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4 (1394) TBI
Family I
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
No more the reedy syrinx trills
By Jordan's marshes weedy;
The shepherd's harp no longer thrills
The caverns of En Gedi.
No more shall Pan, by lonely lakes
From thickets pipe his story.
In upper air new chorus wakes?
"To God on high the glory."
One single snowflake flutters past,
Yet pauses, as to borrow
A respite, ere It join, at last,
An earth of sin and sorrow.
Though Jordan's valley yet be warm
And safe from winter's anger,
in neuron s ouks ine rising storm
Exults with iron clangor.
Now Bethlehem's pilgrims, one by one,
Are gathering for the taxing,
Till khan and courtyard overrun
With numbers ever waxing.
And aged man and tender wife?
Such mercy finds the stranger?
Too weak to win a place by strife,
Seek refuge in the manger.
Across her face, a shade of pain,
A light of tender blessing.
To read her tlioughts, how very vain,
Too deep her heart for guessing.
In places twain the cliff were cleft,
And now, the starlight, creeping
Down through the rifts, to right and left,
Reveals an Infant, sleeping.
The dark-faced shepherds' gathered bands
By night their flocks are tending.
The Magi from unwonted lands
Their star-led way are wending.
The \xrnrlH in oleen fnii'otc fta ah am a
And lets its strife expire.
Nor sees the upper air aflame,
Nor hears the angel choir.
The star descends from furthest sky,
Obedient to its sender;
The angels hasten from on high,
Thtir homage due to render.
The shepherds leave their flocks astray,
Sale in the Master's keeping.
The Wise Men wend their midnight way
To find an infant sleeping.
The angel bands are ranged to left.
To right the star is gleaming;
Their radiance through each rocky cleft
Within the cave is streaming.
Two golden bars of light they throw,
And there can be beholden
Upon the floor, their blended glow?
A cross of glory, golden.
The shepherd* kneel with claspgd hands,
Their infant Lord adoring.
Tho Magi, gifts frcia foreign lands
Before the Babe are pouring.
They offered gems and golden store?
When lo! the Heaven-born Child,
Disdaining all, upon the floor
Behold the cross?and smiled.
Marlinton. ?Rev. A. 8. Rachal.
No submission is valid until it follows our utmost
endeavor. Action is the father of true submission.
No energy is blessed which does not
carry in it, latent, the spirit of final submissive
resignation.?Henry Ward Beeober.
PKIIBffIBI1N F THE 8<
headings
ANTHONYS SILVER FOX.
A Christmas Lksson of ^he Labrador.
The capture of a fox would not be considered
au eveui yi cA-trcLue liiipuriunce iu must countries,
but in Labrador it may be and has been
more than once the event of a life-time. If the
fox is red, or white, or blue, or cross, or patch,
even in Labrador it means little enough, but
if it is a silver, and especially if it be black beyond
the shoulders, then it looms very large
on the horizon of a northern settler's economy.
And Anthony Dyson had really caught one.
Yes, there it was. He had just taken it out of
his "nonny" bag, and it lay on the floor of his
humble home, a mass of frozen hair and ice.
A solid ball like a real Christmas cake, only
with dark black hairs protruding through tbe
frosting. For the ice must be thawed off carefully,
not to injure the beautiful long hairs.
The veriest tenderfoot would not try to knock
it off with a tomahawk, as from a common
skin.
Early in November, before the "runs" between
the outer islands were quite caught fast,
long after the beets or fishing schooners had
winged their way south, Anthony and his man
Chesley had worked their little boat through
the slob ice to a large island lying off in the
Atlantic, in order to tail their traps and prospect
for chances of winter game. They had carried
with them, as they always did in the boat,
their sleeping bags and some food, in case they
were benighted. For they were careful men,
having little ones at home depending on them.
