CHAPTER XXXIV 



CHRISTMAS 



CHRISTMAS light was slow in coming. There 

 was a hush in the air as if the earth were 

 padded so that even the footsteps of Nature 

 might not be heard. Out of my window I saw 

 that a great fall of snow had come in the night. 

 The whole landscape was covered by fleecy down 

 soft and white as it used to be when I first 

 saw it on the hills of New England. No wind 

 had moved it ; it lay as it fell, like a white 

 mantle thrown lightly over the world. Great 

 feathery flakes filled the air and gently descended 

 upon the earth, like that beautiful Spirit that 

 made the plains of Judea bright two thousand 

 years ago. It seemed a fitting emblem of that 

 nature which covered the unloveliness of the 

 world by His own beauty, and changed the dark 

 spots of earth to pure white. 



It was an ideal Christmas morning, clean 

 and beautiful. Such a wealth of purity was in 

 the air that all the world was clothed with it. 

 The earth accepted the beneficence of the skies, 

 and the trees bent in thankfulness for their 

 beautiful covering. It was a morning to make 



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