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." 



