Written at the request of my daughter Grace, then eleven years old, to be spoken by her at the holiday exercises in school, December, 1887.
There never had been a Christmas morn,
Till near nineteen hundred years ago,
When Christ our glorious Lord was born,
And peace and good will began to grow.
Christ taught fathers and mothers to pray,
And how good, pure and kind they should be,
And when some one pushed children away,
Said, “Suffer them to come unto Me.”
We all should rejoice and be thankful
That Christ loved little children so strong,
And strive to be happy and cheerful,
And never to do anything wrong.
It pays to be good and be pleasant,
And pleases our kind parents so well,
We are sure to receive a nice present,
When old Santa Claus comes with his bell.
Now, my good friends and my teacher, too,
I have one strong wish for which I’ll pray,
I wish for me and I wish for you,
That Christ will come back some Christmas day.
PROGRESSIVE EUCHRE.
A little nonsense is, now and then,
Highly relished by the best of men,
And women, too, are so fond of fun.
They laugh for joy when a game’s begun.
There are games of skill, and games of chance,
And games with sweet music and the dance,
Some play at whist, and some at poker,
But all enjoy progressive euchre.