240 Walks in New England 



are losing their influence, and simplicity of feeling, 

 as well in outlook as in memory, is replacing 

 many old anxieties. Duties grow more obvious, 

 responsibilities more limited ; the day s good and 

 ill become more plainly sufficient for it ; and if 

 one should go suddenly out of life to another, he 

 would go more nearly as a little child, trusting 

 just because he does not know, than in many a 

 hard-working and worrying year. To many such 

 a one Thackeray s beautiful last sentence is a fit 

 expression : &quot; And his heart throbbed with an 

 exquisite pleasure.&quot; 



The heart of a child ! And to those who re 

 member what childhood was, it is seen to be the 

 very fitting test for the future, and as well for the 

 feast of this holy day, when childhood was so 

 glorified. It is still the children that make the 

 Christmas. Beautiful are the legends of the child 

 Jesus, even in the gospels of the Infancy; these 

 are the earliest fairy tales of Christianity, preced 

 ing Santa Claus and Kriss Kringle, and Christ- 

 kinden and bambino stories. If one desires a 

 warrant for the imagery and fancy of the children s 

 saint and the visits of &quot; the good little Jesus,&quot; it 

 may be found in those strange pretty anecdotes, 

 as that wherein Jesus and other children played 

 in the clay banks, and made birds out of the clay, 

 but Jesus, when he had wrought his birds, clapped 



