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The Exeter Advocate, 1923-12-20, Page 3Christmas Flowers. (A Star Legend.) :.: • ,.• Now Troia the planet Venus, Called the star of cheer— An immortal gazed on Christmas Eve, Upon the earthland drear. She sighed to see the barren trees, Icing Winter robbed of clothes; And the bushes so unsightly, -That lately held the rose. And flitting to the Ruler Of the star -inspiring mirth; She begged to deck with Christmas flowers The desolated earth. And the King said, "Christmas morn- ing You may jsn:rney to and fro And scatter cheer confetti, Christmas flowers... of snow." And all the bush and trees forlorn" King winter killed with blight, She loaded down with blossoms Fromthebrightest star of night. -Anna Graves Henry, A Little Song of Santa Claus. This is told of Santa Claus: When he was just a boy His home was Happy Hollyland The mountain top of Joy; And frosty, snowy, sparkly Was the flurried little peak Where Santa Claus when he was young First learned to walk and speak. His mother, Lady Mistletoe, The fairies loved her well; , His father was the chieftain Of the Tribe of Jinglebell; They were the kindest people! And once a year, they say, They gave a winter party • For the fairies out their way. They chose a tiny spruce tree, And trinuned it all themselves With fluff and glint and star dust Lent by the forest elves. They hung bright presents on it, Wee bits of gems and gold And tiny scraps of rabbit fur For fairies who were cold. Then little fellow Santa Claus Would climb upon a stump And call, "The party's ready," And flop down with a jump; And all the wood would flutter With a little eager tune— The fairies corning running By the light of wintry moon. But after it was over And all the sprites had flown, And as he went to bed at night All cosy and alone, Little Santa Claus would whisper, Looking down to valleys blue, "0 children, wait till I grow up, I'll do great things for you !" —Miriam Clark Potter, in Youth's Companion. To the Young Folk Christmas is not a real, Christmas unless wo make some one happy on that day of days. Is there a lonely old man or woman in your community? Fix up a basket of goodies (mother will help you) and take it to him or her, bright and early on Christmas morning. There must be some one in your neighborhood whom you can make happy by a little gift, given with a lot of Iove. Do not forget the birds and Shep, Dobbin and Bossy. Have a Christmas feed for the birds; see that Shep has an extra bone, Dobbin a big hot mash and some rosy apples, and Bossy some appetiz- ing roots. See that everyone at home is remem- bered by a gift. Decorate the house with Christmas greens and remember that it is always "more blessed to give than to receive." 4 The Birds' Christmas Tree. This may be an evergreen or any kind of a tree that has evergreen branches tied on it. Warm suet and stick it full of seeds and nuts. Hang this suet from the branches. String . peanuts and festoon them around the tree. Have little boxes on the tree, aid in these boxes place nut meats, seeds, meat, celery, cabbage, lettuce and apples. 'Tie. pieces, of bread and crullers' to the trunk ' of the tree. Wherever you have this tree see that the ca.is can not get to it. Many :a bird's Christmas tree has been un- occupied because of strolling cats. Cats and birds never • mix -in an agreeable 'way. There is no better away to get acquainted -with the winter birds than by feeding` them. How Molly Cottontail Saw Santa Claus BY THE NYCES. It was the funniest thing! Though little Molly Cottontail didn't think so; indeed, she was pretty nigh scared out of a year's growth. But there, we'd better commence at the very begin- ning. It was the night before Christmas and of course you know what that; means; mysterious whisperings and hiding of knobby bundles -and every- thing. And Molly Cottontail and all! her folks, and Aunty and Uncle Hop - over and all the little Hopover -.1 fine supper and plenty of it when the entertainment was over. That touched Flattail's heart, for next to taking his ease he loved no- thing better than a good meal; so he lost no time in getting the Hopovers and the Cottontails to the schoolhouse. It was such a cunning little place, all alight, and just buzzing with the voices of bunny folks. And there was a tree, festooned with strings of red. and white pop -corn and hung with gingerbread men and candy canes, grown-ups; then Daddy Tarfoot wast ealled.on to dance a hoe-down; next came games. Let's see—they played "Blind Man's Buff" and "Puss in the Corner," almost running down the ladies who were placing the most de- licious supper on the table. But no one minded; the grown folks said they couldn't scold the children on Christ- mas Eve. Flattail Beaver said he really en- joyed the supper more than anything else. And after everything had been cleared away Eben Corntassel disap- peared—and Santa Claus appeared on the platform, and distributed presents, and stockings made of white tarleton, filled with candy. Flattail Beaver re - "I didn't know it was that late -if we want to get home ahead of Santa we'd better hurry." Then the Hopover bunnies and the Cottontail bunnies were bundled into the sleigh; Flattail called, "Are you ready?" and away he pelted. Molly was in the back part and she soon fell asleep and dreamed she was playing blind man's buff. All at once, the sleigh lurched round a fence cor-I ner, and Molly gave a leap right into a huge jimson weed, and there she) hung, by her warm woozy coat, to a great prickly bur. Poor little Molly! She wriggled and she twisted and she squeaked. But no' one heard her and she couldn't lose The Man of the Hour dressed in their best -were going' to the Christmas entertainment, to be held in the tiny red schoolhouse at the extreme end of Bunny Hollow. It was the snappiest kind of a cold night and the snow was just right for sleighing. So Uncle Hopover bundled them into his