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diff --git a/old/14829.txt b/old/14829.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc71521 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14829.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3706 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Holidays, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Our Holidays + Their Meaning and Spirit; retold from St. Nicholas + +Author: Various + +Release Date: January 29, 2005 [EBook #14829] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR HOLIDAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Jennifer Zickerman and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net). + + + + + + =OUR HOLIDAYS= + + + + HISTORICAL STORIES + + RETOLD FROM + + ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE + + IN FIVE VOLUMES + + + INDIAN STORIES + A mirror of Indian ideas, customs, and adventures. + + COLONIAL STORIES + Stirring tales of the rude frontier life of early times. + + REVOLUTIONARY STORIES + Heroic deeds, and especially children's part in them. + + CIVIL WAR STORIES + Thrilling stories of the great struggle, both on land and sea. + + OUR HOLIDAYS + Something of their meaning and spirit. + + + Each about 200 pages. Full cloth, 12mo. + + + THE CENTURY CO. + + [Illustration: HO, FOR THE CHRISTMAS TREE!] + + + + OUR HOLIDAYS + + THEIR MEANING AND SPIRIT + + RETOLD FROM ST. NICHOLAS + + [Illustration] + + PUBLISHED BY THE CENTURY CO. + NEW YORK MCMVI + + THE DE VINNE PRESS + + + + + =CONTENTS= + + PAGE + +OUR HOLIDAYS 1 + + ST. SATURDAY _Henry Johnstone_ 3 + + +HALLOWE'EN 7 + + ALL-HALLOW-EVE MYTHS _David Brown_ 9 + + +ELECTION DAY 13 + + RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF CITIZENS _S.E. Forman_ 15 + + +THANKSGIVING DAY 21 + + A THANKSGIVING DINNER THAT FLEW AWAY _H. Butterworth_ 23 + + +WHITTIER'S BIRTHDAY 35 + + THE BOYHOOD OF JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER _William H. Rideing_ 37 + + +CHRISTMAS 51 + + HOW UNCLE SAM OBSERVES CHRISTMAS _Clifford Howard_ 53 + + +NEW YEAR'S DAY 79 + + EXTRACT FROM "SOCIAL LIFE IN THE COLONIES" _Edward Eggleston_ 81 + + A CHINESE NEW YEAR'S IN CALIFORNIA _H.H._ 82 + + +LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 85 + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Helen Nicolay_ 87 + + THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 99 + + O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! _Walt Whitman_ 101 + + +ST. VALENTINE'S BIRTHDAY 103 + + WHO BEGAN IT? _Olive Thorne_ 105 + + +WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 111 + + THE BOYHOOD OF WASHINGTON _Horace E. Scudder_ 113 + + +LONGFELLOW'S BIRTHDAY 123 + + LONGFELLOW AND THE CHILDREN _Lucy Larcom_ 125 + + +INAUGURATION DAY 139 + + HOW A PRESIDENT IS INAUGURATED _Clifford Howard_ 141 + + +EASTER DAY 153 + + A SONG OF EASTER _Celia Thaxter_ 155 + + THE GENERAL'S EASTER BOX _Temple Bailey_ 159 + + +ARBOR DAY 175 + + THE PLANTING OF THE APPLE TREE _William Cullen Bryant_ 177 + + +APRIL FOOL'S DAY 181 + + FOURTH-MONTH DUNCE _H.M.M._ 183 + + +MEMORIAL DAY 185 + + THE BOY IN GRAY _Mary Bradley_ 187 + + +FLAG DAY 193 + + THE STARS AND STRIPES _Henry Russell Wray_ 195 + + +FOURTH OF JULY 199 + + A STORY OF THE FLAG _Victor Mapes_ 201 + + + + + =PREFACE= + + +To most young people, holidays mean simply freedom from lessons and a +good time. All this they should mean--and something more. + +It is well to remember, for example, that we owe the pleasure of +Thanksgiving to those grateful Pilgrims who gave a feast of thanks for +the long-delayed rain that saved their withering crops--a feast of wild +turkeys and pumpkin pies, which has been celebrated now for nearly three +centuries. + +It is most fitting that the same honor paid to Washington's Birthday is +now given to that of Lincoln, who is as closely associated with the +Civil War as our first President is with the Revolution. + +Although the birthdays of the three American poets, Whittier, Lowell, +and Longfellow, are not holidays, stories relating to these days are +included in this collection as signalizing days to be remembered. + +In this book are contained stories bearing on our holidays and annual +celebrations, from Hallowe'en to the Fourth of July. + + + + + =Our Holidays= + + + If all the year were playing holidays, + To sport would be as tedious as to work. + + SHAKSPERE. _King Henry IV_, Part I. + + + =ST. SATURDAY= + + [Illustration] + + BY HENRY JOHNSTONE + + Oh, Friday night's the queen of nights, because it ushers in + The Feast of good St. Saturday, when studying is a sin, + When studying is a sin, boys, and we may go to play + Not only in the afternoon, but all the livelong day. + + St. Saturday--so legends say--lived in the ages when + The use of leisure still was known and current among men; + Full seldom and full slow he toiled, and even as he wrought + He'd sit him down and rest awhile, immersed in pious thought. + + He loved to fold his good old arms, to cross his good old knees, + And in a famous elbow-chair for hours he'd take his ease; + He had a word for old and young, and when the village boys + Came out to play, he'd smile on them and never mind the noise. + + So when his time came, honest man, the neighbors all declared + That one of keener intellect could better have been spared; + By young and old his loss was mourned in cottage and in hall, + For if he'd done them little good, he'd done no harm at all. + + In time they made a saint of him, and issued a decree-- + Since he had loved his ease so well, and been so glad to see + The children frolic round him and to smile upon their play-- + That school boys for his sake should have a weekly holiday. + + They gave his name unto the day, that as the years roll by + His memory might still be green; and that's the reason why + We speak his name with gratitude, and oftener by far + Than that of any other saint in all the calendar. + + Then, lads and lassies, great and small, give ear to what I say-- + Refrain from work on Saturdays as strictly as you may; + So shall the saint your patron be and prosper all you do-- + And when examinations come he'll see you safely through. + + [Illustration: St. Saturday] + + + + + =Hallowe'en= + + _October 31_ + + The Eve of All Saints' Day + + +This night is known in some places as Nutcrack Night, or Snapapple +Night. Supernatural influences are pretended to prevail and hence all +kinds of superstitions were formerly connected with it. It is now +usually celebrated by children's parties, when certain special games are +played. + + + =ALL-HALLOW-EVE MYTHS= + + BY DAVID BROWN + +As the world grows old and wise, it ceases to believe in many of its +superstitions. But, although they are no longer believed in, the customs +connected with them do not always die out; they often linger on through +centuries, and, from having once been serious religious rites, or +something real in the life of the people, they become at last mere +children's plays or empty usages, often most zealously enjoyed by those +who do not understand their meaning. + +All-hallow Eve is now, in our country towns, a time of careless frolic, +and of great bonfires, which, I hear, are still kindled on the hill-tops +in some places. We also find these fires in England, Scotland, and +Ireland, and from their history we learn the meaning of our celebration. +Some of you may know that the early inhabitants of Great Britain, +Ireland, and parts of France were known as Celts, and that their +religion was directed by strange priests called Druids. Three times in +the year, on the first of May, for the sowing; at the solstice, June +21st, for the ripening and turn of the year; and on the eve of November +1st, for the harvesting, those mysterious priests of the Celts, the +Druids, built fires on the hill-tops in France, Britain, and Ireland, in +honor of the sun. At this last festival the Druids of all the region +gathered in their white robes around the stone altar or cairn on the +hill-top. Here stood an emblem of the sun, and on the cairn was a sacred +fire, which had been kept burning through the year. The Druids formed +about the fire, and, at a signal, quenched it, while deep silence rested +on the mountains and valleys. Then the new fire gleamed on the cairn, +the people in the valley raised a joyous shout, and from hill-top to +hill-top other fires answered the sacred flame. On this night, all +hearth-fires in the region had been put out, and they were kindled with +brands from the sacred fire, which was believed to guard the households +through the year. + +But the Druids disappeared from their sacred places, the cairns on the +hill-tops became the monuments of a dead religion, and Christianity +spread to the barbarous inhabitants of France and the British Islands. +Yet the people still clung to their old customs, and felt much of the +old awe for them. Still they built their fires on the first of May,--at +the solstice in June,--and on the eve of November 1st. The church found +that it could not all at once separate the people from their old ways, +so it gradually turned these ways to its own use, and the harvest +festival of the Druids became in the Catholic Calendar the Eve of All +Saints, for that is the meaning of the name "All-hallow Eve." In the +seventh century, the Pantheon, the ancient Roman temple of all the gods, +was consecrated anew to the worship of the Virgin and of all holy +martyrs. + +By its separation from the solemn character of the Druid festival, +All-hallow Eve lost much of its ancient dignity, and became the +carnival-night of the year for wild, grotesque rites. As century after +century passed by, it came to be spoken of as the time when the magic +powers, with which the peasantry, all the world over, filled the wastes +and ruins, were supposed to swarm abroad to help or injure men. It was +the time when those first dwellers in every land, the fairies, were said +to come out from their grots and lurking-places; and in the darkness of +the forests and the shadows of old ruins, witches and goblins gathered. +In course of time, the hallowing fire came to be considered a protection +against these malicious powers. It was a custom in the seventeenth +century for the master of a family to carry a lighted torch of straw +around his fields, to protect them from evil influence through the year, +and as he went he chanted an invocation to the fire. The chief thing +which we seek to impress upon your minds in connection with All-hallow +Eve is that its curious customs show how no generation of men is +altogether separated from earlier generations. Far as we think we are +from our uncivilized ancestors, much of what they did and thought has +come into our doing and thinking,--with many changes perhaps, under +different religious forms, and sometimes in jest where they were in +earnest. Still, these customs and observances (of which All-hallow Eve +is only one) may be called the piers, upon which rests a bridge that +spans the wide past between us and the generations that have gone +before. + + + + + =Election Day= + + The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. + + +This day is now a holiday so that every man may have an opportunity to +cast his vote. Unlike most other holidays, it does not commemorate an +event, but it is a day which has a tremendous meaning if rightly looked +upon and rightly used. Its true spirit and significance are well set +forth in the following pages. By act of Congress the date for the +choosing of Presidential electors is set for the first Tuesday after the +first Monday in November in the years when Presidents are elected, and +the different States have now nearly all chosen the same day for the +election of State officers. + + + =RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF CITIZENS= + + BY S.E. FORMAN + +Read the bill of rights in the constitution of your State and you will +find there, set down in plain black and white, the rights which you are +to enjoy as an American citizen. This constitution tells you that you +have the right to your life, to your liberty, and to the property that +you may honestly acquire; that your body, your health and your +reputation shall be protected from injury; that you may move freely from +place to place unmolested; that you shall not be imprisoned or otherwise +punished without a fair trial by an impartial jury; that you may worship +God according to the promptings of your own conscience; that you may +freely write and speak on any subject providing you do not abuse the +privilege; that you may peaceably assemble and petition government for +the redress of grievances. These are civil rights. They, together with +many others equally dear, are guaranteed by the State and national +constitutions, and they belong to all American citizens. + +These civil rights, like the air and the sunshine, come to us in these +days as a matter of course, but they did not come to our ancestors as a +matter of course. To our ancestors rights came as the result of +hard-fought battles. The reading of the bill of rights would cause your +heart to throb with gratitude did you but know the suffering and +sacrifice each right has cost. + +Now just as our rights have not been gained without a struggle, so they +will not be maintained without a struggle. We may not have to fight with +cannon and sword as did our forefathers in the Revolution, but we may be +sure that if our liberty is to be preserved there will be fighting of +some kind to do. Such precious things as human rights cannot be had for +nothing. + +One of the hardest battles will be to fulfil the duties which accompany +our rights, for every right is accompanied by a duty. If I can hold a +man to his contract I ought (_I owe it_) to pay my debts; if I may +worship as I please, I ought to refrain from persecuting another on +account of his religion; if my property is held sacred, I ought to +regard the property of another man as sacred; if the government deals +fairly with me and does not oppress me, I ought to deal fairly With it +and refuse to cheat it; if I am allowed freedom of speech, I ought not +to abuse the privilege; if I have a right to a trial by jury, I ought to +respond when I am summoned to serve as a juror; if I have a right to my +good name and reputation, I ought not to slander my neighbor; if +government shields me from injury, I ought to be ready to take up arms +in its defense. + +Foremost among the rights of American citizenship is that of going to +the polls and casting a ballot. This right of voting is not a civil +right; it is a political right which grew out of man's long struggle for +his civil rights. While battling with kings and nobles for liberty the +people learned to distrust a privileged ruling class. They saw that if +their civil rights were to be respected, government must pass into their +own hands or into the hands of their chosen agents. Hence they demanded +political rights, the right of holding office and of voting at +elections. + +The suffrage, or the right of voting, is sometimes regarded as a natural +right, one that belongs to a person simply because he is a person. + +People will say that a man has as much right to vote as he has to +acquire property or to defend himself from attack. But this is not a +correct view. The right to vote is a _franchise_ or privilege which the +law gives to such citizens as are thought worthy of possessing it. It is +easy to see that everybody cannot be permitted to vote. There must be +certain qualifications, certain marks of fitness, required of a citizen +before he can be entrusted with the right of suffrage. These +qualifications differ in the different States. In most States every male +citizen over twenty-one years of age may vote. In four States, women as +well as men exercise the right of suffrage. + +But the right of voting, like every other right, has its corresponding +duty. No day brings more responsibilities than Election Day. The +American voter should regard himself as an officer of government. He is +one of the members of the electorate, that vast governing body which +consists of all the voters and which possesses supreme political power, +controlling all the governments, federal and State and local. This +electorate has in its keeping the welfare and the happiness of the +American people. When, therefore, the voter takes his place in this +governing body, that is, when he enters the polling-booth and presumes +to participate in the business of government, he assumes serious +responsibilities. In the polling-booth he is a public officer charged +with certain duties, and if he fails to discharge these duties properly +he may work great injury. What are the duties of a voter in a +self-governing country? If an intelligent man will ask himself the +question and refer it to his conscience as well as deliberate upon it in +his mind, he will conclude that he ought to do the following things: + + 1. To vote whenever it is his privilege. + + 2. To try to understand the questions upon which he votes. + + 3. To learn something about the character and fitness of the men + for whom he votes. + + 4. To vote only for honest men for office. + + 5. To support only honest measures. + + 6. To give no bribe, direct or indirect, and to receive no bribe, + direct or indirect. + + 7. To place country above party. + + 8. To recognize the result of the election as the will of the + people and therefore as the law. + + 9. To continue to vote for a righteous although defeated cause as + long as there is a reasonable hope of victory. + + "The proudest now is but my peer, + The highest not more high; + To-day of all the weary year, + A king of men am I. + + "To-day alike are great and small, + The nameless and the known; + My palace is the people's hall, + The ballot-box my throne!" + + WHITTIER. + + + + + =Thanksgiving Day= + + Appointed by the President--usually the last Thursday in November. + + +Now observed as a holiday in all the States, but not a legal holiday in +all. The President's proclamation recommends that it be set apart as a +day of prayer and rejoicing. The day is of New England origin, the first +one