The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mr. Kris Kringle, by S. Weir Mitchell

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Title: Mr. Kris Kringle
A Christmas Tale

Author: S. Weir Mitchell

Release Date: December 25, 2006 [EBook #20180]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: A SILENT GROUP ABOUT THE HEARTH.]

MR. KRIS KRINGLE.

A

Christmas Tale.

BY

S. WEIR MITCHELL, M. D., LL. D., HARVARD.

SEVENTH THOUSAND.

PHILADELPHIA:

GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO.,

103 South 15th Street,

1898.

COPYRIGHT, 1893,

BY S. WEIR MITCHELL.

* * * * *

The following little Christmas story was written, and is
published for the benefit of the Home of the Merciful Saviour
for Crippled Children, Philadelphia.

S. WEIR MITCHELL.

* * * * *

MR. KRIS KRINGLE.

It was Christmas Eve. The snow had clad the rolling hills in white, as
if in preparation for the sacred morrow. The winds, boisterous all day
long, at fall of night ceased to roar amidst the naked forest, and
now, the silent industry of the falling flakes made of pine and spruce
tall white tents. At last, as the darkness grew, a deepening stillness
came on hill and valley, and all nature seemed to wait expectant of
the coming of the Christmas time.

Above the broad river a long, gray stone house lay quiet; its vine and
roof heavy with the softly-falling snow, and showing no sign of light
or life except in a feeble, red glow through the Venetian blinds o