In
the happier homes among them, there was doubtless the usual
legitimate speculation as to doll or drum, but here in this enchanted
spot, this materialised Altruria, the talk was all of giving, when
the Wonderful Tree bloomed in their midst--the Wonderful Tree they
sang about every morning, with the sweet voice
'telling its branches among
Of shepherd's watch and of angel's song,
Of lovely Babe in manger low, -
The beautiful story of long ago,
When a radiant star threw its beams so wide
To herald the earliest Christmastide.'
The Tree was coming--Mistress Mary said so; and bless my heart, you
might possibly meddle with the revolution of the earth around the
sun, or induce some weak-minded planet to go the wrong way, but you
would be helpless to reverse one of Mistress Mary's promises! They
were as fixed and as unchangeable as the laws of the Medes and
Persians, and there was a record of their fulfilment indelibly
written in the memories of two hundred small personages--personages
in whom adult caprice and flexibility of conduct had bred a tendency
to suspicion.
The Tree, therefore, had been coming for a fortnight, and on the 22nd
it came! Neither did it come alone, for it was accompanied by a
forest of holly and mistletoe, and ropes of evergreen, and wreaths
and garlands of laurel, and green stars by the dozen.
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