being set by Governor Bradford of the Massachusetts colony on +December, 1621. Washington issued a thanksgiving proclamation for +Thursday, December 18, 1777, and again at Valley Forge for May 7, 1778. +The Thanksgiving of the present incorporates many of the genial features +of Christmas. The feast with the Thanksgiving turkey and pumpkin-pie +crowns the day. Even the poorhouse has its turkey. The story of "An +Old-Time Thanksgiving," in "Indian Stories" of this series, well brings +out the original spirit of the day. + + + =A THANKSGIVING DINNER THAT FLEW AWAY= + + BY H. BUTTERWORTH + +"Honk!" + +I spun around like a top, looking nervously in every direction. I was +familiar with that sound; I had heard it before, during two summer +vacations, at the old farm-house on the Cape. + +It had been a terror to me. I always put a door, a fence, or a stone +wall between me and that sound as speedily as possible. + +I had just come down from the city to the Cape for my third summer +vacation. I had left the cars with my arms full of bundles, and hurried +toward Aunt Targood's. + +The cottage stood in from the road. There was a long meadow in front of +it. In the meadow were two great oaks and some clusters of lilacs. An +old, mossy stone wall protected the grounds from the road, and a long +walk ran from the old wooden gate to the door. + +It was a sunny day, and my heart was light. The orioles were flaming in +the old orchards; the bobolinks were tossing themselves about in the +long meadows of timothy, daisies, and patches of clover. There was a +scent of new-mown hay in the air. + +In the distance lay the bay, calm and resplendent, with white sails and +specks of boats. Beyond it rose Martha's Vineyard, green and cool and +bowery, and at its wharf lay a steamer. + +I was, as I said, light-hearted. I was thinking of rides over the sandy +roads at the close of the long, bright days; of excursions on the bay; +of clam-bakes and picnics. + +I was hungry; and before me rose visions of Aunt Targood's fish dinners, +roast chickens, berry pies. I was thirsty; but ahead was the old +well-sweep, and, behind the cool lattice of the dairy window, were pans +of milk in abundance. + +I tripped on toward the door with light feet, lugging my bundles and +beaded with perspiration, but unmindful of all discomforts in the +thought of the bright days and good things in store for me. + +"Honk! honk!" + +My heart gave a bound! + +_Where_ did that sound come from? + +Out of a cool cluster of innocent-looking lilac bushes, I saw a dark +object cautiously moving. It seemed to have no head. I knew, however, +that it had a head. I had seen it; it had seized me once on the previous +summer, and I had been in terror of it during all the rest of the +season. + +I looked down into the irregular grass, and saw the head and a very long +neck running along on the ground, propelled by the dark body, like a +snake running away from a ball. It was coming toward me, and faster and +faster as it approached. + +I dropped all my bundles. + +In a few flying leaps I returned to the road again, and armed myself +with a stick from a pile of cord-wood. + +"Honk! honk! honk!" + +It was a call of triumph. The head was high in the air now. My enemy +moved grandly forward, as became the monarch of the great meadow +farm-yard. + +I stood with beating heart, after my retreat. + +It was Aunt Targood's gander. + +How he enjoyed his triumph, and how small and cowardly he made me feel! + +"Honk! honk! honk!" + +The geese came out of the lilac bushes, bowing their heads to him in +admiration. Then came the goslings--a long procession of awkward, +half-feathered things: they appeared equally delighted. + +The gander seemed to be telling his admiring audience all about it: how +a strange girl with many bundles had attempted to cross the yard; how he +had driven her back, and had captured her bundles, and now was monarch +of the field. He clapped his wings when he had finished his heroic +story, and sent forth such a "honk!" as might have startled a +major-general. + +Then he, with an air of great dignity and coolness, began to examine my +baggage. + +Among my effects were several pounds of chocolate caramels, done up in +brown paper. Aunt Targood liked caramels, and I had brought her a large +supply. + +He tore off the wrappers quickly. Bit one. It was good. He began to +distribute the bon-bons among the geese, and they, with much liberality +and good-will, among the goslings. + +This was too much. I ventured through the gate swinging my cord-wood +stick. + +"Shoo!" + +He dropped his head on the ground, and drove it down the walk in a +lively waddle toward me. + +"_Shoo_!" + +It was Aunt Targood's voice at the door. + +He stopped immediately. + +His head was in the air again. + +"_Shoo_!" + +Out came Aunt Targood with her broom. + +She always corrected the gander with her broom. If I were to be whipped +I should choose a broom--not the stick. + +As soon as he beheld the broom he retired, although with much offended +pride and dignity, to the lilac bushes; and the geese and goslings +followed him. + +"Hester, you dear child, come here. I was expecting you, and had been +looking out for you, but missed sight of you. I had forgotten all about +the gander." + +We gathered up the bundles and the caramels. I was light-hearted again. + +How cool was the sitting-room, with the woodbine falling about the open +windows! Aunt brought me a pitcher of milk and some strawberries; some +bread and honey; and a fan. + +While I was resting and taking my lunch, I could hear the gander +discussing the affairs of the farm-yard with the geese. I did not +greatly enjoy the discussion. His tone of voice was very proud, and he +did not seem to be speaking well of me. I was suspicious that he did not +think me a very brave girl. A young person likes to be spoken well of, +even by the gander. + +Aunt Targood's gander had been the terror of many well-meaning people, +and of some evildoers, for many years. I have seen tramps and +pack-peddlers enter the gate, and start on toward the door, when there +would sound that ringing warning like a war-blast. "Honk, honk!" and in +a few minutes these unwelcome people would be gone. Farm-house boarders +from the city would sometimes enter the yard, thinking to draw water by +the old well-sweep: in a few minutes it was customary to hear shrieks, +and to see women and children flying over the walls, followed by +air-rending "honks!" and jubilant cackles from the victorious gander and +his admiring family. + +"Aunt, what makes you keep that gander, year after year?" said I, one +evening, as we were sitting on the lawn before the door. "Is it because +he is a kind of a watch-dog, and keeps troublesome people away?" + +"No, child, no; I do not wish to keep most people away, not well-behaved +people, nor to distress nor annoy any one. The fact is, there is a +story about that gander that I do not like to speak of to every +one--something that makes me feel tender toward him; so that if he needs +a whipping, I would rather do it. He knows something that no one else +knows. I could not have him killed or sent away. You have heard me speak +of Nathaniel, my oldest boy?" + +"Yes." + +"That is his picture in my room, you know. He was a good boy to me. He +loved his mother. I loved Nathaniel--you cannot think how much I loved +Nathaniel. It was on my account that he went away. + +"The farm did not produce enough for us all: Nathaniel, John, and I. We +worked hard and had a hard time. One year--that was ten years ago--we +were sued for our taxes. + +"'Nathaniel,' said I, 'I will go to taking boarders.' + +"Then he looked up to me and said (oh, how noble and handsome he +appeared to me!): + +"'Mother, I will go to sea.' + +"'Where?' asked I, in surprise. + +"'In a coaster.' + +"I turned white. How I felt! + +"'You and John can manage the place,' he continued. 'One of the vessels +sails next week--Uncle Aaron's; he offers to take me.' + +"It seemed best, and he made preparations to go. + +"The spring before, Skipper Ben--you have met Skipper Ben--had given me +some goose eggs; he had brought them from Canada, and said that they +were wild-goose eggs. + +"I set them under hens. In four weeks I had three goslings. I took them +into the house at first, but afterward made a pen for them out in the +yard. I brought them up myself, and one of those goslings is that +gander. + +"Skipper Ben came over to see me, the day before Nathaniel was to sail. +Aaron came with him. + +"I said to Aaron: + +"'What can I give to Nathaniel to carry to sea with him to make him +think of home? Cake, preserves, apples? I haven't got much; I have done +all I can for him, poor boy.' + +"Brother looked at me curiously, and said: + +"'Give him one of those wild geese, and we will fatten it on shipboard +and will have it for our Thanksgiving dinner.' + +"What brother Aaron said pleased me. The young gander was a noble bird, +the handsomest of the lot; and I resolved to keep the geese to kill for +my own use and to give _him_ to Nathaniel. + +"The next morning--it was late in September--I took leave of Nathaniel. +I tried to be calm and cheerful and hopeful. I watched him as he went +down the walk with the gander struggling under his arms. A stranger +would have laughed, but I did not feel like laughing; it was true that +the boys who went coasting were usually gone but a few months and came +home hardy and happy. But when poverty compels a mother and son to part, +after they have been true to each other, and shared their feelings in +common, it seems hard, it seems hard--though I do not like to murmur or +complain at anything allotted to me. + +"I saw him go over the hill. On the top he stopped and held up the +gander. He disappeared; yes, my own Nathaniel disappeared. I think of +him now as one who disappeared. + +"November came--it was a terrible month on the coast that year. Storm +followed storm; the sea-faring people talked constantly of wrecks and +losses. I could not sleep on the nights of those high winds. I used to +lie awake thinking over all the happy hours I had lived with Nathaniel. + +"Thanksgiving week came. + +"It was full of an Indian-summer brightness after the long storms. The +nights were frosty, bright, and calm. + +"I could sleep on those calm nights. + +"One morning, I thought I heard a strange sound in the woodland pasture. +It was like a wild goose. I listened; it was repeated. I was lying in +bed. I started up--I thought I had been dreaming. + +"On the night before Thanksgiving I went to bed early, being very tired. +The moon was full; the air was calm and still. I was thinking of +Nathaniel, and I wondered if he would indeed have the gander for his +Thanksgiving dinner: if it would be cooked as well as I would have +cooked it, and if he would think of me that day. + +"I was just going to sleep, when suddenly I heard a sound that made me +start up and hold my breath. + +"'_Honk_!' + +"I thought it was a dream followed by a nervous shock. + +"'_Honk! honk_!' + +"There it was again, in the yard. I was surely awake and in my senses. + +"I heard the geese cackle. + +"'_Honk! honk! honk_!' + +"I got out of bed and lifted the curtain. It was almost as light as day. +Instead of two geese there were three. Had one of the neighbors' geese +stolen away? + +"I should have thought so, and should not have felt disturbed, but for +the reason that none of the neighbors' geese had that peculiar +call--that hornlike tone that I had noticed in mine. + +"I went out of the door. + +"The third goose looked like the very gander I had given Nathaniel. +Could it be? + +"I did not sleep. I rose early and went to the crib for some corn. + +"It was a gander--a 'wild' gander--that had come in the night. He seemed +to know me. + +"I trembled all over as though I had seen a ghost. I was so faint that I +sat down on the meal-chest. + +"As I was in that place, a bill pecked against the door. The door +opened. The strange gander came hobbling over the crib-stone and went to +the corn-bin. He stopped there, looked at me, and gave a sort of glad +"honk," as though he knew me and was glad to see me. + +"I was certain that he was the gander I had raised, and that Nathaniel +had lifted into the air when he gave me his last recognition from the +top of the hill. + +"It overcame me. It was Thanksgiving. The church bell would soon be +ringing as on Sunday. And here was Nathaniel's Thanksgiving dinner; and +brother Aaron's--had it flown away? Where was the vessel? + +"Years have passed--ten. You know I waited and waited for my boy to come +back. December grew dark with its rainy seas; the snows fell; May +lighted up the hills, but the vessel never came back. Nathaniel--my +Nathaniel--never returned. + +"That gander knows something he could tell me if he could talk. Birds +have memories. He remembered the corn-crib--he remembered something +else. I wish he _could_ talk, poor bird! I wish he could talk. I will +never sell him, nor kill him, nor have him abused. _He knows!_" + + + + + =Whittier's Birthday= + + JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER + + Born December 17, 1807 Died September 7, 1892 + + +Whittier is known not only as a poet, but as a reformer and author. He +was a member of the Society of Friends. He attended a New England +academy; worked on a farm; taught school in order to afford further +education, and at the age of twenty-two edited a paper at Boston. He was +a leading opponent of slavery and was several times attacked by mobs on +account of his opinions. + + + =THE BOYHOOD OF JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER= + + BY WILLIAM H. RIDEING + +The life of Whittier may be read in his poems, and, by putting a note +here and a date there, a full autobiography might be compiled from them. +His boyhood and youth are depicted in them with such detail that little +need be added to make the story complete, and that little, reverently +done as it may be, must seem poor in comparison with the poetic beauty +of his own revelations. + +What more can we do to show his early home than to quote from his own +beautiful poem, "Snow-bound"? There the house is pictured for us, inside +and out, with all its furnishings; and those who gather around its +hearth, inmates and visitors, are set before us so clearly that long +after the book has been put away they remain as distinct in the memory +as portraits that are visible day after day on the walls of our own +homes. He reproduces in his verse the landscapes he saw, the legends of +witches and Indians he listened to, the schoolfellows he played with, +the voices of the woods and fields, and the round of toil and pleasure +in a country boy's life; and in other poems his later life, with its +impassioned devotion to freedom and lofty faith, is reflected as lucidly +as his youth is in "Snow-bound" and "The Barefoot Boy." + +He himself was "The Barefoot Boy," and what Robert Burns said of himself +Whittier might repeat: "The poetic genius of my country found me, as the +prophetic bard Elijah did Elisha, at the plow, and threw her inspiring +mantle over me." He was a farmer's son, born at a time when farm-life in +New England was more frugal than it is now, and with no other heritage +than the good name and example of parents and kinsmen, in whom simple +virtues--thrift, industry, and piety--abounded. + +His birthplace still stands near Haverhill, Mass.,--a house in one of +the hollows of the surrounding hills, little altered from what it was in +1807, the year he was born, when it was already at least a century and a +half old. + +[Illustration: WHITTIER'S BIRTHPLACE, NEAR HAVERHILL, MASS.] + +He had no such opportunities for culture as Holmes and Lowell had in +their youth. His parents were intelligent and upright people of +limited means, who lived in all the simplicity of the Quaker faith, and +there was nothing in his early surroundings to encourage and develop a +literary taste. Books were scarce, and the twenty volumes on his +father's shelves were, with one exception, about Quaker doctrines and +Quaker heroes. The exception was a novel, and that was hidden away from +the children, for fiction was forbidden fruit. No library or scholarly +companionship was within reach; and if his gift had been less than +genius, it could never have triumphed over the many disadvantages with +which it had to contend. Instead of a poet he would have been a farmer +like his forefathers. But literature was a spontaneous impulse with him, +as natural as the song of a bird; and he was not wholly dependent on +training and opportunity, as he would have been had he possessed mere +talent. + +Frugal from necessity, the life of the Whittiers was not sordid nor +cheerless to him, moreover; and he looks back to it as tenderly as if it +had been full of luxuries. It was sweetened by strong affections, simple +tastes, and an unflinching sense of duty; and in all the members of the +household the love of nature was so genuine that meadow, wood, and +river yielded them all the pleasure they needed, and they scarcely +missed the refinements of art. + +Surely there could not be a pleasanter or more homelike picture than +that which the poet has given us of the family on the night of the great +storm when the old house was snowbound: + + "Shut in from all the world without, + We sat the clean-winged hearth about, + Content to let the north wind roar + In baffled rage at pane and door, + While the red logs before us beat + The frost-line back with tropic heat. + And ever when a louder blast + Shook beam and rafter as it passed, + The merrier up its roaring draught + The great throat of the chimney laughed. + The house-dog on his paws outspread, + Laid to the fire his drowsy head; + The cat's dark silhouette on the wall + A couchant tiger's seemed to fall, + And for the winter fireside meet + Between the andiron's straddling feet + The mug of cider simmered slow, + The apples sputtered in a row, + And close at hand the basket stood + With nuts from brown October's wood." + +For a picture of the poet himself we must turn to the verses in "The +Barefoot Boy," in which he says: + + "O for boyhood's time of June, + Crowding years in one brief moon, + When all things I heard or saw, + Me, their master, waited for. + I was rich in flowers and trees, + Humming-birds and honey-bees; + For my sport the squirrel played, + Plied the snouted mole his spade; + For my taste the blackberry cone + Purpled over hedge and stone; + Laughed the brook for my delight + Through the day and through the night, + Whispering at the garden-wall, + Talked with me from fall to fall; + Mine the sand-rimmed pickerel pond, + Mine the walnut slopes beyond, + Mine on bending orchard trees, + Apples of Hesperides! + Still as my horizon grew, + Larger grew my riches, too; + All the world I saw or knew + Seemed a complex Chinese toy, + Fashioned for a barefoot boy!"