The daily Alaskan., 1914-12-24

T HAVE been looking on this eyen-
 ing at a merry company of chil-
 dren assembled around that pret-
 ty German toy, Christmas tree. . Being now at home again and alone, the only person in the house awake, my thoughts are drawn back by fas- cination which l do not care to resist to my own childhood. Straight in the middle of the room, cramped in the freedom of its growth by no encircling walls or soon reached ceiling. q shad. owy tree arises. and, looking up into the dreamy brightness of its top, for observe in this tree the singular prop erty that it appears to grow down. ward toward the earth, look into my youngest Christmas recollections.
 All toys at first find. But upon the branches of the tree, lower down. how thick the books begin to hang-thin books. in themselves at first. but many of them. with deliciously smooth covers of bright red and green!
 "A was an archer and shot at frog" Of course he was! He was an apple Die also, and there be is. He was 8 good many things in his time, was A, and so were most of his friends, except x, who had 90 little versatility that never knew him to get beyond Xerxes or Xanuppe.
 But now the very tree itself changes and becomes d bcanstak, the marvel ous beanstHIk by which Jack climbed up to the giants house.
 Good for Christmas time is the rud- dy color of the cloak fin which. the tree making forest of itself for her to trip through with her basket, Little Red Riding Hood comes to me one Christ mas eve to give me information of the cruelty and treachcry of that dissem' bling wolf who ate her grandmother without making any impression on his appetite and then ate her after mak- ing that ferociouS joke about bis teeth. She was my first love. felt that If could have married Little Red Rid ing Hood should have known perfect bliss But 1t was not to be. and there was nothing for 1t but to look for the wolf in the Noah'S ark there and put him last in the procession on the table as a monster who was to be degraded.
 Oh, the wonderful Nonh's ark. It was not found seawOrthy when put iD a washing tub, and the animals were crammed in at the roof and needed to have their legs well shaken down be. fore they could be got in even there, and then ten to one they began to tum. ble out at the door, which was but in perfectly fastened with wire latch But what was that against it?
 Again forest and somebody up in a tree-not Robin Hood, not Valentine, not the Yellow Dwarf; 1 have passed these and all Mother Bunch's wonders without mentiOn-but an eastern king with the glittering scimitar and tur ban. It Is the setting in of the bright Arabian Nights.
 Oh. now all common things become uncommon and quite enchanted 10 me- All lamps are most wonderful. All rings are talismans. Common flower pots are full of treasure, with little earth scattered on the top; trees are for Ali Baba to hide in; beefsteaks are to throw down into the Valley of Dta monds, that the precious stones may stick to them and be carried by the eagles to their nests. whence the trad, CTS, with loud cries. will scare them. All the dates imported come from the same tree as that unlucky one with whose shell the merchant knocked out the eye of the genie's invisible soil.
 But. hark. The waits are playing. and they break my childish sleep. What images do T. associate with the Christmas music as see them set forth on the Christmas tree. Known before all the others. keeping far apart from all the others. they gather round my little bed-an angel. speaking to group of shepherds in field; Some travellers, with eyes uplifted. following star: baby in manager; child ID spacious temple. talking with great men; q solemn figure. with q mild and beautiful face. raising dead girl by the hand; again. near city gate cali ing back the son of widow oE his bier to life: a crowd of people lOuking through the open roof of chamber where he sits and letting down sick person on a bed with ropes; the same, in tempest, walking on the waters; in q ship again. on Seashore, teach ing a great multitude: again, with a child upon his knee and other children around; again. restoring sight to the blind. speech to the dumb, hearing to the deaf. health to the sick, strength to the lame. knowledge to the ignorant; again. dying upon cross, watched by armed soldiers. a darkness coming on, the earth beginning to shake and only one voice heard. Forgive them. for they know not what they do!''
 Encircled by the social thoughts of Christmas time, still let the benignant figure Of my childhood stand unchang' ed. In every cheerful image and sug. gestion that the season brings may the bright star that rested above tue poor roof be the star of ali the Chris