The old Abe eagle. (White Oaks, Lincoln County, N.M.) 189?-189?, 1894-12-20
REvELATION-A TALE OF CHRISTMAS.

REVELATION-ATA TALE OF CHRISTMAS.
THEoLD YEAR drew near to his paesing
Drew near as an age bended Pilgrim
Who sees with dim syes Just before him
Rise the shrine he has lifelong been
seeking
Thro' fields that we're radiant and fra
grant,
Thro' fields golden bright with their har-
vests,
Thro' fields resting meath the brown
stubble,
Thro' fields that were barren and cheer
less,
And joyfully yields up the spirit,
For his feet have accomplished the Jour
ney
That has been his sole mission in living
Two homes stood beside a worn highway
Where the feet OF the dead aud the living
Had trod the red soil into atoms
And the winds and the rains had removed
them.
Their doorways stood facing each other,
And their windows looked down on the
trav'lers
Who constantly eastward or westward
Fared in unending procession,
The old faces gradually going
And leaving their places to new ones.
On the one hand the glow of the wood
fire
Was ruddy and cheerful as childhood
As it shone thro' the old fashioned case
ments
And ilumined the face Of the passer
Who glanced as he hurried OH homeward
At the happiness il was part OF.
Within there dwelt three generations:
The grand parents, on whose thin tenn
pies
The SHOWS OF their seventy winters
Shows tho warmth of this world cannot
SOFTEN
Lay white as on Andean SUBMITS,
Sat on opposite sides of the hearth stone
He emoked in contentment the clay pipe
Which his grand daughter filed ano
presented
With kiss and stroke of his forehead
She busted her fingers with knitting
Or smiled at the frOlicsome children
Who played round her soft-cushionec
rocker
OFT pausing to ask the old questions
She had answered their parents before
them
About Santa Claus and his reindeer,
Ard how he gets down thro' the fireplace
without scorching tie fur ofhis clothing
Carel, were both; for the Future
Was bright with the bow Of the Promise
And the past had been prosprous anc
happy.
The brows OF the parents were tho'tful
But grateful hearts shone tho theil
facas;
For ne'er had the death-angel call'd then
To sorrow. or i'll fortune fallen,
But Away the Good LoId had blest then
Whatever their hands had engaged in.
And now. when life's summer was ending
They rested amid what they'd gathered
Living only for those they had brough
from
The mystic Eterne to the Present.
But over the way there were dreary,
Dark windows, with Want looking thro
them.
Misfortune had long time abode there
The father had la5ored while waiting
For the shadow he saw surely settlin,
To deepen and shut the world from him
1t had fallen; AMI flowers had blossomeC
One summer above him. Her sorrow
Had broken the mothers poor spirit
Aud her fiail body's strength was fas
waning
For her eldest had died Gre his father
Whose hope he had been for the future
A s'aff they would have still to lean ol
When he should be gone from amoDI
them.
Yet she toiled as alway mother
Will toll till The grave opens for her
That the little ones left to her keeping
Might feel not the Iackings of hunger.
Put in vain. And the chill winds 0
winter
Swept round them and laughed in tn
windows
And m cked when the door was throw
oprn
At the want and the sorrow within IL.
The eyes Of the children grew hollow
From their lips fled the music ~ laughter
They stood by the windows and won
derrd
Atwhat thoir young minds saw 30 darkly
Whv the width OF the time.worn oil
highway
Shonld to them be tho gulf that shu
Dives
From the Bcggar in Abraham's bosom
Twas the eve that the chorus Of angel
Sang "Good Will DER Judeas hilltops
All day the children had noted
The stil and the glad preparation
Fer the feast and the JOY of the morrow
The surprises the young ones shoul
wake to
In the home with The sun lighted porta
Butt darkuts ss grew thicker and chile
And the fatherless babes at the windo
Cried with the cold aud the hunger
That the mothor could give no reli'
from.
Grief burst from the wan suffers bosol
A rob she in vain etiove 10 etlile.
~ children. hearing IL. turned from
Their watching and threw their arm
round her,
Each murmuring Mamma, loyo you
And asking her why she wac crying.
She pressed them both to her heart the
Add said Because mamma loves voH
They, kissed the warm toara from h'
eyelhhe.
Hold hc.- thin, pallid face in their col
hands.