BRET HARTE It was nearly midnight when the festivities were interrupted. Hush! said Dick Bullen, holding up his hand. It was the querulous voice of Johnny from his adjacent closet:...
F. E. MANN Founded on fact. "CHICKADEE-DEE-DEE-DEE! Chickadee-dee-dee-dee! Chicka----" "Cheerup, cheerup, chee-chee! Cheerup, cheerup, chee-chee!" "Ter-ra-lee, ter-ra-lee, ter-ra-l...
ROBERT HERRICK Kindle the Christmas brand, and then Till sunset let it burn; Which quench'd, then lay it up again Till Christmas next return. Part must be kept wherewith to teend T...
Withered leaves still clung to the branches of the oak: torn and faded banners of the departed summer. The bright crimson of autumn had long since disappeared, bleached away by the...
A swift mountain-flood rolling down its channel; a huge rock tumbling from the hill-side and falling in mid-stream; the baffled waters broken and confused, pausing in their flow, d...
OLIVE THORNE MILLER IT WAS just before Christmas, and Mr. Barnes was starting for the nearest village. The family were out at the door to see him start, and give him the last charg...
ADAPTED FROM THE BIBLE AND there were shepherds in the same country abiding in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock. And an angel of the Lord stood by them and th...
G. L. STONE AND M. G. FICKETT IT WAS a warm and pleasant Saturday--that twenty-third of December, 1620. The winter wind had blown itself away in the storm of the day before, and th...
Two years had passed, to a day, almost to an hour, since that Christmas eve in the cloister of Pfalzel. A little company of pilgrims, less than a score a men, were creeping slowly...
A CHRISTMAS STORY BY FRANCOIS COPPEE; ADAPTED AND TRANSLATED BY ALMA J. FOSTER ONCE upon a time--so long ago that everybody has forgotten the date--in a city in the north of Europe...
MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN ON Christmas Eve the Mayor's stately mansion presented a beautiful appearance. There were rows of different coloured wax candles burning in every window, an...
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN OUT in the woods stood a nice little Fir-tree. The place he had was a very good one; the sun shone on him; as to fresh air, there was enough of that, and ro...
CHARLES DICKENS MASTER Peter, and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, with which they soon returned in high procession. Such a bustle ensued that you might...
ADAPTED FROM THE RUSSIAN IT WAS the night the dear Christ-Child came to Bethlehem. In a country far away from Him, an old, old woman named Babouscka sat in her snug little house by...
RUTH SAWYER DURAND It was the night of St. Stephen, and Teig sat alone by his fire with naught in his cupboard but a pinch of tea and a bare mixing of meal, and a heart inside of h...
SUSAN COOLIDGE THE winter's sun was nearing the horizon's edge. Each moment the tree shadows grew longer in the forest; each moment the crimson light on the upper boughs became mor...
THEODORE GOODRIDGE ROBERTS ARCHER sat by the rude hearth of his Big Rattle camp, brooding in a sort of tired contentment over the spitting fagots of var and glowing coals of birch....
I. CHRISTMAS EVE. "They've come! they've come!" This was the cry of little Herbert as he ran in from the square stone which made the large doorstep of the house. Here he had been w...
The first Christmas in New England was celebrated by some people who tried as hard as they could not to celebrate it at all. But looking back on that year 1620, the first year when...
A STORY FOR CHILDREN. This is a story about some children who were living together in a Western State, in a little house on the prairie, nearly two miles from any other. There were...
CHAPTER I. Alice MacNeil had made the plan of this Christmas-tree, all by herself and for herself. She had a due estimate of those manufactured trees which hard-worked "Sabbath Sch...
MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN JIMMY SCARECROW led a sad life in the winter. Jimmy's greatest grief was his lack of occupation. He liked to be useful, and in winter he was absolutely of n...
CHAPTER I. ANOTHER GENERATION. "Here he comes! here he comes!" "He" was the "post-rider," an institution now almost of the past. He rode by the house and threw off a copy of the "B...
WINNIFRED E. LINCOLN IT WAS Christmas Eve, and Little Girl had just hung up her stocking by the fireplace--right where it would be all ready for Santa when he slipped down the chim...
I. A QUESTION OF NOURISHMENT. "And how is he?" said Robert, as he came in from his day's work, in every moment of which he had thought of his child. He spoke in a whisper to his wi...
J. H. EWING THE custom of Christmas-trees came from Germany. I can remember when they were first introduced into England, and what wonderful things we thought them. Now, every vill...
ELIA W. PEATTIE THERE were twenty-six flat children, and none of them had ever been flat children until that year. Previously they had all been home children and as such had, of co...
WINIFRED M. KIRKLAND IT WAS to be a glorious Christmas at Doctor Brower's. All "the children"--little Peggy and her mother always spoke of the grown-up ones as "the children"--were...
Fortunately we were with our wives. It is in general an excellent custom, as I will explain if opportunity is given. First, you are thus sure of good company. For four mortal hours...
ANNE HOLLINGSWORTH WHARTON "On Christmas day in Seventy-six, Our gallant troops with bayonets fixed, To Trenton marched away." CHILDREN, have any of you ever thought of what little...