THE OPEN WOOD FIRE. 6 1 



"And at each pause they kiss ; was never seen such rule 

 In any place but here, at bonfire, or at Yule." 



Tennyson mentions it in his line, 



"The Yule-log sparkled keen with frost," 



and gives this picture of the Christmas festivities, in 

 "In Memoriam:" 



"Again at Christmas did we weave 



The holly round the Christmas hearth; 

 The silent snow possess'd the earth, 

 And calmly fell our Christmas-eve." 



Washington Irving was naturally attracted by such a 

 scene, and writes of the log in his "Sketch-Book." 

 Lowell, too, in "The Vision of Sir Launfal," has left 

 a charming description: 



"Within the hall are song and laughter, 



The cheeks of Christmas grow red and jolly, 

 And sprouting is every corbel and rafter 



With lightsome green of ivy and holly; 

 Through the deep gulf of the chimney wide, 

 Wallows the Yule-log's roaring tide; 

 The broad flame-pennons droop and flap 



And belly and tug as a flag in the wind; 

 Like a locust shrills the imprisoned sap, 



Hunted to death in its galleries blind; 

 And swift little troops of silent sparks, 



Now pausing, now scattering away as in fear, 

 Go threading the soot-forest's tangled darks 



Like herds of startled deer." 



And, again, our American poetess, Celia Thaxter, in 

 her poem "The Yule Log," has, among others perhaps 

 its equal, this beautiful stanza: 



"Come, share the Yule-log's glorious heat! 



For many a year the grand old tree 

 Stood garnering up the sunshine sweet, 

 To keep for our festivity." 



