And the Rusty Dusty Miller Will eat of a Christmas-Pie With Jack the Giant-Killer. Then come, let us make our homes Of the land of elves and 191 gnomes, In the beautiful Land of Books! Charles Henry Lüders. WAITING. As little children in a darkened hall So wait we in time's dim and narrow room, thought, Try to divine before the curtain rise another's The wondrous scene; forgetting that the gloom Must shortly flee from what the ages sought,— The Father's long-planned gift of Paradise. C. H. Crandall. Aunt Mary. 193 AUNT MARY. A CORNISH CHRISTMAS CHANT. Now of all the trees by the king's highway, O! the one that is green upon Christmas-day, Now the holly with her drops of blood for me: For that is our dear Aunt Mary's tree. Its leaves are sweet with our Saviour's name, 'Tis a plant that loves the poor : Summer and winter it shines the same Beside the cottage door. O! the holly with her drops of blood for me: For that is our kind Aunt Mary's tree. 'Tis a bush that the birds will never leave: But sweetest of all upon Christmas-eve "Tis the merriest sound upon earth and sea: For it comes from our own Aunt Mary's tree. So, of all that grow by the king's highway, I love that tree the best; "Tis a bower for the birds upon Christmas-day, The bush of the bleeding breast. O! the holly with her drops of blood for me: For that is our sweet Aunt Mary's tree. Robert Stephen Hawker. The Glad New Day. 195 THE GLAD NEW DAY. And why should not that land rejoice, When on its dim, benighted hills Ah, then methinks that all around Rejoice, ye nations blest with peace, Let all the earth be glad; The Prince of Peace comes down to-day, In robes of pity clad. Yea, thus should all mankind rejoice On this glad day of love; But yet, alas! how far we are From those blest heights above! Ah! for the time when men shall spend This day as all men should, When angels shall with joy attend, And dwell among the good. Then will this earth an Eden be, A Paradise of love; And all shall know the perfect bliss Of those bright realms above. Thomas Moore. |