CHAPTER XXXIV 
CHRISTMAS 
CuristMAs 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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