[1] + +[Illustration: THE OLD SCHOOL-HOUSE, HAVERHILL, MASS.] + +I doubt if any boy ever rose to intellectual eminence who had fewer +opportunities for education than Whittier. He had no such pasturage to +browse on as is open to every reader who, by simply reaching them out, +can lay his hands on the treasures of English literature. He had to +borrow books wherever they could be found among the neighbors who were +willing to lend, and he thought nothing of walking several miles for one +volume. The only instruction he received was at the district school, +which was open a few weeks in midwinter, and at the Haverhill Academy, +which he attended two terms of six months each, paying tuition by work +in spare hours, and by keeping a small school himself. A feeble spirit +would have languished under such disadvantages. But Whittier scarcely +refers to them, and instead of begging for pity, he takes them as part +of the common lot, and seems to remember only what was beautiful and +good in his early life. + +Occasionally a stranger knocked at the door of the old homestead in the +valley; sometimes it was a distinguished Quaker from abroad, but oftener +it was a peddler or some vagabond begging for food, which was seldom +refused. Once a foreigner came and asked for lodgings for the night--a +dark, repulsive man, whose appearance was so much against him that Mrs. +Whittier was afraid to admit him. No sooner had she sent him away, +however, than she repented. "What if a son of mine was in a strange +land?" she thought. The young poet (who was not yet recognized as such) +offered to go out in search of him, and presently returned with him, +having found him standing in the roadway just as he had been turned away +from another house. + +[Illustration: JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER] + +"He took his seat with us at the supper-table," says Whittier in one of +his prose sketches, "and when we were all gathered around the hearth +that cold autumnal evening, he told us, partly by words and partly by +gestures, the story of his life and misfortunes, amused us with +descriptions of the grape-gatherings and festivals of his sunny +clime, edified my mother with a recipe for making bread of chestnuts, +and in the morning, when, after breakfast, his dark sallow face lighted +up, and his fierce eyes moistened with grateful emotion as in his own +silvery Tuscan accent he poured out his thanks, we marveled at the fears +which had so nearly closed our doors against him, and as he departed we +all felt that he had left with us the blessing of the poor." + +Another guest came to the house one day. It was a vagrant old Scotchman, +who, when he had been treated to bread and cheese and cider, sang some +of the songs of Robert Burns, which Whittier then heard for the first +time, and which he never forgot. Coming to him thus as songs reached the +people before printing was invented, through gleemen and minstrels, +their sweetness lingered in his ears, and he soon found himself singing +in the same strain. Some of his earliest inspirations were drawn from +Burns, and he tells us of his joy when one day, after the visit of the +old Scotchman, his schoolmaster loaned him a copy of that poet's works. +"I began to make rhymes myself, and to imagine stories and adventures," +he says in his simple way. + +Indeed, he began to rhyme very early and kept his gift a secret from +all, except his oldest sister, fearing that his father, who was a +prosaic man, would think that he was wasting time. He wrote under the +fence, in the attic, in the barn--wherever he could escape observation; +and as pen and ink were not always available, he sometimes used chalk, +and even charcoal. Great was the surprise of the family when some of his +verses were unearthed, literally unearthed, from under a heap of rubbish +in a garret; but his father frowned upon these evidences of the bent of +his mind, not out of unkindness, but because he doubted the sufficiency +of the boy's education for a literary life, and did not wish to inspire +him with hopes which might never be fulfilled. + +His sister had faith in him, nevertheless, and, without his knowledge, +she sent one of his poems to the editor of _The Free Press_, a newspaper +published in Newburyport. Whittier was helping his father to repair a +stone wall by the roadside when the carrier flung a copy of the paper to +him, and, unconscious that anything of his was in it, he opened it and +glanced up and down the columns. His eyes fell on some verses called +"The Exile's Departure." + + "Fond scenes, which delighted my youthful existence, + With feelings of sorrow I bid ye adieu-- + A lasting adieu; for now, dim in the distance, + The shores of Hibernia recede from my view. + Farewell to the cliffs, tempest-beaten and gray, + Which guard the loved shores of my own native land; + Farewell to the village and sail-shadowed bay, + The forest-crowned hill and the water-washed strand." + +His eyes swam; it was his own poem, the first he ever had in print. + +[Illustration: WHITTIER'S STUDY AT AMESBURY, MASS.] + +"What is the matter with thee?" his father demanded, seeing how dazed he +was; but, though he resumed his work on the wall, he could not speak, +and he had to steal a glance at the paper again and again, before he +could convince himself that he was not dreaming. Sure enough, the poem +was there with his initial at the foot of it,--"W., Haverhill, June 1st, +1826,"--and, better still, this editorial notice: "If 'W.,' at +Haverhill, will continue to favor us with pieces beautiful as the one +inserted in our poetical department of to-day, we shall esteem it a +favor." + +Fame never passes true genius by, and when it came it brought with it +the love and reverence of thousands, who recognize in Whittier a nature +abounding in patience, unselfishness, and all the sweetness of Christian +charity. + +[Footnote 1: The selections from Mr. Whittier's poems contained in this +article are included by kind permission of Messrs. Houghton, +Mifflin & Co.] + + + + + =Christmas= + + _December 25_ + + +A festival held every year in memory of the birth of Christ. Christmas +is essentially a day of rejoicing and thanksgiving and of good will +toward others. Many customs older than Christianity mark the +festivities. In our country the observance of the day was discouraged in +colonial times, and in England in 1643 Parliament abolished the day. Now +its celebration is world-wide and by all classes and creeds. + + + =HOW UNCLE SAM OBSERVES CHRISTMAS= + + BY CLIFFORD HOWARD + +Of course Uncle Sam is best acquainted with the good old-fashioned +Christmas--the kind we have known all about since we were little bits of +children. There are the Christmas trees with their pretty decorations +and candles, and the mistletoe and holly and all sorts of evergreens to +make the house look bright, while outside the trees are bare, the ground +is white with snow, and Jack Frost is prowling around, freezing up the +ponds and pinching people's noses. And then there is dear old Santa +Claus with his reindeer, galloping about on the night before Christmas, +and scrambling down chimneys to fill the stockings that hang in a row by +the fireplace. + +It is the time of good cheer and happiness and presents for everybody; +the time of chiming bells and joyful carols; of turkey and candy and +plum-pudding and all the other good things that go to make up a truly +merry Christmas. And here and there throughout the country, some of the +quaint old customs of our forefathers are still observed at this time, +as, for instance, the pretty custom of "Christmas waits"--boys and girls +who go about from house to house on Christmas eve, or early Christmas +morning, singing carols. + +But, aside from the Christmas customs we all know so well, Uncle Sam has +many strange and special ways of observing Christmas; for in this big +country of his there are many different kinds of people, and they all do +not celebrate Christmas in the same way, as you shall see. + + + =IN THE SOUTH= + +Siss! Bang! Boom! Sky-rockets hissing, crackers snapping, cannons +roaring, horns tooting, bells ringing, and youngsters shouting with wild +delight. That is the way Christmas begins down South. + +[Illustration: CHRISTMAS IN THE SOUTH] + +It starts at midnight, or even before; and all day long fire-crackers +are going off in the streets of every city, town, and village of the +South, from Virginia to Louisiana. A Northern boy, waking up suddenly in +New Orleans or Mobile or Atlanta, would think he was in the midst of +a rousing Fourth-of-July celebration. In some of the towns the brass +bands come out and add to the jollity of the day by marching around and +playing "My Maryland" and "Dixie"; while the soldier companies parade up +and down the streets to the strains of joyous music and fire salutes +with cannons and rifles. + +To the girls and boys of the South, Christmas is the noisiest and +jolliest day of the year. The Fourth of July doesn't compare with it. +And as for the darkies, they look upon Christmas as a holiday that was +invented for their especial happiness. They take it for granted that all +the "white folks" they know will give them presents; and with grinning +faces they are up bright and early, asking for "Christmus gif', mistah; +Christmus gif, missus." No one thinks of refusing them, and at the end +of the day they are richer and happier than at any other time during the +whole year. + +Except for the jingle of sleigh-bells and the presence of Jack Frost, a +Christmas in the South is in other ways very much like that in the +North. The houses are decorated with greens, mistletoe hangs above the +doorways, Santa Claus comes down the chimneys and fills the waiting +stockings, while Christmas dinner is not complete without the familiar +turkey and cranberry sauce, plum puddings and pies. + + + =IN NEW ENGLAND= + +For a great many years there was no Christmas in New England. The +Pilgrims and the Puritans did not believe in such celebrations. In fact, +they often made it a special point to do their hardest work on Christmas +day, just to show their contempt for what they considered a pagan +festival. + +During colonial times there was a law in Massachusetts forbidding any +one to celebrate Christmas; and if anybody was so rash in those days as +to go about tooting a horn and shouting a "Merry Christmas!" he was +promptly brought to his senses by being arrested and punished. + +[Illustration: CHRISTMAS SPORTS IN NEW ENGLAND] + +Of course things are very different in New England now, but in many +country towns the people still make more of Thanksgiving than they do of +Christmas; and there are hundreds of New England men and women still +living who knew nothing of Christmas as children--who never hung up +their stockings; who never waited for Santa Claus; who never had a +tree; who never even had a Christmas present! + +Nowadays, however, Christmas in New England is like Christmas anywhere +else; but here and there, even now, the effects of the early Puritan +ideas may still be seen. In some of the smaller and out-of-the-way towns +and villages you will find Christmas trees and evergreens in only a very +few of the houses, and in some places--particularly in New +Hampshire--one big Christmas tree does for the whole town. This tree is +set up in the town hall, and there the children go to get their gifts, +which have been hung on the branches by the parents. Sometimes the tree +has no decorations--no candles, no popcorn strings, no shiny balls. +After the presents are taken off and given to the children, the tree +remains perfectly bare. There is usually a short entertainment of +recitations and songs, and a speech or two perhaps, and then the little +folks, carrying their presents with them, go back to their homes. + + + =IN NEW MEXICO= + +In certain parts of New Mexico, among the old Spanish settlements, the +celebration of Christmas begins more than a week before the day. In the +evenings, a party of men and women go together to the house of some +friend--a different house being visited each evening. When they arrive, +they knock on the door and begin to sing, and when those in the house +ask, "Who is there?" they reply, "The Virgin Mary and St. Joseph seek +lodgings in your house." At first the inmates of the house refuse to let +them in. This is done to carry out the Bible story of Joseph and Mary +being unable to find lodgings in Bethlehem. But in a little while the +door is opened and the visitors are heartily welcomed. As soon as they +enter, they kneel and repeat a short prayer; and when the devotional +exercises are concluded, the rest of the evening is spent in +merrymaking. + +On Christmas eve the people of the village gather together in some large +room or hall and give a solemn little play, commemorating the birthday +of the Saviour. One end of the room is used as a stage, and this is +fitted up to represent the stable and the manger; and the characters in +the sacred story of Bethlehem--Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the wise +men, and the angels--are represented in the tableaux, and with a +genuine, reverential spirit. Even the poorer people of the town take +part in these Christmas plays. + + + =AMONG THE SHAKERS= + +The Shakers observe Christmas by a dinner at which the men and women +both sit down at the same table. This custom of theirs is the thing that +serves to make Christmas different from any other day among the Shakers. +During all the rest of the year the men and women eat their meals at +separate tables. + +At sunset on Christmas day, after a service in the church, they march to +the community-house, where the dinner is waiting. The men sit on one +side of the table and the women on the other. At the head sits an old +man called the elder, who begins the meal by saying grace, after which +each one in turn gets up and, lifting the right hand, says in a solemn +voice, "God is love." The dinner is eaten in perfect silence. Not a +voice is heard until the meal comes to an end. Then the men and women +rise and sing, standing in their places at the table. As the singing +proceeds they mark time with their hands and feet. Then their bodies +begin to sway from side to side in the peculiar manner that has given +this sect its name of Shakers. + +When the singing comes to an end, the elder chants a prayer, after which +the men and women silently file out and leave the building. + + + =AMONG THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS= + +"You'd better look out, or Pelznickel will catch you!" This is the dire +threat held over naughty boys and girls at Christmas-time in some of the +country settlements of the Pennsylvania Germans, or Pennsylvania Dutch, +as they are often called. + +Pelznickel is another name for Santa Claus. But he is not altogether the +same old Santa that we welcome so gladly. On Christmas eve some one in +the neighborhood impersonates Pelznickel by dressing up as an old man +with a long white beard. Arming himself with a switch and carrying a bag +of toys over his shoulder, he goes from house to house, where the +children are expecting him. + +[Illustration: A VISIT FROM PELZNICKEL] + +He asks the parents how the little ones have behaved themselves during +the year. To each of those who have been good he gives a present from +his bag. But--woe betide the naughty ones! These are not only supposed +to get no presents, but Pelznickel catches them by the collar and +playfully taps them with his switch. + + + =IN PORTO RICO= + +The Porto Rican boys and girls would be frightened out of their wits if +Santa Claus should come to them in a sleigh drawn by reindeer and should +try to enter the houses and fill their stockings. Down there, Santa +Claus does not need reindeer or any other kind of steeds, for the +children say that he just comes flying through the air like a bird. +Neither does he bother himself looking for stockings, for such things +are not so plentiful in Porto Rico as they are in cooler climates. +Instead of stockings, the children use little boxes, which they make +themselves. These they place on the roofs and in the courtyards, and old +Santa Claus drops the gifts into them as he flies around at night with +his bag on his back. + +He is more generous in Porto Rico than he is anywhere else. He does not +come on Christmas eve only, but is likely to call around every night or +two during the week. Each morning, therefore, the little folks run out +eagerly to see whether anything more has been left in their boxes during +the night. + +Christmas in Porto Rico is a church festival of much importance, and the +celebration of it is made up chiefly of religious ceremonies intended to +commemorate the principal events in the life of the Saviour. Beginning +with the celebration of his birth, at Christmas-time, the feast-days +follow one another in rapid succession. Indeed, it may justly be said +that they do not really come to an end until Easter. + +[Illustration: BETHLEHEM DAY IN PORTO RICO] + +One of the most popular of these festival-days is that known as +Bethlehem day. This is celebrated on the 12th of January, in memory of +the coming of the Magi. The celebration consists of a procession of +children through the streets of the town. The foremost three, dressed in +flowing robes to represent the wise men of the East, come riding along +on ponies, holding in their hands the gifts