When the walls were green with a summer sheen,
In holly and yew bedight;
When the faces of all, the young, the old,
Were brimming with sparkling cheer—
Aye, those were the times when Christmas chimes
Were the merriest sounds of the year!
I snapped my fingers in Jack Frost’s teeth,
While the snow was wavering down,
And the icicles hung from my beard I flung—
My beard that was then so brown!