The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Masque of Days, by Walter Crane

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: A Masque of Days
From the Last Essays of Elia: Newly Dressed & Decorated

Author: Walter Crane

Release Date: December 24, 2007 [EBook #24015]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MASQUE OF DAYS ***

Produced by Anne Storer and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

Transcriber's Note: Each paragraph is contained
within a full-page illustration, so the
illustration tags within the text have
been removed to avoid congestion.

* * * * *

A MASQUE OF DAYS

[Illustration]

A
MASQUE
OF
DAYS

CASSELL & COMPANY
LIMITED: LONDON:

[Illustration]

FROM THE
LAST ESSAYS
OF ELIA:

NEWLY DRESSED
& DECORATED

BY
WALTER CRANE

PARIS, NEW YORK
& MELBOURNE. 1901.

[Illustration]

* * * * *

THE OLD YEAR being dead, and the NEW YEAR coming of age, wh: he does by
Calendar Law, as soon as the breath is out of the old gentleman's body,
nothing would serve the young spark but he must give a dinner upon the
occasion, to wh: all the Days in the year were invited. The Festivals,
whom he deputed as his stewards, were mightily taken with the notion.
They had been engaged time out of mind, they said, in providing mirth and
good cheer for mortals below; and it was time they should have a taste of
their own bounty. It was stiffly debated among them whether the Fasts
should be admitted. Some said, that the appearance of such lean, starved
guests, with their mortified faces, would pervert the ends of the meeting.
But the objection was overruled by Christmas Day who h