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204 BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. MACON, GaTdEC. 28, 1807. Contents of No. 26. The Christmas Tree, by Clara Le Clerc— original —with an illustration page 201 Ring out, Wild Bells Lazy Boy, Lazy Man 202 Marooner’s Island ; by the Rev. F. R. (Moulding. Chapter XVII concluded—original 202 The Elephant—illustrated 203 Advice to Boys 203 Editorial— Now is the Time; The Close of the Year; A Story of the War; A Mistake; Renew your Subscription; Two Christmas Numbers 204 Aunt Susan's Talk with the Little Ones about Christmas—original 204 The Christmas Angel—original —illustrated 205 A Christmas Hymn—poetry - 206 A Happy Heart 206 Jack Dobell; or. A Boy’s Adventures in Texas Chapter XIX —original 206 The Golden Gate —poetry 207 Mustn’t always take People at their Word 207 Our Chimney Corner —illustrated 208 Postage on the “Weekly.” The postage on the Weekly, when paid quarterly or yearly, at the office of delivery, is five cents a quarter or twenty cents a year. NOW IS THE TIME! SPLENDID OFFERS FOR 1868! ®HE next number of the Weekly will be the first of anew year, and of the second half year of its existence. Now is the time to raise clubs for the new year, and to obtain some of the beautiful premiums oJ offered for new subscribers. In the list of premiums are to be found beautiful books, sets of Croquet and Martelle, Photograph Albums, choice Music, and Photographs of Confederate Generals, eic., Crandall’s Building Blocks, Mi croscopes, Mason & Hamlin’s Parlor Organs, etc. We are anxious to begin the new year with a largely increased list of subscribers, and to induce our little friends to work, we make the following proposition: To the boy or girl who will, between now and the first of March, send us the largest list of subscribers above ten, at club rates , we will give, as an additional premium, a complete set of implements for playing the new beautiful game of MARTELLE, worth $25; or, if preferred, the successful con testant will be allowed to select articles from the premium list, of the same value. Remember, the subscribers maybe taken at our club rates, viz : Three copies for $5 ; five copies for $8 ; ten copies for sls, or twenty-one copies for S3O. At these rates you make a fair commis sion, even if you do not obtain the extra premium, while you stand a chance of obtaining the beauti ful game of Martelle, or something equally valu able. Back Numbers. We can still supply back numbers from the be ginning of the volume. Yearly subscribers can be supplied with the first twenty-six numbers,stitch ed in an elegant illuminated cover. ts Names may be added to clubs at any time during the year, at the regular club rates. BTJRKE’S WEEKLY. Written for Burke’s Weekly. Aunt Susan’s Talk with the Little Ones about Christmas. (/jS>:HILDREN, Christmas is coining ! Oh! ow busy old Santa Claus is now, gath ering up the good things, and pretty f books, and new toys, and listening down the nursery chimneys, and about the school-room doors, and from behind the big tree upon the play-ground ; listening to find out who are good children, and who are not, and where they all live. Ah! you had better stop crying, and be pleasant and good, or some little folks might find a bunch of switches m their stock ings Christmas morning, peeping out among the dolls, and balls, and candies, or hiding behind the bright branches of the Christmas tree—and that would never do. Children, Christmas is almost here! Are those little surprise presents almost ready? But hush! don’t let mother, and lather, and dear, good grand mamma, and grandpa hear about them. Oil, how many busy little fingers there are now —every- where! —some of them hemming that soft silk handkerchief, and others finishing the comfortable slippers, or writing letters of love and remem brance to the absent ones. Work away, little fin gers ! Yes, children, Christmas will soon be here! Get those little baskets ready; you will want them early Christmas morning to put those warm stock ings in, and new shoes for those little children who are always at the Sabbath School, with their old shoes on, and no stockings at all. Then go to mother and see if the large basket is ready, and two or three of you children will have to take that to good old Mrs. (you know who,) and her orphan grand-children. It is not too full, although it is heavy, for tney need so many things to make them happy and comfortable. And be sure you put in a nicely dressed doll, and a pretty new picture book, to make those little pale faces brighten when the basket is opened. And when Christmas comes, don’t forget to fix a plate of nice dinner, and take it yourself to your dear old nurse, or the kind cook, who has been so busy for you all the morning. Who remembers last Christmas ? Think now, and then tell me what you remember about the day with most pleasure?—the pretty things you received, and the good things you ate, or those home gifts you made, and the full baskets you car ried to those cold and hungry children ? Ah, I know what makes good children really happy— doing as the dear Saviour did, “going about — (their homes as well as elsewhere,) —doing good.” Children, Christmas has come ! Let us listen ! We can almost hear from the sacred hills of Judea the echo of that sweet Christmas hymn which was begun in Heaven, and which a glorious choir of angels sung upon the plains of Bethlehem. Never let that hallelujah of “good tidings” die away, dear children. Catch the holy strain, join your voices with children of every clime, until a Christ mas hymn shall sound around the world. Happy children! welcome this blessed Saviour into your hearts, and by-and-by, when the angels are sent to carry you home, you will sing and serve with them around that Throne, where “thousands of children stand, singing— Glory ! Glory re to God on High !” ■ JSST* Remember that clubs need not all go to the same post office, or to the same State. Get them where you can. The Close of the Year. EFORE another number of the Weekly reaches its readers, the year 1867 will have passed away and the new year be cwW ushered into existence. The close of the year is a fitting time for reflection. How y) many of our little readers are better at the close of the year than they were at the begin ning of it? Have you done all in your power to make others happy during the past year? and do you enter upon the new year determined, with God’s help, to be a better boy and girl than you have been? We are living profitless lives if we allow the years to come and go without improve ment. We are obliged to become better or worse —there is no such thing as standing still. Remember that life is uncertain, and that you may not live to see another year. Strive, there fore, to improve the present, and determine, with God’s help, that the next new year, if it find you alive, shall find you the better for having lived. “ Ever, then, be up and doing, With a heart for every fate; Still achieving, still pursuing. Learn to labor and to wait.” A Story of the War. our next we shall publish the first chapter of a thrilling novellette entitled “Ellen Hunter: A Story of the War.” It is writ ?ten by a talented lady of Virginia, and is “dedicated to the Children of the South, by one who has been an eye-witness to their sorrows and their sufferings.” The story opens in Richmond, just before the beginning of the late war, and is continued to the close of the sad, but eventful struggle. A deep religious tone pervades every chapter, and the spirit and interest of the story are kept up from first to last with wonderful power. It is a tale of the war, written for the children of the South by one who loves them, and is the first of a series destined to be immensely popular. — A Mistake. SOME persons have misunderstood the offer recently made through our exchanges. We do not propose to send the numbers for the past half year, bound, in addition (7ff to the year’s subscription, but simply to a) send them stitched in a cover, instead of the unbound numbers. We shall be prepared to furnish the first twenty-six numbers in this lorm in a few days after the present issue goes to press. Renew your Subscription. who commenced with number one, jf-jlyv and subscribed for six months, are again reminded that this is the last number they will receive, unless they renew then subscriptions. Send on at once don « put it olf until your names are erased, for you then put us to the trouble of entering tin' name again, and sending you back numbers. Two Christmas Numbers! (SEVERAL articles are published in this number which were intended lor as week’s paper, but one of them came too late, and another was over-looked. H° w J ever, as this issue will reach nearly nil o our subscribers before Christmas day, the) are not out of place. So that our little readers get two Christmas numbers, instead of one.