In The Yule-Log Glow--Book 3 | Page 2

Pipe-Playing 132
The First Carol 134
In Bethlehem 137
A Carol in the Pastures 139
The Shepherds 141
On Shepherds' Pipes 144
Angel Tidings 145
The News-Bearers 146
Hymn for Christmas-Day 149
A Hymn of the Nativity 150
Sung by the Shepherd 155

From "The Light of the World"[C] 158
IT BRINGS GOOD CHEER.
Old Christmas Returned 179
The Trencherman 184
Ban and Blessing 186
Thrice Welcome! 187
Christmas Provender 188
Glee and Solace 189
On Saint John's Day 191
Christmas Alms 193
Christmas at the Round-Table 195
LULLABY.
A Carol at the Manger 199
A Dream Carol 200
The King in the Cradle 202
Madonna and Child 205
A Rocking Hymn 209
A Cradle-Song of the Virgin 212
Whispering Palms 214
A Christmas Lullaby 215

The Virgin's Cradle-Hymn 216
The Sovereign 217
By the Cradle-Side 219
The Virgin Mary to the Child Jesus 221
A Bedside Ditty 230
Given Back on Christmas Morn 231
A Lulling Song 237
Good-Night 239
FOOTNOTES:
[A] By the courtesy of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
[B] By the courtesy of The Century Company.
[C] By the courtesy of Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls.
_Legends in Song._
"Tell sweet old tales,
Sing songs as we sit bending o'er the hearth,

Till the lamp flickers and the memory fails."
_Frederick Tennyson._
THE HALLOWED TIME.
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's
birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long;
And
then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome,
then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,

So hallowed and so gracious is the time.

_Shakespeare._
ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY.
This is the month, and this the happy morn,
Wherein the Son of
Heaven's eternal King,
Of wedded maid and virgin mother born,

Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages
once did sing,
That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with
his Father work us a perpetual peace.
That glorious form, that light insufferable,
And that far-beaming
blaze of majesty,
Wherewith he wont at heaven's high council-table

To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,
He laid aside; and, here with us to
be,
Forsook the courts of everlasting day,
And chose with us a
darksome house of mortal clay.
Say, heavenly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein
Afford a present to the
Infant-God?
Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain
To
welcome him to this his new abode,
Now while the heaven, by the
sun's team untrod,
Hath took no print of the approaching light,
And
all the spangled host kept watch in squadron bright?
See, how from far, upon the eastern road,
The star-led wizards haste
with odors sweet;
O run, prevent them with thy humble ode,
And
lay it lowly at his blessed feet;
Have thou the honor first thy Lord to
greet,
And join thy voice unto the angel-quire,
From out his secret
altar touch'd with hallow'd fire.
THE HYMN.
It was the winter wild,
While the heaven-born Child
All meanly
wrapt in the rude manger lies;
Nature in awe to him,
Had doff'd her
gaudy trim,
With her great Master so to sympathize:
It was no
season then for her
To wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour.

Only with speeches fair
She woos the gentle air
To hide her guilty
front with innocent snow;
And on her naked shame,
Pollute with
sinful blame,
The saintly veil of maiden-white to throw;

Confounded, that her Maker's eyes
Should look so near upon her foul
deformities.
But he, her fears to cease,
Sent down the meek-eyed Peace;
She,
crown'd with olive green, came softly sliding
Down through the
turning sphere,
His ready Harbinger,
With turtle wing the amorous
clouds dividing;
And, waving wide her myrtle wand,
She strikes an
universal peace through sea and land.
No war, or battle's sound
Was heard the world around;
The idle
spear and shield were high up-hung;
The hooked chariot stood

Unstain'd with hostile blood;
The trumpet spake not to the armed
throng;
And kings sat still with awful eye,
As if they surely knew
their sovereign Lord was by.
But peaceful was the night
Wherein the Prince of Light
His reign of
peace upon the earth began:
The winds, with wonder whist,

Smoothly the waters kist,
Whispering new joys to the mild ocean,

Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While birds of calm sit brooding
on the charmed wave.
The stars, with deep amaze,
Stand fix'd in steadfast gaze,
Bending
one way their precious influence;
And will not take their flight,
For
all the morning light,
Or Lucifer that often warn'd them thence;
But
in their glimmering orbs did glow,
Until their Lord himself bespake,
and bid them go.
And, though the shady gloom
Had given day her room,
The sun
himself withheld his wonted speed,
And hid his head for shame,
As
his inferior flame
The new-enlighten'd world no more should need.

He saw a greater Sun appear
Than his bright throne, or burning
axletree, could bear.

The shepherds on the lawn,
Or e'er the point of dawn,
Sat simply
chatting in a rustic row;
Full little thought they then
That the
mighty Pan
Was kindly come to live with them below;
Perhaps
their loves, or else their sheep,
Was all that did