The ship with clean new rigging—Will’s work—they eye with pride,
And they have quite a drawerful of other things beside—
Boxes of beads and sweeties, and many a top and ball,
Saved for the coming Christmas; and who’s to have them all?
Not their own merry playmates, bright girl and happy lad,
Who’ll meet for winter pastime like them well fed and clad.
No; children in close alleys, or the large workhouse near,
Our little friends—obeying Christ’s words—will please and cheer.
And their own Christmas pleasures will seem more glad and sweet
For knowing such poor neighbors enjoy for once a treat.
QUE.
HE was a wee bit of a boy to carry the United States mail on his back, seven miles, every day. He was only eleven years old, and as long, to an inch, as the mail bag, which was just three feet and eleven inches long. When he went along the road, you would sometimes see him, and sometimes the bag; that was as you happened to be on this or the other side of him. Many persons’ hard hearts have been made to open a crevice, at sight of the little fellow, to let a little jet of pity spirt out for him. But “The Point” ran out three miles and a half to the south of the county road and the stage coach, and the nearest coach post-office; and because it was only a small point, and sparsely settled, it couldn’t afford a horse for the short distance; and because it was a short distance, no man, or boy, who was able to do a full day’s work, would break into it to walk the seven miles; and because it was seven miles, no one who was not well could walk so far every day, and the year round. So it happened that the job was up for bids one spring, and the person who would carry the mail from Gingoo to the Point for the smallest amount of money, was to have it for a year.