Christmas Tales and Christmas Verse

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Title: Christmas Tales and Christmas Verse
Author: Eugene Field
Illustrator: Florence Storer
Release Date: January 29, 2006 [EBook #17630]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
? START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTMAS TALES AND ***
Produced by Jason Isbell, Sankar Viswanathan, and the?Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
[Illustration: Frontispiece]
CHRISTMAS
TALES AND
CHRISTMAS
VERSE
BY
EUGENE FIELD
ILLUSTRATIONS BY FLORENCE STORER
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
MCMXII
Copyright, 1912, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

Published October, 1912
_Why do the bells of Christmas ring??Why do little children sing?
Once a lovely shining star,?Seen by shepherds from afar,?Gently moved until its light?Made a manger's cradle bright.
There a darling baby lay,?Pillowed soft upon the hay;?And its mother sung and smiled:?"This is Christ, the holy Child!"
Therefore bells for Christmas ring,?Therefore little children sing._
CONTENTS
Dedication
Christmas Hymn
The Symbol and the Saint
Christmas Eve
Joel's Talk with Santa Claus
The Three Kings of Cologne
The Coming of the Prince
Chrystmasse of Olde
The Mouse and the Moonbeam
Christmas Morning
Mistress Merciless
Bethlehem-Town
The First Christmas Tree
Star of the East
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
IN COLORS
The angels came through the forest to where the little tree stood, and gathering around it, they touched it with?their hands Frontispiece
For he was so generous that he gave away all these pretty?things as fast as he made them
So Barbara fell asleep
"But why shouldn't I be merry?" asked the little mauve?mouse. "To-morrow is Christmas, and this is Christmas?eve"
"'What sound was that?' cried Dimas, for he was exceeding?fearful"
The strange allegory of the lame boy's speech filled her with awe
But, with her babe upon her knee,?Naught recked that Mother of the tree
To seek that manger out and lay?Our gifts before the child--?To bring our hearts and offer them?Unto our King in Bethlehem!
IN BLACK-AND-WHITE
Sing, O my heart!?Sing thou in rapture this dear morn?Whereon the blessed Prince is born!
Oh, hush thee, little Dear-my-Soul,?And close thine eyes in dreaming
"This must be the house where the prince will stop,"?thought Barbara
Share thou this holy time with me,?The universal hymn of love
"Nestle down close, fold your hands, and shut your dear?eyes!"
"They are killing me!" cried the tree
CHRISTMAS?TALES AND?CHRISTMAS?VERSE
[Illustration:
Sing, O my heart!?Sing thou in rapture this dear morn?Whereon the blessed Prince is born!?]
CHRISTMAS HYMN
Sing, Christmas bells!?Say to the earth this is the morn?Whereon our Savior-King is born;?Sing to all men,--the bond, the free,?The rich, the poor, the high, the low,?The little child that sports in glee,?The aged folk that tottering go,--
Proclaim the morn?That Christ is born,?That saveth them and saveth me!
Sing, angel host!?Sing of the star that God has placed?Above the manger in the East;
Sing of the glories of the night,?The virgin's sweet humility,
The Babe with kingly robes bedight,--?Sing to all men where'er they be
This Christmas morn;?For Christ is born,?That saveth them and saveth me!
Sing, sons of earth!?O ransomed seed of Adam, sing!?God liveth, and we have a king!
The curse is gone, the bond are free--?By Bethlehem's star that brightly beamed,
By all the heavenly signs that be,?We know that Israel is redeemed;
That