for the Infant King; +following them come angels and shepherds and flute-players, all +represented by children dressed in pretty costumes and carrying garlands +of flowers. These processions are among the most picturesque of all +Christmas celebrations. + + + =AMONG THE MORAVIANS= + +For many days before Christmas the Moravian housewives in Bethlehem, +Pennsylvania, are busy in their kitchens making good things for the +holidays--mint-cakes, pepper-nuts, _Kuemmelbrod_, sugar-cake, mince-pies, +and, most important of all, large quantities of "Christmas cakes." These +Christmas cakes are a kind of ginger cooky, crisp and spicy, and are +made according to a recipe known only to the Moravians. They are made in +all sorts of curious shapes--birds, horses, bears, lions, fishes, +turtles, stars, leaves, and funny little men and women; so that they are +not only good to eat, but are ornamental as well, and are often used by +the good fathers and mothers as decorations for the "_Putz_." + +Every Moravian family has its _Putz_ at Christmas-time. This consists of +a Christmas tree surrounded at its base by a miniature landscape made up +of moss and greens and make-believe rocks, and adorned with toy houses +and tiny fences and trees and all sorts of little animals and toy +people. + +[Illustration: A CHRISTMAS "PUTZ"] + +On Christmas eve a love-feast is held in the church. The greater part of +the service is devoted to music, for which the Moravians have always +been noted. While the choir is singing, cake and coffee are brought in +and served to all the members of the congregation, each one receiving a +good-sized bun and a large cup of coffee. Shortly before the end of the +meeting lighted wax candles carried on large trays are brought into the +church, by men on one side and women on the other, and passed around to +the little folks--one for each boy and girl. This is meant to represent +the coming of the Light into the world, and is but one of the many +beautiful customs observed by the Moravians. + + + =IN ALASKA= + +"Going around with the star" is a popular Christmas custom among some of +the natives of Alaska who belong to the Greek Church. A large figure of +a star, covered with brightly colored paper, is carried about at night +by a procession of men and women and children. They call at the homes of +the well-to-do families of the village, marching about from house to +house, headed by the star-bearer and two men or boys carrying lanterns +on long poles. They are warmly welcomed at each place, and are invited +to come in and have some refreshments. After enjoying the cakes and +other good things, and singing one or two carols, they take up the star +and move on to the next house. + +These processions take place each night during Christmas week; but after +the second night the star-bearers are followed by men and boys dressed +in fantastic clothes, who try to catch the star-men and destroy their +stars. This part of the game is supposed to be an imitation of the +soldiers of Herod trying to destroy the children of Bethlehem; but these +happy folks of Alaska evidently don't think much about its meaning, for +they make a great frolic of it. Everybody is full of fun, and the frosty +air of the dark winter nights is filled with laughter as men and boys +and romping girls chase one another here and there in merry excitement. + + + =IN HAWAII= + +The natives of Hawaii say that Santa Claus comes over to the islands in +a boat. Perhaps he does; it would be a tedious journey for his reindeer +to make without stopping from San Francisco to Honolulu. At all events, +he gets there by some means or other, for he would not neglect the +little folks of those islands away out in the Pacific. + +They look for him as eagerly as do the boys and girls in the lands of +snow and ice, and although it must almost melt him to get around in that +warm climate with his furs on, he never misses a Christmas. + +Before the missionaries and the American settlers went to Hawaii, the +natives knew nothing about Christmas, but now they all celebrate the +day, and do it, of course, in the same way as the Americans who live +there. The main difference between Christmas in Honolulu and Christmas +in New York is that in Honolulu in December the weather is like June in +New York. Birds are warbling in the leafy trees; gardens are overflowing +with roses and carnations; fields and mountain slopes are ablaze with +color; and a sunny sky smiles dreamily upon the glories of a summer day. +In the morning people go to church, and during the day there are sports +and games and merry-making of all sorts. The Christmas dinner is eaten +out of doors in the shade of the veranda, and everybody is happy and +contented. + + + =IN THE PHILIPPINES= + +"BUENAS PASQUAS!" This is the hearty greeting that comes to the dweller +in the Philippines on Christmas morning, and with it, perhaps, an +offering of flowers. + +[Illustration: CHRISTMAS IN THE PHILIPPINES] + +The Filipino, like the Porto Rican and all others who have lived under +Spanish rule, look upon Christmas as a great religious festival, and one +that requires very special attention. On Christmas eve the churches are +open, and the coming of the great day is celebrated by a mass at +midnight; and during all of Christmas day mass is held every hour, so +that every one may have an opportunity to attend. Even the popular +Christmas customs among the people are nearly all of a religious +character, for most of them consist of little plays or dramas founded +upon the life of the Saviour. + +These plays are called _pastures_, and are performed by bands of young +men and women, and sometimes mere boys and girls, who go about from +village to village and present their simple little plays to expectant +audiences at every stopping-place. The visit of the wise men, the flight +into Egypt--these and many other incidents as related in the Scriptures +are acted in these _pastores_. + + + + + =New Year's Day= + + _January 1_ + + +The custom of celebrating the first day of the year is a very ancient +one. The exchange of gifts, the paying of calls, the making of good +resolutions for the new year and feasting often characterize the day. +The custom of ringing the church bells is of the widest extent. + +The old-world custom of sitting up on New Year's eve to see the old year +out is still very common. + + + =EXTRACT FROM "SOCIAL LIFE IN THE COLONIES"= + + _The Century Magazine, July 1885_ + + BY EDWARD EGGLESTON + +New Year's Day was celebrated among the New York Dutch by the calls of +the gentlemen on their lady friends; it is perhaps the only distinctly +Dutch custom that afterward came into widespread use in the United +States. New Year's Day, and the church festivals kept alike by the Dutch +and English, brought an intermission of labor to the New York slaves, +who gathered in throngs to devote themselves to wild frolics. The +Brooklyn fields were crowded with them on New Year's Day, at Easter, at +Whitsuntide, or "Prixter," as the Dutch called it, and on "San Claus +Day"--the feast of St. Nicholas. + + + =A CHINESE NEW YEAR'S IN CALIFORNIA= + + BY H.H. + +The Chinese in California have a week of holiday at their New Year's in +February, just as we do between the twenty-fifth of December and the +first of January. + +In the cities they make a fine display of fire-works. They use barrels +full of fire-crackers, and the Chinese boys do not fire them off, as the +American boys do, a cracker at a time; they bring out a large box full, +or a barrel full, and fire them off package after package, as fast as +they can. + +In Santa Barbara, where I was during the Chinese New Year's of 1882, we +heard the crackers long before we reached Chinatown. After these stopped +we went into the houses. Every Chinese family keeps open house on New +Year's day all day long. They set up a picture or an image of their god +in some prominent place, and on a table in front of this they put a +little feast of good things to eat. Some are for an offering to the god +and some are for their friends who call. Everyone is expected to take +something. + +There was no family so poor that it did not have something set out, and +some sort of a shrine made for its idol; in some houses it was only a +coarse wooden box turned up on one end like a cupboard, with two or +three little teacups full of rice or tea, and one poor candle burning +before a paper picture of the god pasted or tacked at the back of the +box. + +It was amusing to watch the American boys darting about from shop to +shop and house to house, coming out with their hands full of queer +Chinese things to eat, showing them to each other and comparing notes. + +"Oh, let me taste that!" one boy would exclaim on seeing some new thing; +and "Where did you get it? Which house gives that?" Then the whole party +would race off to make a descent on that house and get some more. I +thought it wonderfully hospitable on the part of the Chinese people to +let all these American boys run in and out of their houses in that way, +and help themselves from the New Year's feast. + +Some of the boys were very rude and ill-mannered--little better than +street beggars; but the Chinese were polite and generous to them all. +The joss-house, where they held their religious services, was a chamber +opening out upon an upper balcony. This balcony was hung with lanterns +and decorated. The door at the foot of the stairs which led to this +chamber stood open all day, and any one who wished could go up and say +his prayers in the Chinese fashion, which is a curious fashion indeed. +They have slender reeds with tight rolls of brown paper fastened at one +end. In front of the image or picture of their god they set a box or +vase of ashes, on which a little sandalwood is kept burning. When they +wish to make a prayer they stick one of the reeds down in these ashes +and set the paper on fire. They think the smoke of the burning paper +will carry the prayer up to heaven. + +I asked a Chinese man who could speak a little English why they put +teacups of wine and tea and rice before their god; if they believed that +the god would eat and drink. + +"Oh, no," he said, "that not what for. What you like self, you give god. +He see. He like see." + + + + + =Lincoln's Birthday= + + _February 12_ + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + Born February 12, 1809 Died April 15, 1865 + +Lincoln was the sixteenth President of the United States. He was +descended from a Quaker family of English origin. He followed various +occupations, including those of a farm laborer, a salesman, a merchant, +and a surveyor; was admitted to the bar in 1836 and began the practice +of law in this year. He was twice elected President, the second time +receiving 212 out of 233 electoral votes. He was shot by John Wilkes +Booth at Ford's Theater, Washington, April 14, 1865, and died the +following day. + + + =ABRAHAM LINCOLN= + + BY HELEN NICOLAY + +Abraham Lincoln was not an ordinary man. He was, in truth, in the +language of the poet Lowell, a "new birth of our new soil." His +greatness did not consist in growing up on the frontier. An ordinary man +would have found on the frontier exactly what he would have found +elsewhere--a commonplace life, varying only with the changing ideas and +customs of time and place. But for the man with extraordinary powers of +mind and body, for one gifted by Nature as Abraham Lincoln was gifted, +the pioneer life, with its severe training in self-denial, patience, and +industry, developed his character, and fitted him for the great duties +of his after life as no other training could have done. + +[Illustration: LINCOLN'S HOME AFTER HIS MARRIAGE] + +His advancement in the astonishing career that carried him from +obscurity to world-wide fame--from postmaster of New Salem village to +President of the United States, from captain of a backwoods volunteer +company to Commander-in-chief of the army and navy--was neither sudden +nor accidental nor easy. He was both ambitious and successful, but his +ambition was moderate, and his success was slow. And, because his +success was slow, it never outgrew either his judgment or his powers. +Between the day when he left his father's cabin and launched his canoe +on the head waters of the Sangamon River to begin life on his own +account, and the day of his first inauguration, lay full thirty years +of toil, self-denial, patience; often of effort baffled, of hope +deferred; sometimes of bitter disappointment. Even with the natural gift +of great genius, it required an average lifetime and faithful, +unrelaxing effort to transform the raw country stripling into a fit +ruler for this great nation. + +Almost every success was balanced--sometimes overbalanced--by a seeming +failure. He went into the Black Hawk war a captain, and through no fault +of his own came out a private. He rode to the hostile frontier on +horseback, and trudged home on foot. His store "winked out." His +surveyor's compass and chain, with which he was earning a scanty living, +were sold for debt. He was defeated in his first attempts to be +nominated for the legislature and for Congress; defeated in his +application to be appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office; +defeated for the Senate, when he had forty-five votes to begin with, by +a man who had only five votes to begin with; defeated again after his +joint debates with Douglas; defeated in the nomination for +Vice-President, when a favorable nod from half a dozen politicians would +have brought him success. + +Failures? Not so. Every seeming defeat was a slow success. His was the +growth of the oak, and not of Jonah's gourd. He could not become a +master workman until he had served a tedious apprenticeship. It was the +quarter of a century of reading, thinking, speech-making, and law-making +which fitted him to be the chosen champion in the great Lincoln-Douglas +debates of 1858. It was the great moral victory won in those debates +(although the senatorship went to Douglas), added to the title "Honest +Old Abe," won by truth and manhood among his neighbors during a whole +lifetime, that led the people of the United States to trust him with the +duties and powers of President. + +[Illustration: HOUSE IN WHICH LINCOLN LIVED WHEN HE WAS ELECTED +PRESIDENT] + +And when, at last, after thirty years of endeavor, success had beaten +down defeat, when Lincoln had been nominated, elected, and inaugurated, +came the crowning trial of his faith and constancy. When the people, by +free and lawful choice, had placed honor and power in his hands, when +his name could convene Congress, approve laws, cause ships to sail and +armies to move, there suddenly came upon the government and the nation a +fatal paralysis. Honor seemed to dwindle and power to vanish. Was he +then, after all, not to be President? Was patriotism dead? Was the +Constitution only a bit of waste paper? Was the Union gone? + +The outlook was indeed grave. There was treason in Congress, treason in +the Supreme Court, treason in the army and navy. Confusion and discord +were everywhere. To use Mr. Lincoln's forcible figure of speech, sinners +were calling the righteous to repentance. Finally the flag, insulted and +fired upon, trailed in surrender at Sumter; and then came the +humiliation of the riot at Baltimore, and the President for a few days +practically a prisoner in the capital of the nation. + +[Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND TAD] + +But his apprenticeship had been served, and there was to be no more +failure. With faith and justice and generosity he conducted for four +long years a war whose frontiers stretched from the Potomac to the Rio +Grande; whose soldiers numbered a million men on each side. The labor, +the thought, the responsibility, the strain of mind and anguish of soul +that he gave to his great task, who can measure? "Here was place for no +holiday magistrate, no fair-weather sailor," as Emerson justly said of +him. "The new pilot was hurried to the helm in a tornado. In four +years--four years of battle days--his endurance, his fertility of +resources, his magnanimity, were sorely tried and never found wanting." +"By his courage, his justice, his even temper, ... his humanity, he stood +a heroic figure in a heroic epoch." + +[Illustration: THE LINCOLN MONUMENT AT SPRINGFIELD] + +What but a lifetime's schooling in disappointment; what but the +pioneer's self-reliance and freedom from prejudice; what but the clear +mind quick to see natural right and unswerving in its purpose to follow +it; what but the steady self-control, the unwarped sympathy, the +unbounded charity of this man with spirit so humble and soul so great, +could have carried him through the labors he wrought to the victory he +attained? + +With truth it could be written, "His heart was as great as the world, +but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong." So, "with +malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as +God gave him to see the right," he lived and died. We, who have never +seen him, yet feel daily the influence of his kindly life, and cherish +among our most precious possessions the heritage of his example. + +[Illustration: STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. BY AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS] + + + =THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS= + +Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this +continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. + +Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or +any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on +a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of +that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives +that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we +should do this. + +But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we +cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled +here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. +The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it +can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, +to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here +have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here +dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored +dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the +last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these +dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall +have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the +people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. + + The above address was delivered by Abraham Lincoln, November 19, + 1863, at the dedication of the Gettysburg battle-field as a + national cemetery for Union soldiers. + + + =O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!