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Our Boys
CHRISTMAS BELLS.
v
By Sidney M. Youngs, In United Presbyterian.
Ring the merry Christmas bells!
Ring. ring, ring!
Peace and joy their music tells;
Ring, ring, ring!
Ring the bells around the earth;
Celebrate the Saviour's birth;
Day of gladness, day of mirth;
Ring, ring, ring!
? : L,
Ring the merry Christmas bells!
Ring, ring, ring!
Up to heaven their music swells.
Ring, ring, ring!
Ring the joy that heaven knows;
Ring the peace that heaven bestows;
Glory over earth that glows;
Ring, ring, ring!
Ring the merry Christmas bells!
Ring, ring, ring!
Send their sound to prison cells,
Ring, ring, ring!
Christ is born for you and me;
Pr'soners of sin to free;
Blinded ones to make to see;
Ring, ring, ring!
Ring the merry Christmas bells!
Ring, ring, ring!
Every one on earth who dwells.
Sing. sing, sing!
Sing the heavenly Father's love;
Sing of Saviour from above;
Of the Spirit, heavenly Dove,
Sing, sing, sing!
ME. CAETER'S "SANTA. CLAUS."
BY SUSAN WILBUR DWIGHT, IN N. Y. OBSERVER.
The sky was threatening and evening had
settled down early?as it has a way of doing
in December?the road was covered with snow,
and more began to fall, as Mr. Carter left the
railroad station and started off briskly in the
direction of his home. He was one of the best
of men, yet he was feeling distinctly out of
temper. He had been subjected to a perfectly
unnecessary delay by a business acquaintance,
and in his consequent hurry to catch his train
he had forgotten to do an important errand for
the Sunday school?he had lost his train after
all; there was no one to meet him at the station,
and he had a long walk home!
To do him justice, however, what annoyed
him the most was the forgotten errand. Only
a few days, now, before Christmas, and still his
Sunday school treat was not planned out?he
had been so busy! So he stumbled along in
the dusk. The picturesque path by the roadside
was beautiful in summer, but on a snowy
winter evening the walking was uncertain and
^ required care. He reached the corner and a
belt of dark woods stretched along. Suddenly
his foot struck something, and peering down
through the gloom, he saw the figure of a man
lying beside the road. His head was on a large
bundle and he seemed to be asleep.
"You seem tired, my friend," said Mr. Carter
kindly.
The man's worn face brightened a little as
he replied in broken English:
"Yes, sair, I walk long way. I try sell my
,tings, but none buy," he sighed.
"What have you to sell?" asked Mr. Carter.
"Oh! much leetle toys?dolls and drums?
and?everyting! I pay to bring dem to dis
country. I tought I sell dem to de peoples in
de country here and I walk many mile, but dey
say, 'We want notings,' und now I cannot go
to de ship to meet my vife and leetle girl!"
He paused sadly.
"Where are they?" asked'Mr. Carter.
"Dey come from home, and be on ship that
come on Friday next week, but I haf no
money."
tyB ESBYlflfiKl AN OF T H ? S*t>
,
and Girls
"Well, come along with me," said Mr. Carter,
"and we will see what we can do. By the
WRV tell mo vnnp noino I"
"Franz Muller, sair," said the man.
"Well, Franz, we will have some dinner first
and then things will seem better right away."
They trudged along and soon the cheery
lights of JLr. Carter's beautiful home came into
sight. Taking the tired peddler into the big
clean kitchen, Mr. Carter told him to sit by
the fire and, requesting kind-hearted Mary, the
cook, to give him some dinner, he then made
his way to his own family circle. After their
dinner was over Mr. and Mrs. Carter went to
the kitchen and interviewed the visitor. They
found him sitting by the fire looking rested and
refreshed, and pouring into Mary's ears the
story of his disappointed hopes.
"You aje so goot," he said to Mr. Carter.
"I veel better, and now I go," he said wistfully,
looking at the warm fire.
"Do not hurry," said Mrs. Carter kindly.
"May we see your toys, perhaps you have
something we need."
The man smiled and quickly opened his pack.
What pretty little toys he had! Conning foreign
dolls, little cottages, carved toys?something
for every child to like!
"Why, how charming!" said Mrs. Carter.
Then a sudden idea seized her.
"John, why couldn't these be the very things
for our Sunday school Christmas gifts f" Mr.
Carter clapped his hands.
"They are just right," he said.
"Franz, sit down again. I will buy your
whole pack," and then, after a hurried whisper
to his wife: "You may stay here with us and
spend Christmas and be Santa Claus for us, if
you will!"
The poor peddler was overwhelmed.
"May the goot Cod bless you, sair," he said.
"I pray so hart I might sell my tings and I
sell none, and I laid down to rest a leetle and
den uod send you and you do me so much
goot."
