A FRENCH NOËL.

(TRANSLATED FROM GUI BARÔZAI.)

I hear along our street

Pass the minstrel throngs;
Hark! they play so sweet,

On their hautboys, Christmas songs!
Let us by the fire

Ever higher

Sing them till the night expire!

In December ring

Every day the chimes;

Loud the gleemen sing

In the streets their merry rhymes.

Let us by the fire, etc.

Shepherds at the grange,

Where the Babe was born,

Sang, with many a change,

Christmas carols until morn.

Let us by the fire, etc.

These good people sang

Songs devout and sweet;

While the rafters rang

There they stood with freezing feet.

Let us by the fire, etc.

A French Noël.

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Nuns in frigid cells

At this holy tide

For want of something else

Christmas songs at times have tried.

Let us by the fire, etc.

Washerwomen old,

To the sound they beat,

Sing by rivers cold

With uncovered heads and feet.

Let us by the fire, etc.

Who by the fireside stands
Stamps his feet and sings;
But he who blows his hands
Not so gay a carol brings.

Let us by the fire, etc.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

5*

MASTERS, IN THIS HALL.

"To Bethl'em did they go, the shepherds three ; To Bethl'em did they go to see whe'r it were so or no,

Whether Christ were born or no

To set men free."

Masters, in this hall,

Hear ye news to-day

Brought over sea,

And ever I you pray.

Nowell! Nowell! Nowell! Nowell!

Sing we clear!

Holpen are all folk on earth,

Born is God's Son so dear.

Going over the hills,

Through the milk-white snow,

Heard I ewes bleat

While the winds did blow.

Shepherds many an one

Sat among the sheep;

Nowell, etc.

Masters, in this Hall.

No man spake more word

Than they had been asleep.

"How name ye this Lord, Shepherds?" then said I.

"Very God," they said,

"Come from Heaven high."

Then to Bethl'em town
We went two and two,

Nowell, etc.

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