Christmas Outside of Eden

Christmas Outside of Eden

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Christmas Outside of Eden, by
Coningsby Dawson This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no
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Title: Christmas Outside of Eden
Author: Coningsby Dawson
Release Date: April 5, 2005 [EBook #15552]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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CHRISTMAS OUTSIDE OF EDEN ***

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[Illustration: Christmas Outside of Eden--Book Cover]
[Illustration: There, seated in the entrance to the cave, the Man saw the
Woman but not the Woman as he had left her.]

Christmas Outside of Eden
BY
Coningsby Dawson
Author of "The Garden Without Walls," "Carry On," etc.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY
Eugene Francis Savage

NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1922
* * * * *
Copyright, 1921, By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. Printed
In U.S.A.
* * * * *

ILLUSTRATIONS
There, seated in the entrance to the cave, the Man saw the Woman, but
not the Woman as he had left her.
God had given the Man and Woman no time to pack. He had marched
them beyond the walls and locked the golden gates of Eden against
them forever.
The Man yawned. "I am still tired. Fetch the horse, that he may carry
me back to my dwelling."
* * * * *
CHRISTMAS OUTSIDE OF EDEN

I
This is the story the robins tell as they huddle beneath the holly on the
Eve of Christmas. They have told it every Christmas Eve since the
world started. They commenced telling it long before Christ was born,
for their memory goes further back than men's. The Christmas which
they celebrate began just outside of Eden, within sight of its
gold-locked doors.
The robins have only two stories: one for Christmas and one for Easter.
Their Easter story is quite different. It has to do with how they got the
splash of red upon their breasts. It was when God's son was hanging on
the cross. They wanted to do something to spare him. They were too
weak to pull out the nails from his feet and hands; so they tore their
little breasts in plucking the thorns one by one from the crown that had
been set upon his forehead. Since then God has allowed their breasts to
remain red as a remembrance of His gratitude.
But their Christmas story happened long before, when they weren't
robin red-breasts but only robins. It is a merry, tender sort of story.
They twitter it in a chuckling fashion to their children. If you prefer to
hear it first-hand, creep out to the nearest holly-bush on almost any

Christmas Eve when snow has made the night all pale and shadowy. If
the robins have chosen your holly-bush as their rendezvous and you
understand their language, you won't need to read what I have written.
Like all true stories, it is much better told than read. It's the story of the
first laugh that was ever heard in earth or heaven. To be enjoyed
properly it needs the chuckling twitter of the grown-up robins and the
squeaky interruptions of the baby birds asking questions. When they
get terrifically excited, they jig up and down on the holly-branches and
the frozen snow falls with a brittle clatter. Then the mother and father
birds say, "Hush!" quite suddenly. No one speaks for a full five seconds.
They huddle closer, listening and holding their breath. That's how the
story ought to be heard, after night-fall on Christmas Eve, when behind
darkened windows little boys and girls have gone to bed early, having
hung up their very biggest stockings. Of course I can't tell it that way
on paper, but I'll do my best to repeat the precise words in which the
robins tell it.

II
It was very long ago at the beginning of all wonders. Sun, moon and
stars were new; they wandered about in the clouds uncertainly, calling
to one another like ships in a fog. It was the same on earth; neither trees,
nor rivers, nor animals were quite sure why they had been created or
what was expected of them. They were terribly afraid of doing wrong
and they had good reason, for the Man and Woman had done wrong
and had been locked out of Eden.
That had happened in April, when the world was three months old. Up
to that time everything had gone very well. No one had known what
fear was. No one had guessed that anything existed outside the