Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-12-23

shining weapons, with spear and halbert
pitching their tents and striking them again
The watch-fires famed up anew, and men
sang and slept under the branches OF the
tree He saw loving couples meeting near
his trunk, happily, in the moonshine, and
they cut the initials Of their names in the
gray-geen bark of his stem. Once-but
long years had rolled by since then-citherns
and Holian harps had been hung on his
boughs by merry wandcrcrs and now they
hung there again. and once again they sound
ed in tones of marvellous sweetness. The
wood-pgeons cooed, as If they were telling
what the tree felt in all this, aud the cnckoo
called out to tell him how many summer
days he had yet to live.
Then It appeared TO him as If new life
were ripping down into the remotest fibre Of
his root, and mounting up into his highest
branches, to the top of the leaves. The tree
felt that he was stretching and spreading
himself, and through his root he felt that
there was life and motion even in the ground
itself He felt his strength increase he grew
higher, his stem shot up increasingly, and as
he grew more and more, his crown became
fuller, and spread out and in proportion as
the tree grew, he felt his happiness increase,
and his joyous hope that he should reach
even higher-quite up to the warm, brilliant
sun.
Already had he grown high above the
clouds, which floated past beneath his crown
like dark troops of passage-birds, or like
great white swans. And every leaf Of the
tree had the gift of sight, as If it had eyes
wherewth to see; the stars became visible in
broad daylight, great and sparkling; each Of
them sparkled like pair Of eyes, mild and
clear. They recalled to his memory we'll
known gentle eyes, eyes Of children, eyes of
lovers who had met beneath his boughs.
II was marvellous spectacle and one full
Of happiness and joy. And yet amid all this
happiness the tree felt longing, ycarning
desire that all other trees Of the wood be
meath him, and all the bushes and herbs and
flowers might be able TO rise with him, that
they might see this splendor and experience
this joy. The great majestic oak was not
quite happy in his happiness while he had
not them all, great and little, about him
and this feeling Of yearning trembled through
his every twig, through his every leaf, warm
ly and fervently as through human heart
The crown of the tree waved to and fro, as
If he sought something in his silent longing,
and he looked down. Then he felt the fra
GRANGE Of thyme, and soon afterward the
more powerful scent of houeysuckle and vio-
lets, and he fancied he heard the cuckoo an-
swering him.
Yes, through the clouds the green. sum
mits of the forest came pecring up, and I'M
der himself the oak saw the other trees as
they grew and raised themselves aloft.
Bushes and herbs shot up high, and some
tore themselves up boldly by the roots to rise
the quicker. The birch was the quickest Of
all. Like a white streak Of lightning, its
slender stem shot upward in a zigZag line,
and the branches spread around it like green
gauze and like banners; the whole wood
land natives, even TO the hrown-plumcd
rushes, grew up with the rest, and the birds
came, too and sang; and on the graSs-blade
that huttcred alOft like a long silkeu ribbon
into the air, sat the grasshopper cleaning his
wings with his leg; the May beetles hummed,
and the bees murmured, and every bird sang
in his appointed manner, and all was song
and sound of gladncss up into the high
heaven.
''But the little blue flower by the water
side, where is thati' said the oak; ''and the
purple beethoven and the daisyi" for you
see, the old oak tree wanted to have them all
about him.
'We are here-we are hcre;" was shouted
and sung in reply.
''But the beautiful thyme of last summer
and in the last year there was certainly a
place here covered with lilies Of the valley
and the wild apple-tree that blossomed so
splendidyl and all the glory Of the wood
that came, year by year-if that had only
just been born, it might have been here
now"
''We are here, we are herel" replied voices
still higher in the air. 1t seemed as if they
had flown ON before.
'Why, that is beautiful, indescribably
beautiful" exclaimed the old oak-tree, re-
joicingly. 81 have them all around me, great
and small not one has been forgotten. How
can so much happiness be imaginedi How
can il be possible I"
SIN heaven, in the better land, it can be
imagined, and it is possibe!n the reply
sounded through the air.
And the old tree, who grew on and on, felt
how his roots were tearing themselves free
from the ground
''That's right, that's better than all ~ said
the tree. "Now no letters hold me. can
fly up now, to the very highest in glory and
in light. And all my beloved ones are with
me, great and small-all Of them, all ~
That was the dream of the old oak tree
and while he dreamt thus, a mighty stoEm
came rushing over land and sea-at the holy
Christmas-tide. The sea rolled great pillows
toward the shore; there was a cracking and
crashing in the tree-his root was torn out of
the ground in the very moment while he was
dreaming that his root freed itself from the
earth. He fell. His 365 years were now as
the single day of the ephemera.
On the morning of the Christmas festival,
when the sun rose, the storm had subsidized.
From all the churches sounded the festive
bells, and from every hearth, even from the
l.,Ve 81 Il. 4.
like the smoke from the affairs of the DrlIids
Of old at the feast of thanks-ofTerings The
sea became gradually calm, aud on board a
great ship in the offing, that had fought sue
cessfully with the tempest, all the flags were
displayed, as a token of joy suitable to the
festive day.
''The tree is down-the old oal1-tree our
landmark on the coast ~ said the sailors sit
fell in the storm of last night. Who cali re-
place i'll No one can
This was the funeral Grafton, short, but
well-meant, that was given to the tree, which
lay stretched on the snowy covering on the
seashore; and over its PROSTATE form sounded
the notes of a song from the ship, a carol of
the joys of Christmas, and of the redemption
of the soul of man by His blood, and of eter-
nal life.
"sing, sing aloud this blessed morn
II ~ iulhlled-and He Is born:
| Oh, JOY without compared
| Hallelujahl Halelujahl"
Thus sounded the old psalm-tune, and one
on board the ship felt lifted up in his own
way, through the song and the prayer, and
just as the old tree had felt lifted up in its
last, its most beauteous dream in the Christ
mas night
Before the PRIiRE OF the stars.
| BY CHRISTINA @. RossErrI.
| Before the paling of the stars,
| Before the winter morn,
| Before the earliest cockcrow,
Jesus Christ was born;
| Born In a stable