lamps are wonderful! all rings are talismans! Common flower-pots are
full of treasure, with a little earth scattered on the top; trees are
for Ali Baba to hide in; beefsteaks are to throw down into the Valley
of Diamonds, that the precious stones may stick to them, and be
carried by the eagles to their nests, whence the traders, with loud
cries, will scare them. All the dates imported come from the same tree
as that unlucky one, with whose shell the merchant knocked out the eye
of the genii's invisible son. All olives are of the same stock of that
fresh fruit concerning which the Commander of the Faithful overheard
the boy conduct the fictitious trial of the fraudulent olive-merchant.
Yes, on every object that I recognize among those upper branches of my
Christmas tree I see this fairy light!
But hark! the Waits are playing, and they break my childish sleep!
What images do I associate with the Christmas music as I see them set
forth on the Christmas tree! Known before all the others, keeping far
apart from all the others, they gather round my little bed. An angel,
speaking to a group of shepherds in a field; some travellers, with
eyes uplifted, following a star; a baby in a manger; a child in a
spacious temple, talking with grave men; a solemn figure with a mild
and beautiful face, raising a dead girl by the hand; again, near a
city gate, calling back the son of a widow, on his bier, to life; a
crowd of people looking through the opened roof of a chamber where he
sits, and letting down a sick person on a bed, with ropes; the same,
in a tempest, walking on the waters in a ship; again, on a sea-shore,
teaching a great multitude; again, with a child upon his knee, and
other children around; again, restoring sight to the blind, speech to
the dumb, hearing to the deaf, health to the sick, strength to the
lame, knowledge to the ignorant; again, dying upon a cross, watched by
armed soldiers, a darkness coming on, the earth beginning to shake,
and only one voice heard, "Forgive them, for they know not what they
do!"
Encircled by the social thoughts of Christmas time, still let the
benignant figure of my childhood stand unchanged! In every cheerful
image and suggestion that the season brings, may the bright star that
rested above the poor roof be the star of all the Christian world!
A moment's pause, O vanishing tree, of which the lower boughs are dark
to me yet, and let me look once more. I know there are blank spaces on
thy branches, where eyes that I have loved have shone and smiled, from
which they are departed. But, far above, I see the Raiser of the dead
girl and the widow's son,--and God is good!
THE END.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
5. Minor punctuation errors have been corrected without comment and
include missing or end of sentence comma and period errors and missing
or misplaced quotation marks.
6. Spelling Corrections:
p. 120, "wery" to "very" (and it's very much to be)
p. 128, "arter" to "after" (after all, that's where)
p. 128, "biled" to "billed" (A billed fowl and)
p. 128, "woice" to "voice" (the voice of love)
p. 168, "Joe" to "Job" (29) (And Job tumbled into his)
p. 275, "pototo" to "potato" (4) (a potato-field)
p. 277, "familar" to "familiar" (3) (a familiar voice)
7. Suspected mispellings retained as possible alternate spellings of the
time:
"amadavid bird" (amadavat bird)
"azalias" (azaleas)
"gayety" (gaiety)
"Mackarel" (Mackerel)
"plash" (splash)
"scymitar" (scimitar)
"skurrying" (scurrying)
8. Printer Error corrections:
p. 109, removed duplicate "carried" (Oeyvind carried leaves)
9. Word variations retained in the text which vary by author:
"fireflies" and "fire-flies"
"flagstones" and "flag-stones"
"nightgown" and "night-gown"
"Red Riding-Hood" and "Red-Riding-Hood"
"schoolhouse" and "school-house"
"toyshop" and "toy-shop"