sleigh—and a good big one it was. The old-fashioned kind- with bells that tinkled beautifully. It held all the Hopover folks and all the Cottontail folks; also dear old Granny Wobblenose. Uncle Hopover hired Flattail Bea- ver to pulp the sleigh, but he had an awful time doing it, for Flattail was very lazy. And he would make no. promise until Aunty Hopover and Ma Cottontail told him he should have a After they had all greeted one an- other with "Merry Christmas," and "Sante to you," and said how beauti- ful everything looked and what a smart man teacher was to plan it a11, they sat on the tiny benches until the schoolmaster (his name was Eben Corntassel) stepped to the platform and announced that . Molly Ctiffontail and Johnny Hopover. would' give. a dialogue. Johnny was very shy and scarce talked above a whisper, while Molly thought mere of her new dress than she did of her dialogue. The dress was bright red and Granny Wobble - nose had made it her very own self. One after another the bunnies re- cited their pieces to the pride of the ceived two stockings—one for his wife and one for himself. "I'm mighty glad I came," he said. "Well," exclaimed Ma Cottontail, "I'll be glad to leave. Not that I didn't enjoy it; the entertainment was lovely and a great credit to the teach- er; but I've lots of things to do before Santa comes to .our house., Luckily the bunnies hung their stockings be- fore we left home," she laughed. So she hunted up Uncle Hopover and Pa Cottontail to tell them it was time to make tracks for home.. They were sitting close to the fire talking to Daddy Tarfoot and Daddy Long - ears, about who , raised the biggest crops. "Goodness me!" Uncle Hopover said, herself. And Ma and Pa and Aunty Hopover and the sleigh—all disap- peared and left her quite alone. She wasn't left alone many minutes though, for to her great joy another sleigh came flying swiftly along, much more swiftly than Flattail pulled them all to the schoolhouse: It was drawn, by eight reindeer and driven by— whom do you think? Why, no; other than Santa himself.- And he lurched round the very same fence corner! Dancer and Prancer were in the lead and in their haste they pretty nearly stumbled. So Santa had them rest for a moment. "Squeak, squeak, SQUEAK!" came from the jimson weed. Meaning: "Oh, Santa, please help Hie!" The Christ Child. The snow was falling fast, And the lights were dim and Iow, When a small child wandered up and down And had nowhere to go. He saw a house illumined And children merry and gay, But when He knocked and waited He was told to go away. To -night was Christmas Eve, And most every one was gay. People were hurrying to and fro With gifts for Christmas Day. So He wandered on, A small and lonely child, Then He looked in a window and saw' A mother and children, sweet and mild. He knocked at the door and waited Until He heard the mother say: "Children, some one is knocking; Go see who it is, I pray." The children came to the door To let the poor child in. He was very cold and chilly, For his clothing was torn and thin. This mother was reading her Bible To her children bright and fair, When she went to look for the boy, Behold, He was not there. The mother said: "My dears, That boy so sweet and mild Is not a IittIe wanderer, But the little Christ Child." So if you are good and kind, Live a good and noble life, You will receive a grand reward From our Saviour, Jesus Christ. So when you pass from this world of ours, If you have been good and true, You will find in the Golden City The gate standing open for you. —Anna Wilson Podger. "That sounds like some one in trou- ble!" exclaimed Santa Claus; and he pulled up close to the fence. and, "If it isn't Molly Cottontail! and fastened to a big bur—why you poor little thing; little more'n you'd frozen to death." Molly was so thankful—and she wasn't one bit afraid of Santa. No, indeed; she told hint exactly how it happened. And. Santa said: "Never mind—I'll have you home in a jiffy; but first I must stop at Sammy Slow's house—it's right on niy way." "Oh!" exclaimed Molly, "we know Slow and we love him dearly." "Do you?" exclaimed Santa with a twinkle. "Then you know a dear lit- tle boy"—and the words were scarce out of his mouth when they were on the roof of Sammy's house and in a moment down, down the chimney they slid—Molly in the pocket of Santa's big warm coat. Of course Sammy Slow was ,in bed —but Tabitha Tabbycat was not .and she was well acquainted with Molly Cottontail, and brought her a cup of nice warm milk, to take off the chill. When they reached the home of the Cottontails, they found everything in confusion. Granny Wobblenose was sure Molly had fallen asleep in the schoolhouse and been left behind. Ma Cottontail was almost indignant at dear Granny, and she said: "Indeed Molly was not left at the school -house —I counted all my bunnies before I left the building." Anyway Granny tucked all the bun- nies into their little beds, and Pa and Ma had donned their warm wraps and rubber boots, and were just about- to start in search of Molly when Santa Claus pulled up at the door. They could hardly believe their eyes when he took her out of his pocket and set her n hem "Dear dowme!beside" exclaiitne. d Ma, "Here's Santa, and Molly not in bed." And she rushed her inside and Pa ran to the woodpile for a few sticks to warm things up a bit. And when they re- turned to thank Santa, they found him' gone—quite out of sight; but he had tucked candies and all kinds of min - fling little presents inside their door, Then they heard his voice—way oil in the distance: "Merry Christinas to all, and to all a good nighty I SUPPOSE. ,ch11LaREN,You STUDIED) THE INS:ECT5., YOU', SAW TO15 5UMI")ER'. EVERY Lrr rLE- !NSE-er 15 MADE FOR SOME - WISE 'PURPOSE : IPNT RABB1TRORO ItW1-4AT' LESSON; DO W!✓ LEARN FROM 'r.'HE Mo QUITo ,pleb( WELL, 1 GUESS. WE LEARN. FROM THE. V SQUIZ"o -HOW EAS`( IT' 15 To '6ET; ,STti G 1r G/a (i q '.. ma y�;