= + + O captain. My captain. Our fearful trip is done; + The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won; + The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, + While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring: + But O heart! Heart! Heart! + Leave you not the little spot, + Where on the deck my captain lies, + Fallen cold and dead. + + O captain. My captain. Rise up and hear the bells; + Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills; + For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding; + For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; + O captain. Dear father. + This arm I push beneath you; + It is some dream that on the deck, + You've fallen cold and dead. + + My captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; + My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will; + But the ship, the ship is anchor'd safe, its voyage closed and done; + From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won: + Exult O shores, and ring, O bells. + But I with silent tread, + Walk the spot the captain lies, + Fallen cold and dead. + + WALT WHITMAN. + + + + + =St. Valentine's Day= + + _February 14_ + + +Custom decrees that on this day the young shall exchange missives in +which the love of the sender is told in verses, pictures, and +sentiments. No reason beyond a guess can be given to connect St. +Valentine with these customs. He was a Christian martyr, about 270 A.D., +while the practice of sending valentines had its origin in the heathen +worship of Juno. It is Cupid's day, and no boy or girl needs any +encouragement to make the most of it. + + + =WHO BEGAN IT?= + + BY OLIVE THORNE + +There's one thing we know positively, that St. Valentine didn't begin +this fourteenth of February excitement; but who _did_ is a question not +so easy to answer. I don't think any one would have begun it if he could +have known what the simple customs of his day would have grown into, or +could even have imagined the frightful valentines that disgrace our +shops to-day. + +It began, for us, with our English ancestors, who used to assemble on +the eve of St. Valentine's day, put the names of all the young maidens +promiscuously in a box, and let each bachelor draw one out. The damsel +whose name fell to his lot became his valentine for the year. He wore +her name in his bosom or on his sleeve, and it was his duty to attend +her and protect her. As late as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries +this custom was very popular, even among the upper classes. + +But the wiseacres have traced the custom farther back. Some of them +think it was begun by the ancient Romans, who had on the fourteenth or +fifteenth of February a festival in honor of Lupercus, "the destroyer of +wolves"--a wolf-destroyer being quite worthy of honor in those wild +days, let me tell you. At this festival it was the custom, among other +curious things, to pair off the young men and maidens in the same chance +way, and with the same result of a year's attentions. + +Even this is not wholly satisfactory. Who began it among the Romans? +becomes the next interesting question. One old writer says it was +brought to Rome from Arcadia sixty years before the Trojan war (which +Homer wrote about, you know). I'm sure that's far enough back to satisfy +anybody. The same writer also says that the Pope tried to abolish it in +the fifth century, but he succeeded only in sending it down to us in the +name of St. Valentine instead of Lupercus. + +[Illustration: FOR THIS WAS ON SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY] + +Our own ancestry in England and Scotland have observed some very funny +customs within the last three centuries. At one time valentines were +fashionable among the nobility, and, while still selected by lot, it +became the duty of a gentleman to give to the lady who fell to his lot a +handsome present. Pieces of jewelry costing thousands of dollars were +not unusual, though smaller things, as gloves, were more common. + +There was a tradition among the country people that every bird chose its +mate on Valentine's day; and at one time it was the custom for young +folks to go out before daylight on that morning and try to catch an owl +and two sparrows in a net. If they succeeded, it was a good omen, and +entitled them to gifts from the villagers. Another fashion among them +was to write the valentine, tie it to an apple or orange, and steal up +to the house of the chosen one in the evening, open the door quietly, +and throw it in. + +Those were the days of charms, and of course the rural maidens had a +sure and infallible charm foretelling the future husband. On the eve of +St. Valentine's day, the anxious damsel prepared for sleep by pinning to +her pillow five bay leaves, one at each corner and one in the middle +(which must have been delightful to sleep on, by the way). If she +dreamed of her sweetheart, she was sure to marry him before the end of +the year. + +But to make it a sure thing, the candidate for matrimony must boil an +egg hard, take out the yolk, and fill its place with salt. Just before +going to bed, she must eat egg, salt, shell and all, and neither speak +nor drink after it. If that wouldn't insure her a vivid dream, there +surely could be no virtue in charms. + +Modern valentines, aside from the valuable presents often contained in +them, are very pretty things, and they are growing prettier every year, +since large business houses spare neither skill nor money in getting +them up. The most interesting thing about them, to "grown-ups," is the +way they are made; and perhaps even you youngsters, who watch eagerly +for the postman, "sinking beneath the load of delicate embarrassments +not his own," would like to know how satin and lace and flowers and +other dainty things grew into a valentine. + +It was no fairy's handiwork. It went through the hands of grimy-looking +workmen before it reached your hands. + +To be sure, a dreamy artist may have designed it, but a lithographer, +with inky fingers, printed the picture part of it; a die-cutter, with +sleeves rolled up, made a pattern in steel of the lace-work on the edge; +and a dingy-looking pressman, with a paper hat on, stamped the pattern +around the picture. Another hard-handed workman rubbed the back of the +stamped lace with sand-paper till it came in holes and looked like lace, +and not merely like stamped paper; and a row of girls at a common long +table put on the colors with stencils, gummed on the hearts and darts +and cupids and flowers, and otherwise finished the thing exactly like +the pattern before them. + +You see, the sentiment about a valentine doesn't begin until Tom, Dick, +or Harry takes it from the stationer, and writes your name on it. + +[Illustration: ST. VALENTINE'S LETTER-CARRIERS] + + + + + =Washington's Birthday= + + _February 22_ + + GEORGE WASHINGTON + + Born February 22, 1732 Died December 14, 1799 + + +Washington was the first President of the United States, and the son of +a Virginia planter. He attended school until about sixteen years of age, +was engaged in surveying, 1748-51, became an officer in the Continental +army, and President in 1789. He was re-elected in 1793. He was +preeminent for his sound judgment and perfect self-control. It is said +that no act of his public life can be traced to personal caprice, +ambition, or resentment. + + + =THE BOYHOOD OF WASHINGTON= + + BY HORACE E. SCUDDER + +It was near the shore of the Potomac River, between Pope's Creek and +Bridge's Creek, that Augustine Washington lived when his son George was +born. The land had been in the family ever since Augustine's +grandfather, John Washington, had bought it, when he came over from +England in 1657. John Washington was a soldier and a public-spirited +man, and so the parish in which he lived--for Virginia was divided into +parishes as some other colonies into townships--was named Washington. It +is a quiet neighborhood; not a sign remains of the old house, and the +only mark of the place is a stone slab, broken and overgrown with weeds +and brambles, which lies on a bed of bricks taken from the remnants of +the old chimney of the house. It bears the inscription: + + Here +The 11th of February, 1732 (old style) + George Washington + was born + +[Illustration: SLAB THAT MARKS THE LOCATION OF THE HOUSE WHERE +WASHINGTON WAS BORN] + +The English had lately agreed to use the calendar of Pope Gregory, which +added eleven days to the reckoning, but people still used the old style +as well as the new. By the new style, the birthday was February 22, and +that is the day which is now observed. The family into which the child +was born consisted of the father and mother, Augustine and Mary +Washington, and two boys, Lawrence and Augustine. These were sons of +Augustine Washington and a former wife who had died four years before. +George Washington was the eldest of the children of Augustine and Mary +Washington; he had afterward three brothers and two sisters, but one of +the sisters died in infancy. + +It was not long after George Washington's birth that the house in which +he was born was burned, and as his father was at the time especially +interested in some iron-works at a distance, it was determined not to +rebuild upon the lonely place. Accordingly Augustine Washington removed +his family to a place which he owned in Stafford County, on the banks of +the Rappahannock River opposite Fredericksburg. The house is not now +standing, but a picture was made of it before it was destroyed. It was, +like many Virginia houses of the day, divided into four rooms on a +floor, and had great outside chimneys at either end. + +Here George Washington spent his childhood. He learned to read, write, +and cipher at a small school kept by Hobby, the sexton of the parish +church. Among his playmates was Richard Henry Lee, who was afterward a +famous Virginian. When the boys grew up, they wrote to each other of +grave matters of war and state, but here is the beginning of their +correspondence, written when they were nine years old. + + "RICHARD HENRY LEE TO GEORGE WASHINGTON: + + "Pa brought me two pretty books full of pictures he got them in + Alexandria they have pictures of dogs and cats and tigers and + elefants and ever so many pretty things cousin bids me send you one + of them it has a picture of an elefant and a little Indian boy on + his back like uncle jo's sam pa says if I learn my tasks good he + will let uncle jo bring me to see you will you ask your ma to let + you come to see me. + + "RICHARD HENRY LEE." + + + "GEORGE WASHINGTON TO RICHARD HENRY LEE: + + "DEAR DICKEY I thank you very much for the pretty picture book you + gave me. Sam asked me to show him the pictures and I showed him all + the pictures in it; and I read to him how the tame elephant took + care of the master's little boy, and put him on his back and would + not let anybody touch his master's little son. I can read three or + four pages sometimes without missing a word. Ma says I may go to + see you, and stay all day with you next week if it be not rainy. + She says I may ride my pony Hero if Uncle Ben will go with me and + lead Hero. I have a little piece of poetry about the picture book + you gave me, but I mustn't tell you who wrote the poetry. + + "'G.W.'s compliments to R.H.L., + And likes his book full well, + Henceforth will count him his friend, + And hopes many happy days he may spend.' + + "Your good friend, + "GEORGE WASHINGTON. + + "I am going to get a whip top soon, and you may see it and whip + it."[1] + +It looks very much as if Richard Henry sent his letter off just as it +was written. I suspect that his correspondent's letter was looked over, +corrected, and copied before it was sent. Very possibly Augustine +Washington was absent at the time on one of his journeys; but at any +rate the boy owed most of his training to his mother, for only two years +after this, his father died, and he was left to his mother's care. + +[Illustration: MONUMENT ON THE SITE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON'S BIRTHPLACE] + +She was a woman born to command, and since she was left alone with a +family and an estate to care for, she took the reins into her own hands, +and never gave them up to any one else. She used to drive about +in an old-fashioned open chaise, visiting the various parts of her farm, +just as a planter would do on horseback. The story is told that she had +given an agent directions how to do a piece of work, and he had seen fit +to do it differently, because he thought his way a better one. He showed +her the improvement. + +"And pray," said the lady, "who gave you any exercise of judgment in the +matter? I command you, sir; there is nothing left for you but to obey." + +In those days, more than now, a boy used very formal language when +addressing his mother. He might love her warmly, but he was expected to +treat her with a great show of respect. When Washington wrote to his +mother, even after he was of age, he began his letter, "Honored Madam," +and signed it, "Your dutiful son." This was a part of the manners of the +time. It was like the stiff dress which men wore when they paid their +respects to others; it was put on for the occasion, and one would have +been thought very unmannerly who did not make a marked difference +between his every-day dress and that which he wore when he went into the +presence of his betters. So Washington, when he wrote to his mother, +would not say, "Dear Mother." + +Such habits as this go deeper than mere forms of speech. I do not +suppose that the sons of this lady feared her, but they stood in awe of +her, which is quite a different thing. + +"We were all as mute as mice, when in her presence," says one of +Washington's companions; and common report makes her to have been very +much such a woman as her son afterward was a man. + +I think that George Washington owed two strong traits to his mother,--a +governing spirit, and a spirit of order and method. She taught him many +lessons and gave him many rules; but, after all, it was her character +shaping his which was most powerful. She taught him to be truthful, but +her lessons were not half so forcible as her own truthfulness. + +There is a story told of George Washington's boyhood--unfortunately +there are not many stories--which is to the point. His father had taken +a great deal of pride in his blooded horses, and his mother afterward +took great pains to keep the stock pure. She had several young horses +that had not yet been broken, and one of them in particular, a sorrel, +was extremely spirited. No one had been able to do anything with it, and +it was pronounced thoroughly vicious, as people are apt to pronounce +horses which they have not learned to master. George was determined to +ride this colt, and told his companions that if they would help him +catch it, he would ride and tame it. + +[Illustration: OLD WHITE CHAPEL, LANCASTER COUNTY, VIRGINIA, WHERE +WASHINGTON AND HIS MOTHER ATTENDED SERVICE] + +Early in the morning they set out for the pasture, where the boys +managed to surround the sorrel and then to put a bit into its mouth. +Washington sprang on its back, the boys dropped the bridle, and away +flew the angry animal. Its rider at once began to command; the horse +resisted, backing about the field, rearing and plunging. The boys became +thoroughly alarmed, but Washington kept his seat, never once losing his +self-control or his mastery of the colt. The struggle was a sharp one; +when suddenly, as if determined to rid itself of its rider, the creature +leaped into the air with a tremendous bound. It was its last. The +violence burst a blood-vessel, and the noble horse fell dead. + +Before the boys could sufficiently recover to consider how they should +extricate themselves from the scrape, they were called to breakfast; and +the mistress of the house, knowing that they had been in the fields, +began to ask after her stock. + +"Pray, young gentlemen," said she, "have you seen my blooded colts in +your rambles? I hope they are well taken care of. My favorite, I am +told, is as large as his sire." + +The boys looked at one another, and no one liked to speak. Of course the +mother repeated her question. + +"The sorrel is dead, madam," said her son. "I killed him!" + +And then he told the whole story. They say that his mother flushed with +anger, as her son often used to, and then, like him, controlled herself, +and presently said, quietly: + +"It is well; but while I regret the loss of my favorite, I rejoice in +my son who always speaks the truth." + +The story of Washington's killing the blooded colt is of a piece with +other stories less particular, which show that he was a very athletic +fellow. Of course, when a boy becomes famous, every one likes to +remember the wonderful things he did before he was famous, and +Washington's playmates, when they grew up, used to show the spot by the +Rappahannock near Fredericksburg where he stood and threw a stone to the +opposite bank; and at the celebrated Natural Bridge, the arch of which +is two hundred feet above the ground, they always tell the visitor that +George Washington threw a stone in the air the whole height. He +undoubtedly took part in all the sports which were the favorites of his +country at that time--he pitched heavy bars, tossed quoits, ran, leaped, +and wrestled; for he was a powerful, large-limbed young fellow, and he +had a very large and strong hand. + +(From "Life