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 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.net
Title: Christmas Outside of Eden
Author: Coningsby Dawson
Release Date: April 5, 2005 [EBook #15552]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTMAS OUTSIDE OF EDEN ***

Produced by Suzanne Shell, David Garcia and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

[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 walls of Eden or that there was such a thing as wrong-doing. Animals, trees and rivers had lived together with the Man and the Woman in the high-walled garden as a happy family. If they had wanted to