It is told that in a certain great city, remote in its situation from the dwellings of men, there was a church of great renown, counted among the wonders of the world. It stood upon a high hill, and thousands of visitors, worshippers and others, came to it on Christmas Day and on the other glorious feasts.

As one draws near its outer courtyard he beholds immense stone pillars, dark passageways, and a magnificent entrance. One standing near its door cannot see to the far end of its interior, for close by its marble altar he sees the choir of singers.

In a distant corner of it stands an organ of great size, the echo of whose voice is heard by all the inhabitants of that city. In one corner of the church rose a very great tower, covered with green ivy, its head all but butting the clouds. No one had ever been able to see its summit, neither in winter nor in summer, so that people had forgotten how high it was. But they had heard from their forefathers that at its top were Christmas bells, hung there when that church was built, and counted among the most beautiful bells in the world — some even claimed that a masterly musician had arranged them and set them there.

Others said that, since they were so very high, the waves of the ether produced such musical sounds.

Yet the ringing of these bells had not been heard for a long time. One man far advanced in years said that he had heard his mother say that she heard them when she was a little girl.

It was the custom on Christmas Eve for every person to bring a gift to the Child Jesus and lay it on the altar, and when the finest of those gifts was laid down, the church's musical bells would ring at once. It was even said that the angels of heaven touch them with their hands, because of their great height, and set them pealing. And it occurred to some that neglect in

offering gifts to the little Child was the reason the bells had ceased to ring.

So the rich would race to the church on the eve of the feast, carrying gifts in their hands, each one trying to make his gift more important than his neighbor's, in the hope that the bells might ring; but nothing of the kind happened, though the divine service was complete in all its observances and the gifts abundant in number.

Now it came to pass in those days that in a village far from the site of the lofty church and its tower there lived a young boy named Pedro, with a brother younger than himself. He knew nothing of the matter