of George Washington" by Horace E. Scudder, published by +Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) + +(The illustrations in this story are copied from the original pictures in +Mr. B.J. Lossing's "Mt. Vernon and its Associations," by permission of +Messrs. J.C. Yorston & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio.) + +[Footnote 1: From B.J. Lossing's "The Home of Washington."] + + + + + =Longfellow's Birthday= + + _February 27_ + + HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW + + Born February 27, 1807 Died March 24, 1882 + + +Longfellow graduated at Bowdoin College in 1825; traveled in Europe in +1826; was professor at Bowdoin in 1829-35; again visited Europe 1835-36; +and was professor at Harvard College 1836-54. He continued to reside at +Cambridge. He is best known and loved for his poems, though he wrote +three novels. + + + =LONGFELLOW AND THE CHILDREN= + + BY LUCY LARCOM + +The poets who love children are the poets whom children love. It is +natural that they should care much for each other, because both children +and poets look into things in the same way,--simply, with open eyes and +hearts, seeing Nature as it is, and finding whatever is lovable and pure +in the people who surround them, as flowers may receive back from +flowers sweet odors for those which they have given. The little child is +born with a poet's heart in him, and the poet has been fitly called "the +eternal child." + +Not that all children or all poets are alike in this. But of Longfellow +we think as of one who has always been fresh and natural in his sympathy +for children, one who has loved them as they have loved him. + +We wish he had given us more of the memories of his own childhood. One +vivid picture of it comes to us in "My Lost Youth," a poem which shows +us how everything he saw when a child must have left within him a +life-long impression. That boyhood by the sea must have been full of +dreams as well as of pictures. The beautiful bay with its green islands, +widening out to the Atlantic on the east, and the dim chain of +mountains, the highest in New England, lying far away on the +northwestern horizon, give his native city a roomy feeling not often +experienced in the streets of a town; and the boy-poet must have felt +his imagination taking wings there, for many a long flight. So he more +than hints to us in his song: + + "I can see the shadowy lines of its trees, + And catch, in sudden gleams, + The sheen of the far-surrounding seas, + And islands that were the Hesperides + Of all my boyish dreams. + And the burden of that old song, + It murmurs and whispers still: + 'A boy's will is the wind's will, + And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.' + + "I remember the black wharves and the slips, + And the sea-tides tossing free; + And Spanish sailors with bearded lips, + And the beauty and mystery of the ships, + And the magic of the sea. + And the voice of that wayward song + Is singing and saying still: + 'A boy's will is the wind's will, + And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.'" + +Longfellow's earliest volume, "The Voices of the Night," was one of the +few books of American poetry that some of us who are now growing old +ourselves can remember reading, just as we were emerging from childhood. +"The Reaper and the Flowers" and the "Psalm of Life,"--I recall the +delight with which I used to repeat those poems. The latter, so full of +suggestions which a very young person could feel, but only half +understand, was for that very reason the more fascinating. It seemed to +give glimpses, through opening doors, of that wonderful new world of +mankind, where children are always longing to wander freely as men and +women. Looking forward and aspiring are among the first occupations of +an imaginative child; and the school-boy who declaimed the words: + + "Lives of great men all remind us + We can make our lives sublime," + +and the school-girl who read them quietly by herself, felt them, +perhaps, no less keenly than the man of thought and experience. + +Longfellow has said that-- + + "Sublimity always is simple + Both in sermon and song, a child can seize on its meaning," + +and the simplicity of his poetry is the reason why children and young +people have always loved it; the reason, also, why it has been enjoyed +by men and women and children all over the world. + +One of his poems which has been the delight of children and grown people +alike is the "Village Blacksmith," the first half of which is a +description that many a boy might feel as if he could have written +himself--if he only had the poet's command of words and rhymes, and the +poet's genius! Is not this one of the proofs of a good poem, that it +haunts us until it seems as if it had almost grown out of our own mind? +How life-like the picture is!-- + + "And children coming home from school + Look in at the open door; + They love to see the flaming forge, + And hear the bellows roar, + And catch the burning sparks that fly + Like chaff from a threshing-floor." + +No wonder the Cambridge children, when the old chestnut-tree that +overhung the smithy was cut down, had a memento shaped into a chair +from its boughs, to present to him who had made it an immortal tree in +his verse! It bore flower and fruit for them a second time in his +acknowledgment of the gift; for he told them how-- + + "There, by the blacksmith's forge, beside the street + Its blossoms, white and sweet, + Enticed the bees, until it seemed alive, + And murmured like a hive. + + "And when the wind of autumn, with a shout + Tossed its great arms about, + The shining chestnuts, bursting from the sheath, + Dropped to the ground beneath." + +In its own wild, winsome way, the song of "Hiawatha's Childhood" is one +of the prettiest fancies in poetry. It is a dream of babyhood in the +"forest primeval," with Nature for nurse and teacher; and it makes us +feel as if--were the poet's idea only a possibility--it might have been +very pleasant to be a savage baby, although we consider it so much +better to be civilized. + +How Longfellow loved the very little ones can be seen in such verses as +the "Hanging of the Crane," and in those earlier lines "To a Child," +where the baby on his mother's knee gazes at the painted tiles, shakes +his "coral rattle with the silver bells," or escapes through the open +door into the old halls where once + + "The Father of his country dwelt." + +Those verses give us a charming glimpse of the home-life in the historic +mansion which is now so rich with poetic, as well as patriotic +associations. + +How beautiful it was to be let in to that twilight library scene +described in the "Children's Hour": + + "A sudden rush from the stair-way, + A sudden raid from the hall! + By three doors left unguarded, + They enter my castle wall! + + "They climb up into my turret, + O'er the arms and back of my chair; + If I try to escape, they surround me; + They seem to be everywhere." + +Afterward, when sorrow and loss had come to the happy home, in the +sudden removal of the mother of those merry children, the father who +loved them so had a sadder song for them, as he looked onward into their +orphaned lives: + + "O little feet, that such long years + Must wander on, through hopes and fears, + Must ache and bleed beneath your load, + I, nearer to the wayside inn, + Where toil shall cease, and rest begin, + Am weary, thinking of your road!" + +[Illustration: LONGFELLOW'S HOUSE--ONCE WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS AT +CAMBRIDGE] + +Longfellow loved all children, and had a word for them whenever he met +them. + +At a concert, going early with her father, a little girl espied Mr. +Longfellow sitting alone, and begged that she might go and speak to him. +Her father, himself a stranger, took the liberty of introducing his +little daughter Edith to the poet. + +"Edith?" said Mr. Longfellow, tenderly. "Ah! I have an Edith, too; but +_my_ baby Edith is twenty years old." And he seated the child beside +him, taking her hand in his, and making her promise to come and see him +at his house in Cambridge. + +"What is the name of your sled, my boy?" he said to a small lad, who +came tugging one up the road toward him, on a winter morning. + +"It's 'Evange_line_.' Mr. Longfellow wrote 'Evange_line_.' Did you ever +see Mr. Longfellow?" answered the little fellow, as he ran by, doubtless +wondering at the smile on the face of the pleasant gray-haired +gentleman. + +Professor Monti, who witnessed the pretty scene, tells the story of a +little girl who one Christmas inquired the way to the poet's house, and +asked if she could just step inside the yard; and he relates how Mr. +Longfellow, being told she was there, went to the door and called her +in, and showed her the "old clock on the stairs," and many other +interesting things about the house, leaving his little guest with +beautiful memories of that Christmas day to carry all through her life. +This was characteristic of the poet's hospitality, delicate and +courteous and thoughtful to all who crossed his threshold. Many a +trembling young girl, frightened at her own boldness in having ventured +into his presence, was set at ease by her host in the most genial way; +he would make her forget herself in the interesting mementos all about +her, devoting himself to her entertainment as if it were the one +pleasure of the hour for him to do so. + +[Illustration: Henry W. Longfellow] + +It is often said, and with reason, that we Americans do not think enough +of manners--that politeness of behavior which comes from genuine +sympathy and a delicate perception of others' feelings. Certainly our +young people might look to Mr. Longfellow as a model in this respect. He +was a perfect gentleman, in the best sense of that term, always +considerate, and quick to see where he might do a kindness, or say a +pleasant word. + +The celebration of Longfellow's seventy-fifth birthday by +school-children all over the country is something that those children +must be glad to think of now--glad to remember that the poet knew how +much they cared for him and for what he had written. Even the blind +children, who have to read with their fingers, were enjoying his songs +with the rest. How pleasant that must have been to him! Certainly, as it +seems to me, the best tribute that the young people of the country can +pay to his memory is to become more familiar with his poems. + +We should not wait until a great and good man has left us before giving +him honor, or trying to understand what he has done for us. A dreary +world ours would be, if there were no poets' songs echoing through it; +and we may be proud of our country that it has a poetry of its own, +which it is for us to know and possess for ourselves. + +Longfellow has said: + + "What the leaves are to the forest + With light and air and food, + Ere their sweet and tender juices + Have been hardened into wood, + That to the world, are children": + +and something like this we may say of his songs. There is in all true +poetry a freshness of life which makes the writer of it immortal. + +The singer so much beloved has passed from sight, but the music of his +voice is in the air, and, listening to it, we know that he can not die. + +[Illustration] + + + + + =Inauguration Day= + + _March 4_ + + +The date was settled by the old Congress of the Confederation in 1788, +when the procedure was established for the election of a President. It +was decreed that the Electoral College should meet on the first +Wednesday of January, the votes be counted by the House of +Representatives on the first Wednesday of February, and the President be +inaugurated on the first Wednesday of March. This March date was the +4th. March 4 has been Inauguration Day ever since. + + + =HOW A PRESIDENT IS INAUGURATED= + + BY CLIFFORD HOWARD + +As you will remember, Thomas Jefferson was the first President of our +country to be inaugurated at Washington. This took place in the year +1801, when our national capital was not much more than a year old; and +you may imagine that the city was a very different-looking place from +what it is to-day. + +But now instead of a straggling town with a few muddy streets and about +three thousand inhabitants, Jefferson would find our national capital +one of the most beautiful cities on the face of the earth, with a +population of nearly three hundred thousand; and on March 4 he would +behold a scene such as he never dreamed of. Thousands of flags fly from +the house-tops and windows, bright-colored bunting in beautiful designs +adorns the great public buildings, all the stores and business houses +are gaily decorated with flags and streamers, and everything presents +the appearance of a great and glorious holiday, while the streets swarm +with the hundreds of thousands of people who have come to the city from +all parts of the country to take part in the grand celebration. + +Everybody is moving toward Pennsylvania Avenue, where the parade is to +march. No, not everybody: some fifty or sixty thousand make their way to +the Capitol, so as to get a glimpse of the inauguration exercises that +take place on the east portico; and although the ceremonies will not +begin until nearly one o'clock, the great space in front of the Capitol +is packed with people three hours before that time, some of them having +come as early as eight o'clock in the morning to be sure of getting a +good view. + +Early in the morning Pennsylvania Avenue is cleared of all street-cars, +carriages, and bicycles, and no one is allowed to step off the sidewalk. +A strong wire rope is stretched along each side of the avenue, so as to +prevent people from getting into the street. + +Soon every window and balcony along the line is crowded with spectators. +Even the roofs are black with people, and small boys may be seen +perched among the branches of the trees, or hanging on to the +electric-light poles. For a distance of nearly three miles, on each side +of the street, people are packed so closely together that it is almost +impossible for them to move. In every park and open space along the line +large wooden stands have been erected; and these, too, are filled with +those who are willing to pay for seats. + +As the time for the morning parade draws near, the crowds become +restless with eagerness and excitement. Policemen on horseback dash up +and down the avenue to see that the road is clear, and every now and +then a trooper or messenger in bright uniform gallops past. Suddenly the +boom of a cannon is heard. The next moment there comes the distant roll +of drums, and then, amid the inspiring music of brass bands and +tremendous cheering, the procession appears moving slowly down the +avenue on its way to the Capitol. Riding ahead is a squad of mounted +police--big, brawny fellows, with glittering brass buttons. After them +come the United States troops and naval forces, armed with their rifles +and sabers that flash in the sunlight, and marching to the music of the +famous Marine Band, while rumbling over the hard, smooth pavement of +the avenue come the big cannons drawn by powerful horses. Then appears +the chief marshal of the parade on his spirited horse, heading the +body-guard of soldiers that surround the open carriage containing the +President and the President-elect, sitting side by side. As the +carriage, which is drawn by four handsome horses, rolls slowly along +with its distinguished occupants, men and boys shout and cheer at the +top of their lungs, and throw their hats into the air when their voices +give out, while the women and girls wave their handkerchiefs and hurrah +with the rest of the crowd. With hat in hand, the President-elect smiles +and bows to the right and the left; and with the bands playing and +people cheering, handkerchiefs fluttering and flags flying, he arrives +at the Capitol a few minutes before noon. Here he meets with another +rousing reception from the great mass of people who have been waiting +for him for two or three hours; and it requires all the efforts of a +small army of police to open the way for him and his party to pass into +the Capitol. + +[Illustration: GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON ON THE WAY TO HIS INAUGURATION] + +The House of Representatives is about to adjourn, and many of its +members have already come over to the Senate to witness the closing +exercises there. Extra chairs and seats have been brought in for them +and the many other prominent officials who also have gathered there, +including the officers of the army and the navy, the justices of the +Supreme Court, the cabinet officers, and the foreign ambassadors and +ministers, many of whom are dressed in their gorgeous state robes. +According to law, Congress must come to an end at noon; but if the +presidential party has not made its appearance when the Senate clock is +about to point to twelve, the hands are moved back a few minutes so as +to gain time. And before the hands are allowed to get around to twelve, +everybody has arrived, everything is in readiness, and the President of +the Senate has administered the oath of office to his successor, the new +Vice-President of the United States, who at once calls an extra session +of the Senate, so that not a moment elapses between the death of one +session and the birth of another. Then, after a short prayer by the +chaplain and a brief address by the Vice-President, the distinguished +people gathered in the Senate form in line, and, headed by a company of +newspaper reporters, they march in dignified procession to the rotunda, +and thence to the platform on the east front of the Capitol. + +The nine justices of the Supreme Court, clothed in their black robes, +walk out on the platform first, followed by the President-elect. As soon +as the crowd catches sight of him, a deafening shout breaks forth from +fifty thousand throats, and, amid the enthusiastic uproar that lasts +several minutes, hats and canes, umbrellas and handkerchiefs, are waved +aloft or thrown wildly into the air by joyous and patriotic Americans. +Removing his hat, the President-elect comes forward, and, turning to the +Chief Justice of the United States, takes the oath of office as required +by the Constitution. Then comes the inaugural address, which, of course, +only those near the platform are able to hear. But the thirty or forty +thousand who can't hear the speech are willing to agree with everything +that is said, and every little while they shout and cheer and applaud. + +[Illustration: THE INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD] + +All this time the crowd on the avenue has been patiently waiting for the +return of the President. The morning's procession was nothing more than +a military escort; now is to come the great feature of the day--the +grand inauguration parade. The ceremonies at the Capitol are over at +half-past one, and the new President goes at once to the White House, +greeted with rousing cheers all along the way, and prepares to review +the greatest parade ever seen in the city of Washington. All the +morning, companies of soldiers, political clubs, bands, and drum corps +have been preparing for the afternoon's march. There are so many +thousands who are going to take part in the parade that orders have been +given requiring all companies to march in ranks reaching from curb to +curb, a distance of one hundred and thirty feet, and to follow one +another as closely as possible. + +The march is begun a little before two o'clock; and, although the people +have been standing on the sidewalks since early morning, they have +plenty of enthusiasm left, and they fill the air with their shouts and +hurrahs as regiment after regiment of magnificently drilled soldiers and +horses marches by. + +Even after the electric lamps are lighted, men and horses are still +tramping along the avenue, and people are still shouting and the bands +playing and flags waving. And all this time the President stands in +front of the White House, reviewing the marching thousands as they pass +along. + +But although the big parade finally comes to an end, the festivities are +not yet over. Late into the night the city is brilliantly illuminated +by magnificent and wonderful fireworks and powerful electric +search-lights that shine from the tops of the tall buildings and light +up the great dome of the Capitol and the Washington monument. Then comes +the grand inaugural ball. There are over ten thousand people present, +and the scene is a glorious and wonderful sight. + +It is almost sunrise when the last carriage rolls away, and with the +closing of the ball the inauguration festivities end. + + + + + =Easter Day= + + +Easter is the Sunday that follows the 14th day of the calendar moon, +which falls upon or next after the 21st of March. This Sunday, when +Christian churches celebrate the resurrection of Christ, is one of +solemn rejoicing. Coming after the self-denials of Lent and at the +beginning of spring, it seems naturally a time of hope and new life. It +is the feast of flowers, particularly of lilies, and the name had its +origin in a festival in honor of the goddess of spring. The esteem in +which it is held is indicated by its ancient title, "The great day." + + + =A SONG OF EASTER= + + BY CELIA THAXTER + + Sing, children, sing! + And the lily censers swing; + Sing that life and joy are waking and that Death no more is king. + Sing the happy, happy tumult of the slowly brightening Spring; + Sing, little children, sing! + + Sing, children, sing! + Winter wild has taken wing. + Fill the air with the sweet tidings till the frosty echoes ring! + Along the eaves the icicles no longer glittering cling; + And the crocus in the garden lifts its bright face to the sun, + And in the meadows softly the brooks begin to run; + And the golden catkins swing + In the warm airs of the Spring; + Sing, little children, sing! + + Sing, children, sing! + The lilies white you bring + In the joyous Easter morning for hope are blossoming; + And as the earth her shroud of snow from off her breast doth fling, + So may we cast our fetters off in God's eternal Spring. + So may we find release at last from sorrow and from pain, + So may we find our childhood's calm, delicious dawn again. + Sweet are your eyes, O little ones, that look with smiling grace, + Without a shade of doubt or fear into the Future's face! + Sing, sing in happy chorus, with joyful voices tell + That death is life, and God is good, and all things shall be well; + That bitter days shall cease + In warmth and light and peace,-- + That Winter yields to Spring,-- + Sing, little children, sing! + +[Illustration: "HE SAT DOWN ON THE STEP, BREATHLESS WITH SURPRISE AND +JOY"] + + + =THE GENERAL'S EASTER BOX= + + BY TEMPLE BAILEY + +The General did not look at all as one would expect a general to look. +He was short and thick-set and had a red face and a white mustache, and +he usually dressed in a gray tweed suit, with a funny Norfolk jacket +with a belt, and wore a soft cap pulled down almost to his eye-glasses. + +And he always did his own marketing. + +That is how he came to know Jimmy. + +Jimmy stood at a corner of Old Market and sold little bundles of dried +sage and sweet marjoram, and sassafras and cinnamon, and soup-bunches +made of bits of vegetables tied together--a bit of parsley and a bit of +celery and a bit of carrot and a sprig of summer savory, all for one +cent. Then at Christmas-time he displayed wreaths, which he and his +little mother made at home, and as the spring came on he brought wild +flowers that he picked in the woods. + +And that was how he came to know the General. + +For one morning, just before Easter, the General came puffing down the +outside aisle of Old Market, with his colored man behind him with an +enormous basket. The General's carriage was drawn up to the curbstone, +and the gray horses were dancing little fancy dances over the asphalt +street, when all at once Jimmy thrust a bunch of arbutus under the +General's very nose. + +"Go away, go away," said the General, and trotted down to the carriage +door, which a footman held open for him. + +But a whiff of fragrance had reached him, and he stopped. + +"How much?" he asked. + +"Three cents," said Jimmy, in a hoarse voice. + +The General looked at the little fellow through his eye-glasses. + +"Got a cold?" he inquired gruffly. + +"Yes, sir," croaked Jimmy. + +"Why don't you stay in the house, then?" growled the General. + +"Can't, sir," said Jimmy, cheerfully; "business is business." + +The General looked at the little stand where "business" was +transacted--at the little rows of dried stuffs, at the small basket of +flowers, and at the soup-bunches. + +"Humph," he said. + +Then his hand went down into his pocket, and he pulled out a lot of +change. After that he chose two bunches of sweet, pinky blossoms. + +"Two for five, sir," said Jimmy. + +"Hum," said the General. "You might give me some parsley and a +soup-bunch." + +Jimmy wrapped up the green stuff carefully and dropped it into the +basket carried by the colored man. + +"Nine cents, sir," he said; and the General handed him a dime and then +moved to the next stall, holding the flowers close to his nose. + +"You forgot your change," cried Jimmy, and rushed after him with the one +cent. + +"Keep--" But one look at the honest little face and he changed his +sentence. + +"Thank you, young man," he said, and away he drove. + +After that Jimmy looked for the General, and the General for Jimmy. +Their transactions were always carried on in a strictly business manner, +although, to be sure, the General's modest family of two did not +require the unlimited sage and sweet marjoram that were ordered from +time to time. + +On the Saturday before Easter the little stand was gay with new wares. +In little nests of dried grasses lay eggs--Easter eggs, bright pink and +blue and purple and mottled. Jimmy had invested in a dozen at forty +cents the dozen, and he had hopes of doubling the money, for work surely +counted for something, and he and the Little Mother had dyed them. + +But somehow people passed them by. Inside of the market there were finer +nests, and eggs gilded and lettered, and Jimmy began to feel that his +own precious eggs were very dull indeed. + +But when the General appeared around the corner, the boy's spirits rose. +Here, at any rate, was a good customer. + +The General, however, was in a temper. There had been an argument with +the fish-man which had left him red in the face and very touchy. So he +bought two bunches of arbutus and nothing else. + +"Any eggs, sir?" asked Jimmy. + +"Eggs?" said the General, looking over the little stand. + +"Easter eggs," explained Jimmy. + +"I've no use for such things," said the General. + +"Oh!" said Jimmy, and in spite of himself his voice trembled. When one +is the man of the family, and the Little Mother is sewing for dear life, +and her work and the little stand in the market are all that pay the +rent and buy food, it is sometimes hard to be brave. But the General did +not notice the tremble. + +Jimmy tried again: + +"Any children, sir? Children always like Easter eggs, you know." + +"No," said the General; "no one but a son in the Philippines--a son some +six feet two in his stockings." + +"Any grandchildren, sir?" hopefully. + +"Bless my soul," said the General, testily, "what a lot of questions!" +And he hurried off to his carriage. + +Jimmy felt very forlorn. The General had been his last hope. The eggs +were a dead loss. + +At last it came time to close up, and he piled all of his wares in a +basket. Then he took out a little broom and began to sweep in an orderly +way around his little stall. He had a battered old dustpan, and as he +carried it out to the street to empty it, he saw a stiff greenish-gray +paper sticking out of the dirt. Nothing in the world ever looks exactly +like that but an American greenback, and, sure enough, when Jimmy pulled +it out it proved to be a ten-dollar bill. + +Jimmy sat down on the curb suddenly. His money always came in pennies +and nickels and dimes and quarters. The Little Mother sometimes earned a +dollar at a time, but never in his whole life had Jimmy possessed a +ten-dollar bill. + +Think of the possibilities to a little, poor, cold, worried boy. There +was two months' rent in that ten-dollar bill--two months in which he +would not have to worry over whether there would be a roof over their +heads. + +Then there was a basket stall in that ten-dollar bill. That had always +been his ambition. Some one had told him that baskets sold well in other +cities, and not a single person had opened a basket stall in Old Market, +and that was Jimmy's chance. Once established, he knew he could earn a +good living. + +As for ten dollars' worth of groceries and provisions, Jimmy's mind +could not grasp such a thing; fifty cents had always been the top limit +for a grocery bill. + +But--it wasn't Jimmy's ten dollars. Like a flash his dreams tumbled to +the ground. There had been many people coming and going through Old +Market, but Jimmy knew that the bill was the General's. For the old +gentleman had pulled out a roll when he reached for the five cents. Yes, +it was the General's; but how to find the General? + +Inside the market he found the General's butcher. Yes, the butcher knew +the General's address, for he was one of his best customers, and would +keep Jimmy's basket while the boy went to the house. + +It was a long distance. Jimmy passed rows of great stone mansions, and +went through parks, where crocuses and hyacinths were just peeping out. + +At last he came to the General's. + +A colored man answered the ring of the bell. + +"Who shall I say?" he inquired loftily. "The General is very busy, +y'know." + +"Say Jimmy, from the market, please"; and Jimmy sat down on the great +hall seat, feeling very much awed with all the magnificence. + +"Well, well," said the General, as he came puffing down the stairs. +"Well, well, and what do you want?" + +"Please, sir, did you drop this?" and Jimmy held out the tightly rolled +bill. + +"Did I? Well, now, I'm sure I don't know. Perhaps I did, perhaps I did." + +"I found it in front of my stall," said Jimmy. + +What a strange thing it seemed that the General should not know! Jimmy +would have known if he had lost a penny. He began to feel that the +General could not have a true idea of _business_. + +The General took out a roll of bills. "Let me see," he said. "Here's my +market list. Yes, I guess that's mine, sure enough." + +"I'm glad I noticed it," said Jimmy, simply. "I came near sweeping it +into the street." + +"And what can I pay you for your trouble?" asked the General, looking at +the boy keenly. + +"Well," said Jimmy, stoutly, "you see, business is business, and I had +to take my time, and I'd like to get back as soon as I can." + +The General frowned. He was afraid he was going to be disappointed in +this boy. + +"And so," went on Jimmy, "if you would give me a nickel for car-fare, I +think we might call it square." + +[Illustration: "THEN THE GENERAL, WITH KNIFE UPRAISED, STOPPED IN HIS +CARVING OF THE COLD ROAST CHICKEN, AND TURNED TO JIMMY"] + +The General fumbled around for his eye-glasses, put them on, and looked +at Jimmy in astonishment. + +"A nickel?" he asked. + +"Yes, sir"; Jimmy blushed. "You know I ought to get back." + +"Well, well," said the General. The boy had certainly the instincts of a +gentleman. Not a single plea of poverty, and yet one could see that he +was poor, very poor. + +Just then a gong struck softly somewhere. "I'm not going to let you go +until you have a bit of lunch with us," said the General. "I have told +my wife of Jimmy of the market, and now I want you to meet her." + +So Jimmy went down into a wonderful dining-room, where the silver and +the cut glass shone, and where at the farther side of the table was the +sweetest little old lady, who came and shook hands with him. + +Jimmy had never before eaten lunch where the soup was served in little +cups, but the General's wife put him at his ease when she told him that +his very own soup-bunches were in that soup, and if he didn't eat plenty +of it he wouldn't be advertising his wares. Then the General, with knife +upraised, stopped in his carving of the cold roast chicken, and turned +to Jimmy with a smile of approval in his genial face, and said that it +was his sage, too, that was in the chicken dressing. + +They made Jimmy talk, and finally he told them of his ambition for a +basket stall. + +"And when do you expect to get it?" asked the General, with a smile. + +"When I get the goose that lays the golden egg, I am afraid, sir," said +Jimmy, a little sadly. + +Then the General's wife asked questions, and Jimmy told her about the +Little Mother, and of their life together; but not one word did he tell +of their urgent need, for Jimmy had not learned to beg. + +At last the wonderful lunch was over, somewhat to Jimmy's relief, it +must be confessed. + +"I shall come and see your mother, Jimmy," said the General's wife, as +Jimmy left her. + +Out in the hall the General handed the boy a nickel. "Business is +business, young man," he said, with a twinkle in his eye. + + * * * * * + +That night Jimmy and his mother sat up very late, for the boy had so +much to tell. + +"Do you think I was wrong to ask for the nickel, Mother?" he asked +anxiously, when he had finished. + +"No," said his mother; "but I am glad you didn't ask for more." + +Then, after Jimmy had gone to bed, the mother sat up for a long time, +wondering how the rent was to be paid. + +On Easter Monday morning Jimmy and the Little Mother started out to pick +the arbutus and the early violets which Jimmy was to sell Tuesday at his +little stall. + +It was a sunshiny morning. The broad road was hard and white after the +April showers, the sky was blue, and the air was sweet with the breath +of bursting buds. And, in spite of cares, Jimmy and his mother had a +very happy time as they filled their baskets. + +At last they sat down to tie up the bunches. Carriage after carriage +passed them. As the last bunch of flowers was laid in Jimmy's basket, a +victoria drawn by a pair of grays stopped in front of the +flower-gatherers. + +"Well, well," said a hearty voice, and there were the General and his +wife! They had called for Jimmy and his mother, they said, and had been +directed to the wooded hill. + +"Get in, get in," commanded the General; and, in spite of the Little +Mother's hesitancy and timid protests, she was helped up beside the +General's wife by the footman, while Jimmy hopped in beside the General, +and away they went over the hard white road. + +The General was in a gay mood. + +"Well, my boy, have you found your golden egg?" he asked Jimmy. + +"No, sir," said Jimmy, gravely; "not yet." + +"Too bad, too bad," said the old gentleman, while he shifted a white box +that was on the seat between himself and Jimmy to the other side. + +"You're quite sure, are you, that you could only get it from a goose?" +he asked later. + +"Get what, sir?" said Jimmy, whose eyes were on the gay crowds that +thronged the sidewalks. + +"The egg," said the General. + +"Oh--yes, sir," replied Jimmy, with a smile. + +The General leaned back and laughed and laughed until he was red in the +face; but Jimmy could see nothing to laugh at, so he merely smiled +politely, and wondered what the joke was. + +At last they reached Jimmy's home, and the General helped the Little +Mother out. As he did so he handed her a white box. Jimmy was busy +watching the gray horses, and saw nothing else. + +"For the boy," whispered the General. + +The Little Mother shook her head doubtfully. + +"Bless you, madam," cried the General, testily, "I have a boy of my +own--if he _is_ six feet two in his stockings." Then, in a softer tone, +"I beg of you to take it, madam; it will please an old man and give the +boy a start." + +So when good-by had been said, and Jimmy stood looking after the +carriage and the prancing grays, the Little Mother put the white box in +his hand. + +Jimmy opened it, and there on a nest of white cotton was an egg. But it +was different from any of the eggs that Jimmy had sold on Saturday. It +was large and gilded, and around the middle was a yellow ribbon. + +Jimmy lifted it out, and found it very