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Written for Burke’s Weekly.
THE CHRISTMAS ANGEL.
fT was Christmas-eve.
George and Frank and
their little sisters were all
assembled in the same
bright sitting-room, to
the visit of the Christmas
Angel, which had been promised
by Pelz-Nickel. Their papa and
mamma and Cousin Herbert were
in the drawing-room adjoining, the door
of which had been mysteriously closed all
the afternoon, and the children forbidden
to approach it.
George and Frank were whispering
and laughing in a corner, and George
had something wrapped in a bundle,
which he had refused to show to his
little sisters, telling them that they
must wait until their father and mo
ther and Herbert came in.
Very soon one of the folding doors
was opened a very little ways, and
the three favored ones made their ap
pearance, closing the door carefully
after them.
“ Oh, ho! Master Herbert,” said
Frank; “ George has found something,
and we know who old Pelz-Nickel
was!”
“You do, eh! master Frank? and
how did George and you find it out?”
“Why,” said master George, “I more
than half believed that night that you
were Pelz-Nickel, and this afternoon
mamma sent me up to your room to
get something for her out of the bu
reau drawer, and I found this and all
of Pelz-Nickel’s other things in the
drawer.”
And lie triumphantly brought forth
the fur cap, which had so excited
Frank’s wonder.
“Well, little ones,” said Herbert, “you
have fairly found me out. And so, as
Pelz-Nickel was a humbug, you would’nt
believe in Christkinchen now if you were
to see him, and I suppose that I had bet
ter tell you a little German story about
him instead of waiting for you to sec him,
after which we will see the wonders of
the drawing room.”
“Oh do, Cousin Herbert,” exclaimed all
together, and they prepared to listen.
u ht was on the holy Christmas-eve that
a poor woman sat with her two children
in the narrow little room of a small house
in the suburbs of a city in Germany.
“The father of the children died, after
he had been sick a long time and had
earned nothing. Therefore the family
in great w T ant. But the mother could
not work, for she was obliged to stay by
BURKE’S WEEKLY.
the youngest child, and to care for and
nurse it, because it was always sick. So
the poor mother sat and cried secretlv,
for she had no wood to warm the cham
ber with, and on the day on which every
thing rejoices, and all parents light a
Christmas tree for their little ones, she
must sit in the dark, because the last oil
in her lamp was burnt out.
“When now the elder boy heard his
mother sobbing, he fell upon her neck
and said :
“‘Ah, mother! if we only had a light!
If I could only see }’Ou ! I believe I would
no longer be cold then, and you would
»aggaa- —
not weep any more if you could see your
children.’
“ Then the poor woman’s heart almost
broke with grief, and she put her hand
in her pocket and said :
“‘Now! go, then, my child, and bring
oil. Here you have my lastgroschen.* I
wished to buy bread with it to-morrow,
but who knows whether the hoty Christ
will not bestow bread upon us in another
way.’
“ The boy took the money and ran off
with it, and looked on the right and on
the left in hopes that he could see a
Christmas tree burning behind a bright
window. But in this street lived none
but poor people, and most of the houses
were dark, except here and there glim
* A piece of money, worth between two and three cents.
mered an oil lamp through small, dim
panes of glass.
I artlier and farther ran the boy, and
came into large, broad streets, where one
store ranged itself after another, out of
which bright lights beamed towards him.
In the high houses lived only rich people,
for everywhere gleamed through the
large window panes glittering Christmas
trees.
“ Then he came to the market, where
stall after stall stood, and he could not
wonder enough at all the splendid things
which were there offered for sale—the
uveet dainties, the bright-colored play-
things, the burning Christmas trees-
He ran to and fro, looked here and
there, and was so happy that he did
not feel how his hands and feet were
benumbed with cold.
“ At length he came to a booth which
was illuminated particularly brightly,
and before which many men had col
lected. When he saw into it he was
bewildered, for he beheld here exactly
before him everything that his mother
had so often told him, of the birth of
the holy Christ-child, formed finely
and skilfully out of wax. In a stall
sat the Virgin Mary, who held the in
fant Jesus upon her lap; before her
the shepherds knelt and prayed; round
about lay cows and sheep, and over
the child hovered waxen angels, with
waxen wings. He had never before
seen anything so beautiful, and he
i might have stood and wondered long
| but that he was pushed away by men
crowding near, and suddenly remem
bered that his mother sat at home in
the dark with his little sister, and that
he ought to carry the oil.
“ But how terrified he was when he
felt that the grosehen had fallen out of
his benumbed hand. He began to cry
aloud, although the men pressed around
and near to him, and bought, and passed
hurriedly along with the purchased splen
dors in their hands. Still no one asked
what ailed him—he remained unnoticed
in his distress.
“So he now went slowly back again
through the illuminated streets, and look
ed neither to the right hand nor to the
left, for nothing made him joyful now,
until lie arrived at length again in the
dark street where his mother lived.
u When he now reflected how sad his
mother would be over the lost groseken, he
could not resolve to go home, but seated
himself upon a large stone, and wept bit
terly.
“‘Ah!’ thought he, ‘the Christ-child
brings joy to all men today; only my
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