The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-12-25
w~HE FIRST Christmas / can r,
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call seems longer ago even
than it ds My fathers home
and my brother and I were his only
children. We lads did not doubt Santa
Claus and had thought to sit up in hid
ing and see him at his gracious task.
But the fire in the tall stove burned
low, the wind made dismal clamor in
the chimney and stormed at the win
dow panes, buffeting the glass with
crystals almost as fine as sand Vague
ly listening, we fell asleep and awoke,
bewildered, in our bed. Light was dim
ON the frosted panes and the house
creaked as houses do in that boreal
land. At any other time so early in
the morning we children would not
have crept from our safe, warm place
and braved the shadows and the cold
! that lay beyond the bedside, in the
| outer room; but it was Christmas, and
| father and mother, albeit sleeping, were
near by. A candle was on Une bureau
and lit the waxen dip and then, hand
in hand with the smaller child led the
way to the place where the long stock
| 1ngs had been hung. In the weak glare
of the candle light what wonders were
revealed The stockings that had
fallen so limp from their pegs the
night before were bullying now like the
good saints furry bag; and on the
stand below rested Noah's ark, gor-
geous in bright paint, handkerchief
with horses heads printed on the
edges, some picture books, and nit
| tens; and on the floor a green sled with
a name painted in yellow on its shin
| ing plane. But for the moment these
things were scarcely seen. The stock
ing must be emptied. All me. The
gifts within were not bought with a
| princes ransom, but what mattered
that! The top, the rubber ball, the
jackstraws, the sticks of candy, the
pocket knife, the mouth organ, and the
orange in the toe OF the long stocking
were worth as much to us as the pres
ents to the little King of Rome had
been to him; and the love that came
with them from father and mother
both, how it spans the chasms of the
years and lays its benedictory touch
/ upon the heart of the elder lad and
upon the grave of the little one.
1t was Christmas ON the Coast OF
Southern California, and what a
Christmas it was. When the sun rose
above the big range where jagged
| peaks doomed athwart the moonlit sky
all night like silhouettes upon yellow
and blue frieze, it glittered upon sea
that once more lay as silent as it had
ON that primeval morning before Gods
spirit moved upon the waters. The
infinite ocean seemed a floor of glass
On the far horizon islands reared theil
ochered bulk and some of them took
strange shapes in the mirage that had
!. fallen upon them like "a spell. 1t was
worth the pangs of early rising to see
old Padre Serra's clustered worl6
take on the gallant hues of dawn. AS
the sun mounted higher its light flash
ed back from the granite sides OF the
island of the Blessed Dead, tipped the
gered scarlet in the eastern window
panes, and lost itself among the gray
defiles of Mexico. AS the day grew
and the breeze came on, the sky wa;
swept so clear of clouds that it looked
like an inverted bowl of turquoise witt
flaming jewel in the center. There
was never more perfect day since
the new sky bent over the bower of the
first man and the first woman. On the
> wide, warm lawns, people dreamed !,
by-gone holidays and thought of sleigh
| D6IlS ctuu Lie CIOdh vi SllOn uhoSi AOO
while about them. amid the opening
blooms Of flowers the humming birt
and butterfly made carnival The or.
ange trees with their golden spheres
the climbing roses that hung the love
illness of June upon the calendar o.
/ December; the geraniums and the fra
: grant shrubs wed with the palms ant
the acacia and the grevillia trees il
: making Christmas day worthy of the
New Italy it had come to bless.
And what day it was for the white
clad children, playing in the open all
with the gifts st. Nick had brought
! them. And what a day it was for
: everybody, high and low, rich ant
poor; a day of pleasure and abundance
of sunshine all could share, of {
charity all were minded to bestow ant
: of which few needed to partake.
As the shadows crept into the day
softening the landscape and SOLDERING
the wide sea, the very air, fragrant ant