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Chapter XII

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR BELLS

BELLS ACROSS THE SNOW

FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL

O Christmas, merry Christmas!
Is it really come again?

With its memories and greetings,
With its joy and with its pain.
There's a minor in the carol,
And a shadow in the light,
And a spray of cypress twining
With the holly wreath to-night.
And the hush is never broken
By the laughter light and low,
As we listen in the starlight

To the bells across the snow!

O Christmas, merry Christmas! "Tis not so very long

Since other voices blended

With the carol and the song!
If we could hear them singing,
As they are singing now,
If we could but see the radiance

Of the crown on each dear brow;
There would be no sigh to smother,

No hidden tear to flow,
As we listen in the starlight,
To the bells across the snow.

O Christmas, merry Christmas!
This never more can be;
We cannot bring again the days
Of our unshadowed glee.
But Christmas, happy Christmas!
Sweet herald of good will,
With holy songs of glory
Brings holy gladness still.
For peace and hope may brighten,
And patient love may glow,
As we listen in the starlight,
To the bells across the snow.

FROM IN MEMORIAM

ALFRED TENNYSON

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;

Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,

And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,

But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,

Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,

The larger heart, the kindlier hand, Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be.

THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW

JOSEPHINE POLLARD

The Old Year sat beside the hearth

In thoughtful mood; the hour was late; And ere he vanished from the earth, The past he fain would contemplate. "I brought a wealth of joy for those Who had o'erburdened been with grief," He said, "And for unnumbered woes Furnished the cordial of relief.

"To some I gave a garden's bloom,
Sweet pansies and forget-me-nots;
To some the cypress and the tomb,
The barrenness of desert spots.
With love I tarried for awhile,

Breathing the sweet Elysian air;
And bidding Hope serenely smile
Across the threshold of Despair.

"I entered on my natal hour

Burdened alike with bliss and bane, Commissioned by my Lord to dower

Some hearts with ease, and some with pain Where happiness had rich increase,

I shall be honored long I know;

But those I robbed of joy and peace-
They will be glad to have me go!

"I've followed many a bridal train;

Have watched by many a lonely bier;
With birth and death, with loss and gain,
Made up the record of the year.
And now beside December's gate
Where hangs the year's alarum bell,
I pause to scan the past, and wait
The sound of my own funeral knell."

One!
Two!

Three!

Four!

Five!

Six!

Seven!

Eight!

Nine!

Ten!

Eleven!

Twelve!

How the hours have slipped away!
Some will weep with sore regret;
Could I still on earth delay
Some good I might accomplish yet.
An angelic song awoke!

Surely are the fetters riven.

Soon I shall hear the final stroke Chime sweetly with the clock of heaven!

I am nearer to my goal!

Time must eternity begin!

Awake, immortal soul!

Farewell and let the New Year in!

"I come the Old Year's debt to pay! I come his promises to keep;

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