I
CHILDREN OF CHRISTMAS
[Cradle Song]9
[How Many]9
[Her Christmas Present]10
[A Christmas Spy]11
[Refreshments for Santa Claus]12
[How the Christmas Tree was brought to Nome]12
[Holly and Mistletoe]15
[The Firebrand]15
[The Foundling]17
[Meeting the Kings]19
[The Procession of the Kings]24
[Melchior’s Ride]25
[One of the Twelve]26
[The Witch’s Child]28
[Babushka]31
[A Christmas Offering]33
[Christmas Post]33
[The Christmas Sheaf]34
[The Birds on the Christmas Sheaf]36
[What the Pine Trees Said]36
[Two Child Angels]37
[The Old Doll]38
II
OTHER CHILDREN
[The Apple-blossom Switch]41
[The Indignant Baby]42
[A Question of Spelling]42
[“Yours Severely”]43
[A Lack of Attention]43
[“I Ought to Mustn’t”]44
[A Vain Regret]44
[In the Dark Little Flat]44
[The Little Girl from Town]45
[For Every Day]46
[The Day-Dreamer]47
[Born Deaf, Dumb, and Blind]48
[The Cradle-Child]49
[Some Ladies of the Olden Time]50
[A Water-Lily]51
[The Kinderbank]51
[Buonamico]54
[The Prince and the Whipping-Boy]57
[Master Corvus]59
[“P. Abbott”]62
[The Giant’s Daughter]64
[Erotion and the Dove]66
[The Homesick Soldier]67
[The Cossack Mother]67
[The Blossom-Child]68
[The Clock of the Year]69
III
SOME OF THEIR FRIENDS
[The Young of Spring]73
[The Triumph of the Brown Thrush]74
[Day—Wide Day!]74
[The Blossoms of To-morrow]75
[The Nest in the Heather]76
[Lady Grove (Silver Birches)]78
[Shadow Brook]78
[The Brook and the Bird]79
[The Birds of Soleure]80
[The Prairie Nest]82
[The Moving of the Nest]83
[The Widowed Eagle]85
[The Chickadee]86
[The Earth-Mother and her Children]87
[“When the Leaves are Gone”]88
[The First Thanksgiving]88
[“Mascots”]89
[Mother Fur]90
[What the Cat-Mother Said]91
[What the Bird-Mother Said]91
[What the Friend of Both Said]91
[The Little Brown Bat]92
[The Lost Charter]92
[The Saving of Jack]96
[Skye of Skye]98
[Tip’s Kitten]99
[The King of Cats]100
[Waifs]104
[Frost-Flowers of the Pavement]105
[Stars of the Snow]106
[June in the Sky]106
[Mother Earth]107
[The Rain Rains Every Day]108
[The Good By]109

I
CHILDREN OF CHRISTMAS

[CRADLE SONG]
For one Born at Christmas

Happy thou, a winter comer,

Happier with the snows around thee

Than if rosy-fingered summer

In thy cradle-nest had crowned thee.

Tender is the night, and holy: