BY Pat Gassner

He was alone; utterly alone. As he walked down this lonesome street, feeling the cold bore into him like slow death, he reflected bitterly that Christmas Eve is the worst time of the year to be alone. The beauty of the scene failed to uplift his spirits, as he had hoped it might when he had left his seat before the fire.

The moonlight twinkled merrily on the newfallen snow, and in every house a Christmas tree happily bedecked with all the trimmings reminded him that he had not decorated his tree yet this year. "Why should I," he thought, "when there is no one to share it with?" He kept on walking, crushing the delicate lace-work beneath his feet into a clod of dirty, half-melted ice. An observer might think it strange that such a handsome, usually gregarious young man should be walking alone on Christmas Eve, and so it was; but he preferred it to the crushing, laughing, boring crowd and the faithless girl he had left.

A chill breeze swept through his coat straight to his chest, and he sought the sanctuary of a near-by bus shelter. As he sat rubbing his hands together to warm them, he saw the usual words and poems scratched on the walls, and in one dark corner of the room, he saw a bright blue box, gaily wrapped with red ribbon.

Moving closer to examine this windfall, he was indeed surprised to see it move! "No," he told himself, "it's just this poor light that's playing tricks on my eyes." But even as he thought this, the box moved again, and emitted a sharp "Yip!" Confused at this turn of events, he sat down again to examine the facts. Finally he came to the conclusion; "By gosh, there must be a dog in there!" Moving cautiously up to the box, he slowly began removing the ribbon which bound it. When he had finished this operation, he slowly lifted the cover of the box, and was taken aback by a golden ball of fur suddenly flying from the interior. This golden ball landed on the bench beside the box, and sat there, surveying his rescuer. He sat down beside this small, colorful package of energy, and matched it stare for stare. Then slowly the dog's mouth grew very wide in an unmistakable grin, which his rescuer also matched, and which was his first smile in days. Then this small collie puppy cocked its head to one side and perked up its ears, and its new-found beneficiary did the same. Then, with a sudden burst of movement, this bundle of joy from dogdom hurled itself against the wide chest of its newly chosen master, and, with the dog snuggled happily in his pocket, he walked home to decorate his tree.