The Hawaiian gazette., 1902-12-26
HE FIRST Christmas I

"HE FIRST Christmas ] can re-
call seems longer ago even
than II Ia. Ny fathers home
was IN little hamlet Of a far place
and my brother and 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 Mt 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 1t was Christmas, and
father and mother albeit sleeping. we're
near by. A candle was on the 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
ings 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, a handkerchief
with horses heads printed on the
edges, some picture books. and nit
tens; and on the floor green sled with
name painted in yellow on its shin
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 1t 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, 1t 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 floor of glass.
On the far horizon islands reared their
ochered bulk and some of them took
strange shapes in the mirage that had
fallen upon them like "a spell. It. was
worth the pangs of early rising to see
n1n icfa
take on the gallant hues of dawn. AS
the sun mounted higher its light fash
ed back from the granite sides of the
island of the Blessed Dead, tipped the
lighthouse with lambert fame lin
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 was
swept SO clear of clouds that ito looked
like an inverted bowl of turquoise with
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
bells and the creak of snow underfoot
while about them, amid the opening
blooms of flowers the humming bird
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 of
December; the geraniums and the fra
grant shrubs We'd with the palms and
the acacia and the grevillia trees In
making Christmas day worthy OF the
New Italy IL had come 10 bless.
And what day II was for the white
clad children. playing in the open air
with the gifts st. Nick had brought
WI 40 Ia ia,