206 CHRISTMAS EVE. 



ever we are on this wide, wide world, we find in the 

 day the symbol which binds us all to one cherished 

 hope. Gladness springs into being with the rising 

 sun, and the Christmas bells, sending their merry 

 voices on the wings of the returning light, encircle 

 the earth in one continuous peal. Their chimes ring 

 out glad tidings everywhere. The joyous music re- 

 j'oices the lonely watcher on the sea, and the hunter 

 who warms himself beside the embers of his smoulder- 

 ing fire ; it penetrates the humble cabin of the slave 

 and the hut of the weary emigrant ; it reaches the 

 wanderer on the steppes of Tartary, and the savage 

 in the forest ; it consoles the poor and the sorrowing, 

 and the rich and the powerful; and to the sick and 

 to the well alike, wherever they may be under the 

 sun, it brings a blessed brightness ; — and it gleams, 

 too, 



. ..." on the eternal snows, beneath the Polar Star, 

 And with a radiant Cross it lights the Southern deep afar. 

 And Christmas morn is but the dawn, the herald of a day 

 That circles in its boundless love, no winter, no decay." 



I have never seen the ship so bright and cheerful. 

 Sundry boxes have been produced from out-of-the-way 

 corners, and from the magical manner of their appear- 

 ance one might think that Santa Claus had charged 

 liimself with a special mission to this little world, be- 

 fore he had begun to fill the shoes and stockings and 

 to give marriage portions to destitute maidens, in the 

 dear old hinds where he is patron of the ^' Christ Kin- 

 kle Eve," and' where the silver cord binding the affec- 

 tions is freshened once a year with the Christmas 

 offering. The cabin-table fairly groans under a mass 

 of holiday fare, — kindly mementos from those who 

 are talking about us to-night around the family fire- 



