So she had known about it all the while!
But not another word did she say; and they went on with the hymn:—
"Teach me to live, that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed.
Teach me to die, that so I may
Triumphing rise at the last day."
CHAPTER VIII.
"THE NEVER-GIVE-UPS."
"Now Christmas is come,
Let us beat up the drum,
And call our neighbors together;
And when they appear,
Let us make them good cheer,
As will keep out the wind and the weather."
This is what the old song says; but it is not the way the people of the new colonies celebrated Christmas. Indeed, they thought it wrong to observe it at all,—because their forefathers had come away from England almost on purpose to get rid of the forms and ceremonies which hindered their worship in the church over there.
The Parlins, however, saw no harm in celebrating the day of our Saviour's birth, and Mrs. Parlin, who was an Episcopalian, always instructed Love and the boys to trim the house with evergreens, and put cedar crosses in the windows.