The story is about a young schoolmaster and his wife, who are very poor. The schoolmaster's wife has just given birth to their first baby. Although overjoyed to have a child, the schoolmaster feels worried about the future, because he is very poor. He does not know how he will provide for his family.
He falls asleep while reading a book, and as he is sleeping, he dreams someone is knocking at the door. In his dream he opens the door and sees a child standing in the snow outside, shivering. He brings the child into the house and feeds him and gives him a bath and warm clothing. When the child has been cared for, the schoolmaster asks what his name is, and the child tells him his name is Jesus.
The dream ends and the schoolmaster goes upstairs to hold his new baby. Meanwhile his wife has fallen asleep and is dreaming a dream of her own. She dreams she is a corsage of simple, sweet flowers, lying in a basket with hundreds of others. The other corsages are not as weathered and are more elegant than herself in her corsage form.
In her dream, she sees her husband's face bending over the basket, looking at all the corsages. Oh dear, she thinks to herself, what if he doesn't know which one is me, since I'm a corsage! But somehow he does know, and he chooses her and gives her a kiss, and wakes her up. She opens her eyes and there he is, smiling.
But during the night, the baby passes away unexpectedly. The schoolmaster's wife can't believe the baby is gone.
