Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1912-12-22

through The Christmas, and it's the
faint scorching Of honest leather and
the faint singeing of homespun that
the breeze is bringing you"
TITS caady! It's varnish on sleds
It's perfume on dolls! It's oranges,
and evergreens, and the smell of the
wood fire in the fireplace, and the
smell Of the cold on mothers furs!"
cried the child.
And know not to what lengths the
talk might have gone, but the sailors
were calling "Shore!" and there was
great motion among the pilgrims.
Now, the island is ruled by a saint
whose names are many, but in all
tongues and races they have one
meaning, which is GOOD WILL. And
his name is the law of the isle. For
he holdeth that if man hath Good
Will he fulfilleth all law; and If he
have not Good Will no law can put
It within him; but If he have it he
cannot but give proof of it. So that
there IS great giving of gifts in the
island called Christmas, for Good
Will is itself gift which forever
branches and blossoms and sets to
fruit Of it's kind. And 1t Is the Gus
tom of the saint to meet the pilgrim
him the choicest gifts, and when a
man hath received any one of them
he is forever a citizen of the island
called Christmas. with all the rights
thereof.
Now, the gifts are hung upon tree
which is called the Tree of Life and
they shine with wonderful light and
give off a sweetness which in good
time will sweeten the world. Indeed,
as all pilgrims know, the reason that
shores far distant from the Christmas
Isle are habitable at all is that pill
grims have come back bearing their
gifts of sweetness and light.
And the first gift is the Gift of the
Good Thought, whereby one may
break the hold of a narrow veracity
which chains him, truthfully enough
but all too unwisely, to the faults of
his fellows. There are neither riches
nor power comparable to the Good
Thought, which comes Of the Good
Sight, whereby men have discovered
hidden worth as the miner has found
the blackened, bleak and forbidding
hillside to be threshold of worlds OF
cleaning gold. He that receives This
gift comes to himself to find himself
in friendly world 1t is a gift
greatly to be desired, as fire in
winter. friend in misfortune; and
by it's magic are miracles wrought on
those who dwell far from the king
dom of the Saint Good Will.
And the second gift is like unto it
a mild spirit of amnesty toward all
pilgrims whose faulty compass takes
them astray, and those who receive
it are straightway indicted into the
Order of the Forgivers. 1t strikes
from the pilgrim as in the twinkling
of an eye, the cold bonds of hatred,
vengeance, and all the brood of NAL
ice, which make their home with
man but to destroy him.
And the third gift Is the Just Judg-
ment, by which the world is vastly
lightened by reason of the number of
condemnations being lessened. For as
is the number of those we condemn
in this world, SO is the number of
disappointments9 we carry about with
US, and the number OF the sunny
windows we have darkened for our
selves. There are lights Of life which
a just judgment forbears to extin-
guish, and he who bears this gift
walks in a mellow circle of serene
tolerance.
And the fourth gift is that Of the
Cheerful Spirit, having which one has
light at eventide, yea and at midnight.
For there is no darkness like unto
the darkness of the spirit bereft Of
cheerful lamps and fires. and there
Is no darkness of the spirit that the
st. Good Will cannot dispel.
And when the pilgrim has received
these gifts he finds among them an.
other, which is the gift of Vision,
whereby he sees the unseen. Indeed,
all the gifts of st. Good Will pertain