edges; human witnesses, the simple and the very wise, were ranged in an inner ring; and in the center a mortal mother sat united with her immortal child. Suddenl) Miss Hughes had the feeling that Christmas, to which she had looked forward with such anticipation, had in fact already come, last Saturday. What was It I realized that afternoon in the barn, she asked herself. But for the life of her she could not rememher. " '. . . the everlasting Lord,' " sang . The Cadillac Eldorado Brougham, fea- turing four headlights, the first air sus- pension system on an American car and a 325-horsepower engine, was announced yesterday by the Cadillac division of Gen- eral Motors Corp.... The Brougham (rhymes with home) was designed in 1954 as Cadillac's "dream car" for the 1955 General Motors Motorama.... It fea- tures pillarless four-door styling and an over-all height of only 5.55 inches.- T he Herald Tribune. Rhymes with pinches.