VII. 



HOLLY AND MISTLETOE. 



If any stranger were to ask an ordinary Ger- 

 man child what idea or object it associates most 

 closely with the twenty-fifth of December, the 

 little Teuton would undoubtedly answer, "A 

 Christmas tree." The trim and ui)rigiit ever- 

 green spruce fir, gayly lighted with red and yellow 

 waxen tapers, and hung around with a glorious 

 profusion of wooden dolls, toy soldiers, and tin 

 trumpets, forms the very embodiment and central 

 point of the Christmas festivities to the fair-haired 

 and blue-eyed children of the northern Father- 

 land. If the same question were similarly put to 

 a budding ten-year-old American citizen, the 

 young New Englander would promptly answer, 

 "I guess it's Santa Clans." The jovial saint who 

 descends the chinnieys of American houses while 

 the youthful republicans are slee[)ing soundly, 

 with their stockings hung expectant and open- 

 mouthed at their little bedsides, is to them the 

 prominent feature and main interest of the trans- 

 planted Yule-tide. But, if a group of merry, red- 

 cheeked English children were asked in turn what 



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