HER PROOF.
SHE lifted her finger with gesture slow:
"'Tis true, for certain and sure, I know,
And I think when I say so you ought to be-
lieve—
They kneel in their stalls on Christmas Eve.
"The red one, the white one, the speckled
and brown,
When the clock strikes twelve, will all kneel
down;
And it happens so every Christmas Eve,
—Well, I'll tell you this, if you won't believe:
"Once, ages and ages ago it was,
I thought I would see for myself, because
I doubted a little, just like you,
Whether or no the story was true;
"And so one Christmas Eve I staid
Awake till twelve—Oh, I was afraid!
The wind was a-blowing, and no moon shone,
But I went to the stable myself, alone.
"And when I had slid the big doors back
I couldn't go in, it was so black;
But—solemn and true—I do declare
I heard the cows when they knelt down! There!"