440 
RURAL HOURS. 
and the verses of Professor Moore, as confirmation of nursery- 
lore. It is only here and there that one finds a ray of light fall- 
ing upon something definite. We are told, for instance, that 
there was many hundred years ago, in the age of Constant] ne, a 
saintly Bishop by the name of Nicholas, at Patara, in Asia Minor, 
renowned for his piety and charity. In the course of time, some 
strange legends sprang up concerning him ; among other acts of 
mercy, he was supposed to have restored to life two lads who 
had been murdered by their treacherous host, and it was probably 
owing to this tradition that he Avas considered the especial friend 
of children. When the Dominican fraternity arose, about 1200, 
they selected him as their patron saint. He was also — and is, 
indeed, to this day — held in great honor by the Greek Church in 
Russia. He was considered as the especial patron of scholars, 
virgins, and seamen. Possibly, it was through some connection 
with this last class that he acquired such influence in the nur- 
series of Holland. Among that nautical race, the patron saint of 
sea-faring men must have been often invoked before the Reforma- 
tion, by the wives and children of those who were far away on 
the stormy seas of Africa and the Indies. The festival of St. 
Nicholas fell on the 6th of December, but a short time before 
Christmas. It seems that the Dutch Reformed Church engaged 
in a revision of the Calendar, at the time of the Reformation, by 
a regular court, examining the case of each individual canonized 
by the Church of Rome, something in the way of the usual pro- 
ceedings at a canonization by that Church. The claims of the 
individual to the honors of a saint were advanced on one hand, 
and opposed on the other. It is said that wherever they have 
given a decision, it has always been against the claimant. But in 
