Page images
PDF
EPUB

a fancy. To me, I know, they then sounded as if they were the shouting, howling, or laughing of the fiends with which my imagination had peopled the gloomy cave which swung over me.

10. In twenty minutes the ringing was done. Half of that time passed over me without power of computation-the other half seemed an age. When the bell stopped, I was roused a little by the hope of escape. I did not, however, decide on this step hastily, but, putting up my hand with the utmost caution, I touched the rim. Though the ringing had ceased, it was still tremulous from the sound, and shook under my hand, which instantly recoiled as if from an electric jar.

11. A quarter of an hour probably elapsed before I again dared to make the experiment, and then I found it at rest. I determined to lose no time, fearing that I might have lain there already too long, and that the bell for evening service would catch me. This dread stimulated me, and I slipped out with the utmost rapidity, and arose. I stood, I suppose, for a minute, looking with silly wonder at the place of my imprisonment, and penetrated with joy at my escape.

12. I then rushed down the stony and irregular stair with the velocity of lightning, and arrived at the bellringer's room. This was the last act I had power to accomplish. I leaned against the wall motionless and deprived of thought, in which posture my companions found me, when, in the course of a couple of hours, they returned to their occupation.

13. But that was the last of my bell-ringing, and I have never altogether recovered from the shock of that awful experience. Even now, the chimes of sabbath bells, once sweet to my ears, strike me like a wave of agony, and ever recall the roaring cavern of that cathedral bell. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.

[blocks in formation]

"TW

WAS the night before Christmas, when all
through the house

Not a creature was stirring-not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In the hope that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads ;
And mamma in kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there rose such a clatter
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

2. Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow
Gave the lustre of midday to objects below-
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

3. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled aud shouted and called them by name: "Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer, now, Vixen !

On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Dunder and Blixen ! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

[graphic]

4. As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys-and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof,
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof;
As I drew in my head and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

5. He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
And a bundle of toys was flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack ;
His eyes, how they twinkled!his dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry ;
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

6. The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke of it circled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face, and a little round body,
And, though rubicund, he was no lover of toddy;
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him in spite of myself.

7. A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle; But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, "Merry Christmas to all! and to all a good night!" CLEMENT C. MOORE.

NOTE.-St. Nicholas, whose Dutch name is Santa Claus, is the patron saint of boys. He is said to have been Bishop of Myra, and to have died in the year 326. The young were taught to revere him, and fiction represents him as the bearer of presents to children on Christmas eve, His fabled home is among the icebergs and eternal snows of the north.

[blocks in formation]

"THO

Scru'ti nize, examine carefully.

Ex u' ding, giving out; discharging.

An ten'naē, organs of touch

in insects.

Băr ri cad'ed, obstructed.

HOSE who live in glass houses must not throw stones;" but, as there is no rule without exceptions, we throw it out as a suggestive inquiry to any of our captious young friends, whether the little winged dwellers in glass hives, exemplary in all the relations of life, and faultless in their social and moral qualities, may not be privileged to have a fling in any direction.

2. Active, happy, and too kindly to use their stings while unprovoked, their pleasant humming falls on our ears as one of those soothing sounds in nature, like the plashing of the waterfall, the sigh of the wind among the trees, or the music of the

"hidden brook

In the leafy month of June,

That to the sleeping woods all night

Singeth a quiet tune,"

which harmonize with all good and sacred thoughts. 3. But the bee was not born merely to hum; it hums only to beguile its work. Let us watch the little tribes as they pass to and fro from their hive this morning. We need not fear their stings if we stand aside, and do not put ourselves in the way of the busy citizens. If some

« PreviousContinue »