Dark and dull night, ?ie hence away,
And give the honor to this day
That sees December turnd to May.
Why does the chilling winters morne
Smile like a ?eld beset with ?
Or smell like to a meade new-shorne,
Thus on the sudden?--e and see
The cause why things thus fragrant be.
HERRICK.
WHEN I woke the m it seemed as if all the events of the preg evening had been a dream, and nothing but the identity of the a chamber vinced me of their reality.
While I lay musing on my pillow I heard the sound of little feet pattering outside of the door, and a whispering sultation.
Presently a choir of small voices ted forth an old Christmas carol, the burden of which was--
Rejoice, our Saviour he was born
On Christmas Day in the m.
I rose softly, slipt on my clothes, opehe door suddenly, and beheld one of the most beautiful little fairy groups that a painter could imagi sisted of a boy and two girls, the eldest not more than six, and lovely as seraphs. They were going the rounds of the house and singing at every chamber door, but my sudden appearance frightehem into mute bashfulness. They remained for a moment playing on their lips with their ?ngers, and now and then stealing a shy glance from uheir eyebrows, until, as if by one impulse, they scampered away, and as they turned an angle of the gallery I heard them laughing in triumph at their escape.
Everything spired to produce kind and happy feelings in this stronghold of old-fashioned hospitality. The window of my chamber looked out upon what in summer would have been a beautiful landscape. There was a sloping lawn, a ?ream winding at the foot of it, and a tract of park beyond, with noble clumps of trees and herds of deer. At a distance was a hamlet, with the smoke from the cottage eys hanging over it, and a church with its dark spire in strong relief against the clear cold sky.
The house was surrounded with evergreens, acc to the English , which would have given almost an appearance of summer; but the m was extremely frosty; the light vapor of the preg evening had been precipitated by the cold, and covered all the trees and every blade of grass with its ?ne crystalizations. The rays of a bright m sun had a dazzling effect among the glittering foliage. A robin, perched upoop of a mountain-ash that hung its clusters of red berries just before my window, was basking himself in the sunshine and piping a few querulous notes, and a peacock was displaying all the glories of his train and strutting with the pride and gravity of a Spanish grandee oerrace walk below.
I had scarcely dressed myself when a servant appeared to invite me to family prayers. He showed me the way to a small chapel in the old wing of the house, where I found the principal part of the family already assembled in a kind of gallery furnished with cushions, hassocks, and large prayer-books; the servants were seated on benches below. The old gentleman read prayers from a desk in front of the gallery, and Master Simon acted as clerk and made the responses; and I must do him the justice to say that he acquitted himself with great gravity and de.
The service was followed by a Christmas carol, which Mr.
Bracebridge himself had structed from a poem of his favorite author, Herrick, and it had been adapted to an old church melody by Master Simon. As there were several good voices among the household, the effect was extremely plea