Christmas Tales And Verse

by Eugene Field

A children's Christmas anthology of stories and verse by one of the masters. Includes "Christmas Hymn," "The First Christmas Tree," and "Star of the East."

ISBN 978-1-59431-678-4 Holiday / Bonus / Children

Cover art Maggie Dix

Also avaialble in RTF and HTML formats.



Christmas Hymn

Sing, Christmas bells!

Say to the earth this is the morn

Whereon our Savior-King is born;

Sing to all men,--the bond, the free,

The rich, the poor, the high, the low,

The little child that sports in glee,

The aged folk that tottering go,--

Proclaim the morn

That Christ is born,

That saveth them and saveth me!



Sing, angel host!

Sing of the star that God has placed

Above the manger in the East;

Sing of the glories of the night,

The virgin's sweet humility,

The Babe with kingly robes bedight,--

Sing to all men where'er they be

This Christmas morn;

For Christ is born,

That saveth them and saveth me!



Sing, sons of earth!

O ransomed seed of Adam, sing!

God liveth, and we have a king!

The curse is gone, the bond are free--

By Bethlehem's star that brightly beamed,

By all the heavenly signs that be,

We know that Israel is redeemed;

That on this morn

The Christ is born

That saveth you and saveth me!



Sing, O my heart!

Sing thou in rapture this dear morn

Whereon the blessed Prince is born!

And as thy songs shall be of love,

So let my deeds be charity

By the dear Lord that reigns above,

By Him that died upon the tree,

By this fair morn

Whereon is born

The Christ that saveth all and me!





The Symbol and the Saint



Once upon a time a young man made ready for a voyage. His name was Norss; broad were his shoulders, his cheeks were ruddy, his hair was fair and long, his body betokened strength, and good-nature shone from his blue eyes and lurked about the corners of his mouth.



"Where are you going?" asked his neighbor Jans, the forge-master.



"I am going sailing for a wife," said Norss.



"For a wife, indeed!" cried Jans. "And why go you to seek her in foreign lands? Are not our maidens good enough and fair enough, that you must need search for a wife elsewhere? For shame, Norss! for shame!"



But Norss said: "A spirit came to me in my dreams last night and said, 'Launch the boat and set sail to-morrow. Have no fear; for I will guide you to the bride that awaits you.' Then, standing there, all white and beautiful, the spirit held forth a symbol--such as I had never before seen--in the figure of a cross, and the spirit said: 'By this symbol shall she be known to you.'"



"If this be so, you must need go," said Jans. "But are you well victualled? Come to my cabin, and let me give you venison and bear's meat."



Norss shook his head. "The spirit will provide," said he. "I have no fear, and I shall take no care, trusting in the spirit."



So Norss pushed his boat down the beach into the sea, and leaped into the boat, and unfurled the sail to the wind. Jans stood wondering on the beach, and watched the boat speed out of sight.



On, on, many days on sailed Norss--so many leagues that he thought he must have compassed the earth. In all this time he knew no hunger nor thirst; it was as the spirit had told him in his dream--no cares nor dangers beset him. By day the dolphins and the other creatures of the sea gambolled about his boat; by night a beauteous Star seemed to direct his course; and when he slept and dreamed, he saw ever the spirit clad in white, and holding forth to him the symbol in the similitude of a cross.



At last he came to a strange country--a country so very different from his own that he could scarcely trust his senses. Instead of the rugged mountains of the North, he saw a gentle landscape of velvety green; the trees were not pines and firs, but cypresses, cedars, and palms; instead of the cold, crisp air of his native land, he scented the perfumed zephyrs of the Orient; and the wind that filled the sail of his boat and smote his tanned cheeks was heavy and hot with the odor of cinnamon and spices. The waters were calm and blue--very different from the white and angry waves of Norss's native fiord.