heavy. + +"What do you think it is?" he said. + +"Untie the ribbon," advised his mother, whose quick eyes saw a faint +line which showed an opening. + +Jimmy pulled the yellow ribbon, the upper half of the egg opened on a +hinge, and there were glistening gold coins--five-dollar gold pieces. + +"Oh!" said Jimmy, and he sat down on the step, breathless with surprise +and joy. + +A slip of white paper lay between two of the coins. Jimmy snatched it +out, and this is what he read: + + Please accept the contents of the golden egg, with the best wishes + of THE GOOSE. + + + + + =Arbor Day= + + No uniform date in the different States + + +Arbor Day is a designated day upon which the people and especially the +school children plant trees and shrubs along the highways and other +suitable places. It was first observed in Nebraska. The State board of +agriculture offered prizes for the counties and persons planting the +largest number of trees, and it is said that more than a million trees +were planted the first year, while within sixteen years over 350,000,000 +trees and vines were planted in the State. + +This custom, so beautiful and useful, spread rapidly, and now is +recognized by the statutes of many of the States. + +The exact date naturally varies with the climate. + + + =THE PLANTING OF THE APPLE-TREE= + + BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT + + Come, let us plant the apple-tree, + Cleave the tough greensward with the spade; + Wide let its hollow bed be made; + There gently lay the roots, and there + Sift the dark mold with kindly care, + And press it o'er them tenderly; + As 'round the sleeping infant's feet + We softly fold the cradle-sheet, + So plant we the apple-tree. + + What plant we in this apple-tree? + Buds, which the breath of summer days + Shall lengthen into leafy sprays; + Boughs, where the thrush, with crimson breast, + Shall hunt and sing, and hide her nest; + We plant upon the sunny lea + A shadow for the noontide hour, + A shelter from the summer shower, + When we plant the apple-tree. + + What plant we in this apple-tree? + Sweets for a hundred flowery springs + To load the May-wind's restless wings, + When, from the orchard-row, he pours + Its fragrance through our open doors; + A world of blossoms for the bee, + Flowers for the sick girl's silent room, + For the glad infant sprigs of bloom, + We plant with the apple-tree. + + What plant we in this apple-tree? + Fruits that shall swell in sunny June, + And redden in the August noon, + And drop, when gentle airs come by, + That fan the blue September sky; + While children come, with cries of glee, + And seek them where the fragrant grass + Betrays their bed to those who pass, + At the foot of the apple-tree. + + And when, above this apple-tree, + The winter stars are glittering bright, + And winds go howling through the night, + Girls whose young eyes o'erflow with mirth + Shall peel its fruit by cottage-hearth, + And guests in prouder homes shall see, + Heaped with the grape of Cintra's vine, + And golden orange of the line, + The fruit of the apple-tree. + + The fruitage of this apple-tree, + Winds and our flag of stripe and star + Shall bear to coasts that lie afar, + Where men shall wonder at the view, + And ask in what fair groves they grew; + And sojourners beyond the sea + Shall think of childhood's careless day, + And long, long hours of summer play, + In the shade of the apple-tree. + +[Illustration] + + Each year shall give this apple-tree + A broader flush of roseate bloom, + A deeper maze of verdurous gloom, + And loosen, when the frost-clouds lower, + The crisp brown leaves in thicker shower. + The years shall come and pass, but we + Shall hear no longer, where we lie, + The summer's songs, the autumn's sigh, + In the boughs of the apple-tree. + + And time shall waste this apple-tree. + Oh, when its aged branches throw + Thin shadows on the ground below, + Shall fraud and force and iron will + Oppress the weak and helpless still? + What shall the tasks of mercy be, + Amid the toils, the strifes, the tears + Of those who live when length of years + Is wasting this little apple-tree? + + "Who planted this old apple-tree?" + The children of that distant day + Thus to some aged man shall say; + And, gazing on its mossy stem, + The gray-haired man shall answer them: + "A poet of the land was he, + Born in the rude but good old times; + 'Tis said he made some quaint old rhymes + On planting the apple-tree." + +[Illustration] + + + + + =April Fools' Day= + + _April 1_ + + +So old is the custom of playing amiable and harmless tricks upon the +first of April that its origin is not definitely known. It is not a +holiday and not worthy to be one, but it should be good for our sense of +humor and that is one of the best things we can have. An April fool is +sometimes called a "Fourth-month Dunce." + + + =FOURTH-MONTH DUNCE= + + BY H.M.M. + +The curious custom of joking on the first of April, sending the ignorant +or the unwary on fruitless errands, for the sake of making them feel +foolish and having a laugh at them, prevails very widely in the world. +And whether you call the victim a "Fourth-month Dunce," an "April fool," +an "April fish" (as in France), or an "April gowk" (as in Scotland), the +object, to deceive him and laugh at him, is everywhere the same. + +The custom has been traced back for ages; all through Europe, as far +back as the records go. The "Feast of Fools" is mentioned as celebrated +by the ancient Romans. In Asia the Hindoos have a festival, ending on +the 31st of March, called the "Huli festival," in which they play the +same sort of first of April pranks--translated into Hindoo,--laughing at +the victim, and making him a "Huli fool." It goes back to Persia, where +it is supposed to have had a beginning, in very ancient times, in the +celebration of spring, when their New Year begins. + +How it came to be what we everywhere find it, the wise men cannot agree. +The many authorities are so divided, that I see no way but for us to +accept the custom as we find it, wherever we may happen to be, and be +careful not to abuse it. + +Some jokes are peculiar to some places. In England, where it is called +"All Fools' Day," one favorite joke is to send the greenhorn to a +bookseller to buy the "Life and Adventures of Eve's Grandmother," or to +a cobbler to buy a few cents' worth of "strap oil,"--strap oil being, in +the language of the shoe-making brotherhood, a personal application of +the leather. + +But this custom, with others, common in coarser and rougher times, is +fast dying out. Even now it is left almost entirely to playful children. +This sentiment, quoted from an English almanac of a hundred years ago, +will, I'm sure, meet the approval of "grown-ups" of this century: + + "But 't is a thing to be disputed, + Which is the greatest fool reputed, + The one that innocently went, + Or he that him designedly sent." + + + + + =Memorial Day= + + _May 30_ + + +It is said that the observance of this day grew originally out of the +custom of the widows, mothers, and children of the Confederate dead in +the South strewing the soldiers' graves with flowers, including the +unmarked graves of the Union soldiers. There was no settled date for +this in the North until 1868, when General John A. Logan, as +commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, designated May 30. +It is now generally observed, and is a legal holiday in most of the +States. + + + =THE BOY IN GRAY= + + _A Ballad for Memorial Day_ + + BY MARY BRADLEY + + Fredericksburg had had her fray, + And the armies stood at bay; + Back of wall, and top of hill, + Union men and men in gray + Glowered at each other still. + + In the space between the two + Many a hapless boy in blue + Lay face upward to the skies; + Many another, just as true, + Filled the air with frantic cries. + + "Love of God!" with pity stirred, + Cried a rebel lad who heard. + "This is more than I can bear! + General, only say the word, + They shall have some water there." + + "What's the use?" his general, + Frowning, asked. "A Yankee ball + Drops you dead, or worse, half way, + Once you go beyond the wall." + "May be!" said the boy in gray. + + "Still I'll risk it, if you please." + And the senior, ill at ease, + Nodded, growling under breath, + "For his mortal enemies + I have sent the lad to death." + + Then a hotter fire began + As across the field he ran,-- + Yankee shooters marked a prey,-- + But beside each wounded man + Heedless knelt the boy in gray. + + Parched lips hailed him as he came; + Throats with fever all aflame, + While the balls were spinning by, + Drained the cup he offered them, + Blessed him with their dying cry. + + Suddenly, through rain of those + Pattering shots, a shout uprose; + Din of voices filled his ears; + Firing ceased, and eager foes + Made the welkin ring with cheers. + +[Illustration: "BUT BESIDE EACH WOUNDED MAN HEEDLESS KNELT THE BOY IN +GRAY"] + + Foes they were, of bitter need, + Still to every noble deed + Hearts of men, thank God, must thrill; + And we thrill, too, as we read + Of those cheers on Marye's Hill. + + Days of battle long since done, + Days of peace and blessing won, + Better is it to forget + Cruel work of sword and gun: + But some deeds are treasures yet. + + While a grateful nation showers + Graves of heroes with her flowers, + Here's a wreath for one to-day: + North or South, we claim him ours-- + Honor to the Boy in Gray! + + + + +[Illustration: THE EVOLUTION OF OUR FLAG] + + =Flag Day= + + _June 14_ + + +The first recognition of Flag Day by the New York schools was in 1889, +but it is now generally observed by appropriate exercises. June 14 is +the anniversary of the adoption of the Stars and Stripes by the +Continental Congress in the year 1777. This was the flag which, first +raised over an American vessel by John Paul Jones, became the emblem of +the new republic. In some places another day is set apart instead. + + + =THE STARS AND STRIPES= + + BY HENRY RUSSELL WRAY + +While every lad and lassie in the land knows and has read all about the +famous old Liberty Bell, too little is known of the origin and growth of +America's dearest emblem--her flag. William Penn's city--Philadelphia--is +gemmed with many historical landmarks, but none should be more dear to us +than that little old building still standing on Arch street, over whose +doorway is the number--239. For in a small back room in this primitive +dwelling, during the uncertain struggle for independence by the American +colonies, was designed and made the first American flag, known as the +"Stars and Stripes," now respected and honored in every quarter of the +world, and loved and patriotically worshiped at home. + +The early history of our great flag is very interesting. + +It is a matter of record that during the early days of the Revolution +the colonists made use of flags of various devices. + +It is nowadays generally accepted as a fact that the final idea of the +Stars and Stripes as a national flag was borrowed from or suggested by +the coat of arms of General George Washington's family. + +The first definite action taken by the colonies toward creating a flag, +was a resolution passed by Congress in 1775, appointing a committee of +three gentlemen--Benjamin Franklin and Messrs. Harrison and Lynch--to +consider and devise a national flag. The result of the work of this +committee was the adoption of the "King's Colors" as a union (or corner +square), combined with thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, +showing "that although the colonies united for defense against England's +tyranny, they still acknowledged her sovereignty." + +[Illustration: NUMBER 239 ARCH STREET, PHILADELPHIA--THE HOUSE IN WHICH +THE FIRST "STARS AND STRIPES" WAS MADE] + +The first public acceptance, recognition, and salute of this flag +occurred January 2, 1776, at Washington's headquarters, Cambridge, +Massachusetts. The name given to this flag was "The Flag of the Union," +and sometimes it was called the "Cambridge Flag." The design of this +flag was a combination of the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew in +a blue field in the upper left-hand corner, bordered by thirteen stripes +for the thirteen colonies. + +But in the spring of 1777 Congress appointed another committee +"authorized to design a suitable flag for the nation." + +This committee seems to have consisted of General George Washington and +Robert Morris. They called upon Mrs. Elizabeth Ross, of Philadelphia, +and from a pencil-drawing by General Washington engaged her to make a +flag. + +This flag, the first of a number she made, was cut out and completed in +the back parlor of her little Arch street home. + +It was the first legally established emblem, and was adopted by Congress +June 14, 1777, under the act which provided for stripes alternately red +and white, with a union of thirteen white stars in a field of blue. This +act read as follows: "Resolved, That the flag of the United States be +thirteen stripes, alternate red and white: that the union be thirteen +stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." + + + + + + =Fourth of July= + + +This is the greatest secular holiday of our country, its observance +being sanctioned by the laws of every State. The birthday of our liberty +would be a hard one to fix, but by common consent the anniversary of the +signing of the Declaration of Independence is the one observed. The use +of powder to celebrate the day is gradually going out on account of the +large number of lives annually lost through accidents. It is known +officially as Independence Day. + + + =A STORY OF THE FLAG= + + BY VICTOR MAPES + +When the Fourth of July came, we had been abroad nearly two months, and +during that time I think we had not seen a single American flag. On the +morning of the Fourth, however, we walked out on the Paris boulevards, +and a number of flags were hanging out from the different American +shops, which are quite frequent there. They looked strange to us; and +the idea occurred to Frank, for the first time, that the United States +was one of a great many nations living next to one another in this +world--that it was his own nation, a kind of big family he belonged to. +The Fourth of July was a sort of big, family birthday, and the flags +were out so as to tell the Frenchmen and everybody else not to forget +the fact. + +A feeling of this nature came over Frank that morning, and he called +out, "There's another!" every time a new flag came in view. He stopped +two or three times to count the number of them in sight, and showed in +various ways that he, America, and the American flag had come to a new +understanding with one another. + +During the morning, Frank's cousin George, a boy two or three years +older than Frank, who had been in Paris the preceding winter, came to +our hotel; and, as I had some matters to attend to in the afternoon, +they went off together to see sights and to have a good time. + +When Frank returned about dinner-time, and came up to the room where I +was writing letters, I noticed a small American-flag pin stuck in the +lapel of his coat. + +"George had two," he said in answer to my question; "and he gave me this +one. He's been in Paris a year now, and he says we ought to wear them or +maybe people won't know we're Americans. But say, Uncle Jack, where do +you think I got that?" He opened a paper bundle he had under his arm and +unrolled a weather-beaten American flag. + +"Where?" asked I, naturally supposing it came from George's house. + +"We took it off of Lafayette's tomb." + +I opened my eyes in astonishment; while he went on: + +"George says the American Consul, or the American Consul-General, or +somebody, put it on the tomb last Fourth of July, for our government, +because Lafayette, don't you know, helped us in the Revolution." + +"They ought to put a new flag on every year, George says," explained +Frank, seeing my amazement, "on Fourth of July morning. But the American +Consul, or whoever he is that's here now, is a new man, George thinks; +anyhow, he forgot to do it. So we bought a new flag and we did it. + +"There were a lot of people at the tomb when we went there, and we +guessed they were all waiting to see the new flag put on. We waited, +too, but no soldiers or anybody came; and after a while the people all +went away. Then George said: + +"'Somebody ought to put on a new flag--let's do it!' + +"We went to a store on the Boulevard, and for twenty francs bought a new +flag just like this old one. George and I each paid half. There were two +women and a little girl at the tomb when we got back, and we waited +till they went away. Then we unrolled the new flag and took the old one +off the tomb. + +"We thought we ought to say something when we put the new flag on, but +we didn't know what to say. George said they always made a regular +speech thanking Lafayette for helping us in the Revolution, but we +thought it didn't matter much. So we just took off our hats when we +spread out the new flag on the grave, and then we rolled up the old flag +and came away. + +"We drew lots for it afterward, and I'm going to take it back home with +me. + +"Somebody ought to have done it, and as we were both American boys, it +was all right, wasn't it?" + +Right or wrong, the flag that travelers see on Lafayette's tomb this +year, as a mark of the American nation's sentiment toward the great +Frenchman, is the one put there by two small, self-appointed +representatives. And the flag put there the year before, with fitting +ceremony by the authorized official, Frank preserves carefully hung up +on the wall of his little room in America. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Holidays, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR HOLIDAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 14829.txt or 14829.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/8/2/14829/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Jennifer Zickerman and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net). + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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