The Project Gutenberg eBook, Betty's Bright Idea; Deacon Pitkin's Farm;
and The First Christmas of New England, by Harriet Beecher Stowe

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Title: Betty's Bright Idea; Deacon Pitkin's Farm; and The First Christmas
of New England

Author: Harriet Beecher Stowe

Release Date: January 15, 2004 [eBook #10723]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BETTY'S BRIGHT IDEA; DEACON
PITKIN'S FARM; AND THE FIRST CHRISTMAS OF NEW ENGLAND***

E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Richard Prairie, Sjaani, and Project
Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders

BETTY'S BRIGHT IDEA

also

DEACON PITKIN'S FARM,

and

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS OF NEW ENGLAND.

BY HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.

With Illustrations.

1875.

[Illustration: The Children in the Churchyard.]

BETTY'S BRIGHT IDEA.

"When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts
unto men."--Eph. iv. 8.

Some say that ever, 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrate,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long.
And then, they say, no evil spirit walks;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, no witch hath power to charm,--
So hallowed and so gracious is the time.

And this holy time, so hallowed and so gracious, was settling down over
the great roaring, rattling, seething life-world of New York in the good
year 1875. Who does not feel its on-coming in the shops and streets, in
the festive air of trade and business, in the thousand garnitures by
which every store hangs out triumphal banners and solicits you to buy
something for a Christmas gift? For it is the peculiarity of all this
array of prints, confectionery, dry goods, and manufactures of all kinds,
that their bravery and splendor at Christmas tide is all to seduce you
into generosity, and importune you to give something to others. It says
to you, "The dear God gave you an unspeakable gift; give you a lesser
gift to your brother!"

Do we ever think, when we walk those busy, bustling streets, all alive
with Christmas shoppers, and mingle with the rushing tides that throng
and jostle through the store