message of the Messiah!"

The heavens over the sea were of molten gold, and a golden glow seemed
to radiate from the boyish face that confronted them. In their
trance-like ecstasy the wonderful eyes gazed full into the blinding
west--gazed on and on until day had passed into night.

One iterant sound alone, as it drew closer, stirred the silence of that
evening: it was the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

* * * * *

THE END

* * * * *

Transcriber's notes.

1. There is an editorial error in the original edition
of this book: "The Star Song" by Robert Herrick is listed in the Table
of Contents but not included in the text. For this edition "The Star
Song" was removed from the Table of Contents.

2. In the "Inexhaustibility of the Subject of Christmas" by Leigh Hunt the
following sentence:

"There are two p's, observe, in plenipotential; and so there are in
plum-pudding. We love an exquisite fitness,--a might and wealth of
adaptation).

is transcribed:

(There are two p's, observe, in plenipotential; and so there are in
plum-pudding. We love an exquisite fitness,--a might and wealth of
adaptation).

3. In "Christmas Holly:"

I sing the holly, and who can breathe
Aught of that that is not good?
Then sing to the holly, the Christmas holly,
That hangs over peasant and king;

was changed as follows to correct an error and to preserve the symmetrical
verse structure [4,8,8,8,4]:

I sing the holly, and who can breathe
Aught of that that is not good?

Then sing to the holly, the Christmas holly,
That hangs over peasant and king;

4. In "Sery" by Richard Watson Gilder:

At a very queer sight
In the dim starlight.
As plain as can be

A fairy tree

was changed to:

At a very queer sight
In the dim starlight.

As plain as can be
A fairy tree

5. In Christmas Dreams, the word "stravaigging" was corrected to
"stravaiging."

6. "Hang up the Baby's Stocking" was not attributed in the Table of
Contents or in the text in the original edition. For clarity this edition
attributed both as follows: [Emily Huntington Miller]. Attribution makes
the text more readable. Without it one could believe the poem to have
been written by Andrew Lang; especially after Haven inserts an extra
poem by Southwell, "A Carol" following "The