It was, however, this very fact which now betrayed
them. The northern sky loomed very
angry when they left, and in their little sailing
skiff they had shipped enough water to
wet their clothing well before they landed on
Sandy point. It seemed too hard to turn back
now; so, hoping against better judgment that
the weather would get no worse, they hauled
their boat above high water line, while they
went around the big, long island tailing their
traps. They had calculated on having plenty
of time to recross the arm of the sea before
dark. But, alas! even before they got back
to their boat the sky broke and a hurricane
of wind leaped down upon them, so that the
water was in an instant a mass of smoke and
drift. The intense cold froze about their already
wet clothing. They tried to keep moving,
searching the island for shelter from the
storm, but finding none. The snow on the
ground which they depended on in winter for a
night's lodging when traveling, was not deep
enough to be any material help, and was wet
and soggy from the driving salt spray. Capsizing
their boat, they crept in beneath it into
their sleeping bags. But these, too, were wet
with the spray and as soon as they lay down
their own clothes froze solid, so that they were
obliged to get out and walk down near the
breakers, so that the driving salt spray might
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a crab'8 shell.
It was too cold to eat, and though they had
dry matches in bottles, like the careful hunters
they were, the wind force made a fire utterly
impossible. A hare they had killed that day
was as hard as a piece of iron, and they were
too cold and wretched to break it and eat it
raw.
NIGHT OP TORTURE AND UNCERTAINTY.'
All night they walked up and down and up
and down in the dark. Returning one time to
) U T B [ December 25, 1912
look for their boat, they found that the gale
had piled the sea so high that she was actually
rolling over in the surf, and with her their few
remaining things were gone, including their ax
and kettle. They could do nothing then to save
them. Still, fortunately, the wind was on
shore; so that when daylight broke and the
tide fell the boat was ten yards up the beach.
Oars and contents were all gone, and she her
self lay a miniature iceberg, with many inches
of frozen spray making her almost unrecognizable.
Painfully they dragged her beyond the
reach of the sea; for if she were lost, with her
would go any chance of ever seeing their homes
and loved ones again. Even if the women and
children had endeavored to come and look for
them, it would have been impossible for them
to launch the big trap boat in the absence of
any men. And they knew well the men had
all left for their winter homes long .ago. All
this long day the fierce storm continued to
sweep over the devoted island, until every high
pinnacle and every blade of vegetation was
covered with snow or was thick with frozen
glitter. Soon after the first streak of daylight
they were able to find a niche in the rocks under
the lea of the island where they could remove
their clothes and beat out the ice. But
they found nothing to make a fire with, and
had to be content again to put on their frozen
apparel to thaw out against the heat of their
bodies if possible. For food they could only
nibble a piece of hard bread, the best friend of
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r vu <uo u UO?CID, I.U1 11/ IS
cheap and cannot freeze and become useless.
By dark that night Chesley, the younger of
the two men, was fast showing signs of failing,
and it took all Anthony's spare energy
to rouse and hearten him. Unfortunately the
lad had been reared as one of a large family,
and in his boyhood had never really been able
to obtain the nourishing food a growing boy requires.
While escaping the fate of two of his
Drothers, who had for this reason fallen victims
to consumption, he had nevertheless grown up
with a diminished vitality, and the few months
of better living in Anthony's house had not yet
brought to him the vital energy he should have
had.
The next was indeed a horrible night for
both of the men, and doubly so because of what
they knew it meant to those in the cottage
across the strip of water. Anthony declares
that with him the night went quickly, and he
remembers little personal suffering. The need
to keep his companion on the move and to keep
stimulating him not to give up, lie down and
die, apparently diverted his attention from
himself. But he admits that every now and
again his spirit traveled over those foaming
billows, and just as really as if his body had
been able to conquer material circumstances,
he seemed to be watchincr hi? lnv*d nnw in Viio
own home. So real was the impression that he
seemed almost puzzled as to where he actually
was, and he positively expected at times that
his next footstep would land him in his own
home.
X VISION OF THE AGONY OF LOVED ONES.
He was perfectly conscious of his young wife
in her agony of doubt, wrestling with God, rathr
er than "saying her prayers," that his own life
miflrht. ho onnro/I Ho L' ,e ?
? WW M? unvi UCCU IllIUHUil I DO
self-opinionated to ask for divine help against
a physical storm, even all through that long
night. Without actually confessing it to himself,
he had been dominated by a resentment
in his own mind against any idea that he was
not master of his own life and his environment.
Hut the vision of his stricken wife seemed to
soften his heart, and now, without any particular
consciousness of humbling himself, he cried
for mercy to God; first for the almost helpless