"Well, Franz, yon can do me good, and help
me, too. Now these toys, you see, are just the
things I want and I believe you will he a good
Santa Claus, too, if you can smile some," sail
Mr. Carter with a laugh.
"Oh, I smile!" said Franz, his pleasant blue
eyes lighting up. I can tink of Katrine and
keep me smiling!"
The few days before Christmas slipped by.
Mrs. Carter found Franz very useful in helping
her coachman decorate the laige square
hall and drawing rooms for the annual festival
they gave the children of their church on
Christmas eve. The men brought creeping pine
a . i ?
irom tne wooas?ana evergreens?and set up
the great Christmas tree, and between them,
under Mrs. Carter's instructions, they built a
good-sized chimney of "red brick" candy
boxes.
Mr. Carter meanwhile had been very busy,
and suddenly, two days before Christmas, made
a trip to New York, returning the next morning
looking very smiling and mysterious.
Christmas eve arrived and all was in readiness.
How gay and glistening everything was.
rru? * ?- ?.'ii- >- ? '*
iiic ucauuiin nee, wiiii us eieciric iignig
and bright decorations?the stately red chimney
at one side?and, sweetest of all, the beautiful
great, red star, and "Peace on Earth,"
in electric lights, shining above the great stairway?for
the Carters spared no expense to
U vl' b [December 20,1211
rnakfe this festival a great occasion for their
little guests. The children troop gayly in, on
the tiptoe of expectation, and are received by
their kind host and hostess.
Soon, when the lights are lowered, excepting
the one over the chimney, a mysterious "prancing
and pawing" are heard and down from
somewhere (it may have been the chimney!)
comes Santa Claus?such a fine Santa?with
a great pack on his back! lie lays all his bundles,
each so carefully done up in white paper
and holly ribbon, at the foot of the chimney, M
and with a broad, kind smile at the children,
is preparing to depart, when suddenly Mr. Cartr
appears from behind the Christmas tree.
" Children, I know before you come up to
receive these pretty gifts, which kind Santa
Claus has brought you, you will be glad to see
good Santa have a surprise himself, so 1 will
bring two presents out for him right away."
Two tall white bundles, tied around with
holly ribbons, suddenly appear from behind the
tree! Santa Claus stares!
"Untie your bundles, Santa Claus," commands
Mr. Carter.
Santa slowly obeyed. There is an expectant
hush among the company?the lights on the
Christmas tree twinkled approvingly. Then?
?:ui ? ? -
mc riuuuns ana wnite papers fall to the floor?
and?there stand poor Franz's wife Katrine
and his little girl, whom kind Mr. Carter had
met at the steamer and brought up from New
York, and whom Mrs. Carter had kept hidden
away in a cozy guest-room upstairs, resting and
waiting to surprise the happy Franz!
Oh, what a party it was! JLIow happy they
all were, but none were happier than good Mr.
and Mrs. Carter, who had long since learned
the great Christmas lesson?that "it is more
blessed, to give than to receive."
GOD'S LOVE.
Like a cradle, rocking, rocking.
Silent, peaceful, to and fro.
Like a mother's sweet looks dropping.
On the little face below.
Hangs the green earth swinging, turning.
Jarless, noiseless, safe and slow;
Falls the light of God's face bending
Down and watching uB below.
And as feeble babes that suffer
Tosn anil cr? -~L ""
. ?- ~- j ??u " 111 uui reau
'Are the ones the tender mother
Holds the closest, loves the best?
So when we are weak and wretched,
By our sins weighed down, distressed.
Then it Is that God's great patience
Holds us closest, loves us best.
O great heart of God, whose loving
Cannot h'ndered be nor closed;
Will not weary, will not even
In our death Itself be lost?
Love divine of such great loving
Only mothers know the cost?
Cost of love which, all love passing,
Gave a Son. to save the lost
Saxe Holm.
A CHRISTMAS YARN.
BY A. WOOLEN STOCKING.
"I'm what tliey call threadbare?if I were
a man or a woman thov would on*.< ~
_ j .u.u 0c*jr ucai ty worn
out,' but, being a stocking, they talk differently.
There's a hole in my heel, more than one
in my toe, and little thin streaks up and down
my leg where a stitch has dropped?no wonder,
for I have lived a long time, and yet I can see
myself now (my memory is not worn out) as
I looked on Christmas Eve many years ago,
when little Helen hung me up for Santa Claus
to fill. I can feel her little fingers pulling out
the things old Santa put in, and I can hear her
sweet, happy voice as she cried out over each
new treasure. When she got throueh I wa*
pretty limp, and my heel and toe were sticking
together with half-melted candy; I had a fig
ponltice on my knee, wjfll nearly wild with little
scraps of nutshell sticking into me, and, as