The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-12-20

pressed fresh baked roll into his
hands, he would shake his head ir
doubt.
Pretty ladies were always passing
in and out of the shop, and occasional
ly one of them would buy roll fol
Hansel. He looked so wistful and he
was so much too little for his clothes
and his back was so queer and his eyes
were so big that they could not quite
pass him by. Invariably, however
they gave him bread, because bread
as all the world knows, is good fol-
hungry little boys. 1t never inter
feres with their digestion. Poor little
boys, whom people who own the earth
are so benevolent as to feed, ought to
be thankful to get good bread. So
they are, let us hope. l know Hansel
was and that he ate his occasional roll
gladly. Yet all the while his very
soul was longing for cakes. 1t was
his soul more than his palate, for the
beauty of their coloring-the golden,
the chocolate, the rosy, the creamy
struck home TO that something within
him .hat was always reaching up TO
tue cIoud-drifts on the mountains and
fluttering with the doves about tie
church spire and reading the painted
stories without words.
Every year for a day or two at
Christmas time Hansel could drink in
his fill of beauty. There was service
going on in the church all day long
and far into the night. There were
hundreds of candles lighted, the organ
pealed, and the four deep bells rang
and changed every hour of the day.
Hansel knew why. He knew the
Christmas story. He could read it on
the painted windows, the stony that
was his without words. He never
missed service, but fingered in the
cold, ma, blc paved church until his
hands and feet were like ice and his
head WIS a Tall Of fire, with all that
was singing inside it and yet could
never speak out. But between whi!es
he stood outside the bakesh"p window,
sucking in the sweet warmth that
steamed up through the grating below
and watching the Christmas picture
a-making before his eyes.
First they strewed the floor of the
window thick with cedar twigs, to
make it wintry green like the ground,
and over the twigs they sprinkled deli
cate flakes of cotton wool, like snow.
The foreground was left open, while in
the middle distance they set lowly
hut, like stable, which had broad
window at the back and wide open
doors in front, pushed far apart. On
the floor of the hut stood little wood
en- manger, in which lay waxen image
of the Christ-child, with golden halo
about it's head and one baby hand
stretched forth in blessing. Close be-
side the manger knelt the Virgin
Mother, adoring, while hard 10y the
bearded St. Joseph leant on his staff
Beyond, through the open window at
the back, an OK and an ass thrust in
their heads.
| Painted on one of the church win
dows was picture of the Nativity,
and it was THIS picture that the bake
shop people tried to copy as we'll as
they could. IL was all very crude, no
doubt, and critical folk might deem it
too realistic, but there was deep rever-
ence in the bands that dressed the win
dow year by year; and it all meant
unutterable things to Hansel.
All sorts Of Christmas traditions fell
into harmony in the bake-shop window.
Queer old pagan legends blended curl.
ously with the birth of the Divine
Child. Hints of Kris krinyle, St.
Nicholas and the kluuL Auf, all had
part and place in the picture. For on
either side of the lowly hut lowered a
branching fir tree, all hung with lighted
candles, and with fascinating things
} that glittered and sparkled, while from
bough to bough was twined a tangle
Of gold and silver tnsel-angel-hair
the Germans called it. In the back,
ground, emerging from a cavernous
chimney, appeared jolly Santa Claus
bigger, oh yes, a great deal bigger
} than the boy Hansel, with rollickine
face and frosty beard, a great coat o
!, fur and his time-hoEored burden Of
, toys. Slung across his shoulders were
things that sparkled and things that
shock; sugar things and wax things
and glass things; dolls and drums and
F., wagons and go-carts and tin kitchens
nd horses and elephants and little
woody lambs, and, oil! every thing s
boy could think of.
They all meant the same thing tt
the boy with the shining eyes. Glister
inc trees and Santa Claus and the
} Babe in the manager were one with the
: painted windows and the pealing bells
: and the cloud drift over the mountains
r They were the Christmas story anC
r the Christmas song: the story without
l words and the song that had never
S wholly sung itself to him except in hi:
a heart.