Hark, the bells! once more they clang together—all the bells in the town. So it is, so it is the New Year! They are ringing in the New Year. And these New-Year days—standing like mile-stones all along the highway of Time—who gave them to the world for holidays? Was it not “the carpenter’s son”? Rudolph, trying to smooth out the kink in his brain, finds that thought entangled with it, somehow. After awhile he exclaims, with face aglow:
“It is good that this is the first day of the year! That is the grand time to turn over a new leaf—no, to put on a new suit of armor! For I have learned something from my dream, father; it is this—thou art a Hero. And I mean to be another, just like thee!”
And the father looks down into Rudolph’s eyes, and sees that the demon has departed.
QUEEN MABEL.
“Green, green are the meadows,
And blue, blue is the sky,
And glad, glad is the morning,
And happy and gay am I.
Tirra-la-la, la, la, la!