HOLLY AND MISTLETOE. 79 



winter, espoeially among simple primitive iind 

 agricultural pe()[)ie. The labors of the year are 

 then suspended; the tasks of last autumn's 

 harvest are fully completed, tlie tasks of next 

 spring's sowing have not yet begun ; there is an 

 obvious breatliing-space for mirth and rehixation; 

 the tiller of the soil can tiien lean back in his own 

 arm-chair, and take his ease beside ins own lire- 

 place ; he has corn in bis granary and malt in his 

 brewliouse, apples in his loft, and leisure in his 

 spirit. Moreover, the time of year itself naturally 

 inclines one to laziness and to indoor enjoyment. 

 Without, the fields and streets are cold and 

 muddy; within, the fire burns bright, and the 

 temptation to set one's feet on the fender and 

 enjoy it idly is almost irresistible. Hence, from 

 all time, men have made the mid-winter breath- 

 ing-space a sort of excuse for a general holiday, 

 and the practice has descended, amid all changes 

 of guise or of religious significance, from the easy- 

 going husbandmen of prehistoric ages to the 

 modern work-a-day world of industrial England. 

 The Teutonic races kept their Yule-tide, the 

 Romans kept their wild and boisterous Saturnalia, 

 the Celtic peoples kept their Druidical holidays, 

 all towards the close of chill December, long 

 before the popular feast was hallowed and re- 

 christened by the younger and purer religion of 

 latter-da V Christendom. And even now the 



