are thankful. 6. Does "We are the sheep of his pasture" make you think of any other psalm? If so, which one? 7. What are the "gates" and the "courts" of the Lord? 8. What is meant by "endureth to all generations"? 9. Why are we asked in both these psalms to "sing"? How are you supposed to feel when you sing? 10. Name five things spoken of in the selection from the One Hundred Forty-seventh Psalm which God does, and tell what good comes from each. 11. Memorize both selections. Good Thanksgiving poems are "Father in Heaven we Thank Thee"; "Praise God for Wheat"; Margaret E. Sangster's "Common Mercies" and "Elsie's Thanksgiving"; Lydia M. Child's "Thanksgiving Day" (Literary Readers, Book Three); and Herrick's "Here a Little Child I Stand." The story of the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving will be found in Blaisdell and Ball's "Short Stories from American History and in Wiggin and Smith's "The Story Hour." Good Thanksgiving stories are Miss Alcott's "An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving," Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's "Ann Mary, her Two Thanksgivings" (in "Young Lucretia "), Miller's "Kristy's Surprise Party," A. C. Stoddard's "Polly's Thanksgiving," Anna Eichberg King's "Jericho Bob," and Howells's "Turkeys Turning the Tables" (in "Christmas Every Day"). R. H. Schauffler's" Thanksgiving" has in it many good poems, stories, and plays. come before his presence (près ́ençe): come where the Lord is. his gates the gates or doors that : lead to the house of the Lord; that is, to a church. his courts (courts): his house. bless here means to praise. endureth (ĕn dūr'ĕth): endures or lasts. generations (gen ĕr a ́shons): ages. ravens (rā ́vens): birds somewhat like crows. A VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS CLEMENT CLARKE MOORE [I wonder if you have ever heard any of the old stories of St. Nicholas or Santa Claus? I don't mean the story about his living at the north pole and coming in his sleigh to fill our stockings on Christmas Eve. Of course 5 you know all about that. But I mean the first stories about St. Nicholas, before he began to get mixed up with other people. St. Nicholas and Santa Claus are only different names for the same jolly old person. The people from Holland who came over the sea and settled New 10 York called him Sant Niklaas; and our grandfathers, who did n't understand Dutch, got into the way of calling him Santa Claus, which was about as near as they could pronounce it, and Santa Claus he still is. St. Nicholas was a good bishop who lived in an ancient 15 city in Asia Minor about three hundred years after Christ. In the same country was a nobleman who had lost all his wealth and had become so poor that he could not take care properly of his three daughters. This nobleman was proud as well as poor and would take no money from any one. 20 So St. Nicholas went very quietly to his house in the middle of the night and threw a purse full of gold into the window. The nobleman found it the next morning and gave it to his oldest daughter. Then St. Nicholas went another night and threw another purse of gold into the window. The nobleman found that also and gave it to his second daughter. Again St. Nicholas went by night to the nobleman's house and threw a third purse of gold 5 into the window. But the nobleman was watching for him that time and caught him by the hem of his robe, saying, "Good St. Nicholas, why are you doing this?" "Hush!" said St. Nicholas; "don't you see that you are likely to wake up the house? Say nothing, but give the 10 purse to your third daughter and all will be well." And before the astonished nobleman could say another word the saint was gone. Perhaps it is from this story that we get the idea of St. Nicholas bringing gifts in the night. At another time three boys who were going to Athens to 15 school stopped one night at an inn near where St. Nicholas lived. The innkeeper, who was a wicked and heartless sort of person, killed the three boys and put them into a tub. St. Nicholas saw the whole scene in a dream. He went to the innkeeper the next morning, told him all 20 about it, and made him confess. Then the good saint prayed very earnestly that the boys might come to life; and the story says they came to life and went happily on their way. I don't know what was done to the innkeeper. Ever after that St. Nicholas was the special saint of all 25 children and was very good to them. St. Nicholas's Day was kept on December sixth. On St. Nicholas's Eve the boys and girls of Holland used to put their little wooden shoes by the fireside, feeling sure that St. Nicholas would come and leave presents in them. For a long time 5 St. Nicholas's Day was kept in this way by the Dutch children in old New York, or New Amsterdam, as it was then called; but after a while the fathers and mothers began to think that with St. Nicholas's Day and Christmas so close together, the children were expecting rather too 10 many presents. So they just mixed up those two holidays, and the Dutch children put their wooden shoes by the fireplace for St. Nicholas on Christmas Eve, at the same time that the German children in America were having their Christmas tree and their presents in memory of the 15 gifts which the Wise Men gave to the Christ-child. The idea of having Christmas trees came to us from the Germans, and hanging up the stockings came from the Dutch children's way of setting their shoes by the fireplace. When wooden shoes were no longer worn in New York, 20 the children had to hang their stockings instead. I suppose nearly every boy and girl knows Mr. Moore's verses, "'T was the night before Christmas," but for fear that some children may not know them very well, I'm going to put them down here. Mr. Moore was a very 25 wise man, a professor in a college for ministers in New York City. He was born during the Revolutionary War, graduated from Columbia College, and wrote a Hebrew dictionary which probably neither you nor I should care to read. But he also wrote this little poem for his children on Christmas in 1822, and some one got a copy of it without his knowledge and had it put into a news- 5 paper at Troy, New York, a few days before Christmas of the next year. Mr. Moore was very much surprised, as he did n't care much for the verses, but you and I and a good many others like them, and many of us can say them by heart. Can you?] 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap— I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. 10 |