Middletown transcript., 1874-12-26
Selatt Aettrg.
CHRISTMAS MEMORIES.
By v. Z. ABsLI.

9 BIZ ". =. ABBLL.
d There is no day in all the by-gone years
+ More glad in smiles, or dimmed with fsws
tears;
And none to which the memory fondly die
With kesner joys and laughing pleasantries-
That drags the selfish from his worshippsi
II, s'self" -
The coming miser from his boarded pelf,
Than that bright day on whose propitiou,
morn
The angels heralded loving Saviour born.
Back through the years on oft-repsatsd trips
Ofplessure, too, the memory softly slips-
Taking rs with It to that happy day
Where many bright and golden hours may
Be spent in joy that knows Of no allay.
Where brightest faces, forms and figures fair
Are met Of those We hold most truly dear,
Some, il is true, who proudly then
Had upright figures Of much younger men,
Now stagger meath the heavy load Of -
About retiring from all mortal strife;
Others, whose toddliAg limbs refused to bear
Their infant bodies but from chair to chair,
Now in full vigsr battle with the world,
0ncs raised aloft again are downward hurled.
Others again-bless, bless their faces kind
Are seen alone now by the journsying mind,
That hastens back their days in life to find.
We zee again the large, old-fashioned Ere,
Blazing and cracking, and with joy or ire
Tossing its sparks up-up the wide-nouthed
due, gssa
That enr then young imaginations know
Al fairy sprites let loose from out the spell
VI wooden shackles-how, We could not tell. |
And how upon that eve Of Xmas night
We begged that these warm flames and ehesr-
f1f light -
Night be allowed this once to die away,
So when Kris-Kringle, in his crystal sIsigh,
Reschsd our housetop the chimney might b
clear
OF all obstrsction, heat and smoky dir 4
And when twas out-weslept without feas.
And how, with . peculiar childish cars,
We choss those stockings, free from wear and
tear
Our largest too-and then along the string
That hemmed the mantel let them lasy swing.
Of how We watched away the early night
Fill sleep, with fingers trained to action light
5prinklsd his sands, and closed our eyelids
tight. ssa s
Awakeaing with the bassins Of de town,
We rose to take the unknown trsasures down, {
And found, with joy, our stsckings fairly
stuffed
Those calves before were never % well pufIsd
sven with hssh. Ard then, with blast oil '
horn =
announced to all below, We ross to Xmas !
mora.
'ur harried dressing and mors hurried fight Il
Iowa the wide stairway; and with faces !.
lushed with sxcitsment-we scattersd wide 2
ur merry Christmas" then on svery side- u
mbraced our parents, and in their warm sI
embrace
cit all the love that sparklsd in the face
nd in the whirl Of al our present Joys
ar Christmas tree, our rich and sinpler q
toys 70
w, too, perhaps, q family quivsrine tear Of
hat told the story Of enc missing thera, -.
ne who was loved, and that love, too, n :.
turned VI
ith all the fsrvof that within her burned in
Nv loving ii ! new life richly earned. in
mid our joys, too, have We meta thoughtE ~
proud one, teo--that has 70 kindly brought m'
mind the figure Of some little oae,
ivering with cold upon that old door-stone,
at framed the entrance to our home Of iey-| cit
ken 1t in, clothed, fed, and with . toy q,
ut forth again with grateful face and heart
10 the worlds, alas, too selfish mart. oe
We but End . memory such a. this, In
here mid the rush Of earthly joys and bliss, ed
I've turned from Pleasures Turing path I'll,
asids is4s -
aid the poor, the weak q sorsly tried, - -
sn has been doubly blessed our Christnas isa
tide. ~ & Dol
-Ruhiuno,. WILL, o. -.