Christmas

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2 id="id00558" style="margin-top: 4em">CHRISTMAS.</h2> <h4 id="id00009" style="margin-top: 2em">BY</h4> <h4 id="id00010" style="margin-top: 2em">SUSAN COOLIDGE.</h4> <p id="id00559">  How did they keep his birthday then,<br/> The little fair Christ, so long ago?<br/> O, many there were to be housed and fed,<br/> And there was no place in the inn, they said,<br/> So into the manger the Christ must go,<br/> To lodge with the cattle and not with men.<br/></p> <p id="id00560">  The ox and the ass they munched their hay<br/> They munched and they slumbered, wondering not,<br/> And out in the midnight cold and blue<br/> The shepherds slept, and the sheep slept too,<br/> Till the angels' song and the bright star ray<br/> Guided the wise men to the spot.<br/></p> <p id="id00561">  But only the wise men knelt and praised,<br/> And only the shepherds came to see,<br/> And the rest of the world cared not at all<br/> For the little Christ in the oxen's stall;<br/> And we are angry and amazed<br/> That such a dull, hard thing should be!<br/></p> <p id="id00562">  How do we keep his birthday now?<br/> We ring the bells and we raise the strain,<br/> We hang up garland, everywhere<br/> And bid the tapers, twinkle fair,<br/> And feast and frolic—and then we go<br/> Back to the Mine old lives again.<br/></p> <p id="id00563">  Are we so better, then, than they<br/> Who failed the new-born Christ to see?<br/> To them a helpless babe,—to us<br/> He shines a Saviour glorious,<br/> Our Lord, our Friend, our All—yet we<br/> Are half asleep this Christmas day.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />