After the service, we can fancy the children having a merry time,—such as we hope every child in our own land, as well as in Old England, may have, this very next Christmas, which is so near at hand.
JANE OLIVER.
HOW THE SHEEP WERE SAVED.
ANY years ago a farmer, living in the county of Somerset, England, on rising one morning early in December, found that the weather had grown bitterly cold. Looking out of the window, he saw that it had been snowing fast through the night.
Such a storm, indeed, had not been known for a long, long time. The wind was blowing hard, and the snow was still falling steadily.
Now, the farmer had a great many sheep, and had not yet housed them for the winter. They were out on the hills in the open air, without any shelter.
"My poor sheep!" exclaimed the farmer. "They will be buried in the snow. They will perish with the cold."