frosty winds begin to howl across the freezing earth. Colder, At length the vital blood of all yet colder, is the night. creatures stops congealed. 4. Down goes the frost to the earth's center. The heart of the sea is frozen, nay, the earthquakes are themselves frozen in, under their fiery caverns. The věry globe itself, too, and all the fellow-planets that have lost their sun, are become mere balls of ice, swinging silènt in the darkness. 5. Such is the light which revisits us in the silence of the morning. It makes no shock or scar. It would not wake an infant in the cradle. And yet it perpetually new-creates the world, rescuing it each morning as a prey from night and chaos. BUSHNELL.1 II. 119. A DAY OF SUNSHINE. GIFT of God! O perfect day: Whereon shall no man work, but play; Whereon it is enough for me, Not to be doing, but to be! 2. Through ĕvèry fiber of my brain, 3. I hear the wind among the trees 4. And over me unrolls on high The splendid scenery of the sky, 1 Horace Bushnell, an eloquent American clergyman and writer, was born in New Preston, Litchfield Co., Conn., in 1802. 2 Sym' pho ný, a harmony or agreement of sounds, pleasant to the car, either vocal or instrumental; an instrumental composition for a band of music. 3 Sapphire (såf'ir), a precious stone, usually blue. 4 Găl' le on, a large ship, with three or four decks, formerly used, by the Spaniards. 6. But we grow old. Ah! when shall all men's good TENNYSON. SECTION XXXIV. I. 125. UNDER THE HOLLY-BOUGH. E who have scorned each other, YE Or injured friend or brother, In this fast fading year; Ye who, by word or deed, Let sinned against, and sinning, 2. Ye who have loved each other, Mother, and sire, and child, And let your hearts grow fonder, Each past unbroken vow. 3. Ye who have noŭrished sadness, THE In this fast fading year; Let not the useless sorrow Under the Holly-bough. II. CHARLES MACKAY. 126. CHRISTMAS IN GERMANY. HERE is a Christmas custom, in the north of Germany, which pleased and interested me. The children made little presents to their parents, and to each other; and the parents, to the children. 2. For three or four months befōre Christmas the girls are all busy, and the boys save up their pocket-money to make or purchase these presents. What the present is to be is cautiously kept secret, and the girls have a world of contrivances to conceal it, such as working when they are out on visits, and the others are not with them; getting up in the morning before day-light, and the like. 3. Then, on the evening before Christmas Day, one of the parlors is lighted up by the children, into which the parents must not go. A great yew-bough is fastened on the table at a little distance from the wall, a multitude of little tapers are fastened in the bough, but so as not to catch it till they are nearly burnt out, and colored paper hangs and flutters from the twigs. 4. Under this bough the children lay out in great order the presents they mean for their parents, still concealing in their pockets what they intend for each other. Then the parents are introduced, and each presents his little gift, and then they bring out the rest, one by one, from their pockets, and present them with kisses and embraces. 5. Where I witnessed this scene there were eight or nine chil dren, and the eldest daughter and the mother wept aloud for joy and tendernèss; and the tears ran down the face of the father, and he clasped all his children so tight to his breast, it seemed as if he did it to stifle the sob that was rising within him. 6. I was very much affected. The shadow of the bough and its appendages on the wall, and arching over on the ceiling, .made a pretty picture; and then the raptures of the very little ones, when at last the twigs and their needles began to take fire and snap!-oh, it was a delight for them! 7. On the next day, in the great parlor, the parents lay out on the table the presents for the children: a scene of more sober joy succeeds, as on this day, after an old custom, the mother says privately to each of her daughters, and the father to his sons, that which has been observed most praiseworthy, and that which was most faulty in their conduct. 8. Formerly, and still in all the smaller towns and villages throughout North Germany, these presents were sent by all the parents to some one fellow, who in high buskins, a white robe, a mask, and enormous flax wig, personates Servant Rupert. On Christmas night he goes round to every house, and says that Jesus Christ, his master, sent him thither: the parents and elder children receive him with great pomp of reverence, while the little ones are most terribly frightened. 9. He then inquires for the children, and, according to the character which he hears from the parents, he gives them the intended presents, as if they came out of heaven from Jesus Christ. Or, if they should have been bad children, he gives the parents a rod, and in the name of his master recommends them to use it frequently. About seven or eight years old, the children are let into the secret, and it is curious to observe how faithfully they keep it. COLERIDGE.1 1 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an English poet and philosopher, was born at Ottery, St. Mary, Devonshire, Oct. 21, 1772, and died at Highgate, London, July 25, 1834. His numerous productions in prose and verse, as well as his unsurpassed Table Talk, have since been published, proving a perpetual delight; and, like Nature, furnishing subjects of admiration and imitation for the refined and observing. THE III. 127. END OF THE PLAY. HE play is done-the curtain drops, And looks around, to say farewell. And when he's laughed and said his say, 2. One word ere yet the evening ends- 3. Good-night!-I'd say the griefs, the joys, Your hopes more vain, than those of men- At forty-five played ō'er again. 4. I'd say we suffer and we strive Not less nor mōre as men than boys- As erst at twelve in corduroys." And if, in time of sacred youth, We learned at home to love and pray, 1 Prompt er, one who assists speakers, or actors in a play, when at a loss, by uttering the first words of a sentence, or words forgotten. 2 Irksome (årk′ sům), wearisome; tedious; tiresome; giving uneasiness. 3 Cor`du roy', a thick cotton stuff, corded or ribbed on the surface, once very generally made into trowsers for boys. |