The Project Gutenberg EBook of Christmas Outside of Eden, by Coningsby Dawson

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Title: Christmas Outside of Eden

Author: Coningsby Dawson

Release Date: April 5, 2005 [EBook #15552]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTMAS OUTSIDE OF EDEN ***

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[Illustration: Christmas Outside of Eden--Book Cover]

[Illustration: There, seated in the entrance to the cave, the Man saw
the Woman but not the Woman as he had left her.]

Christmas Outside of Eden

BY

Coningsby Dawson

Author of "The Garden Without Walls," "Carry On," etc.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY

Eugene Francis Savage

NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1922

* * * * *

Copyright, 1921,
By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC.
Printed In U.S.A.

* * * * *

ILLUSTRATIONS

There, seated in the entrance to the cave, the Man saw the Woman, but
not the Woman as he had left her.

God had given the Man and Woman no time to pack. He had marched them
beyond the walls and locked the golden gates of Eden against them
forever.

The Man yawned. "I am still tired. Fetch the horse, that he may carry me
back to my dwelling."

* * * * *

CHRISTMAS OUTSIDE OF EDEN

I

This is the story the robins tell as they huddle beneath the holly on
the Eve of Christmas. They have told it every Christmas Eve since the
world started. They commenced telling it long before Christ was born,
for their memory goes further back than men's. The Christmas which they
celebrate began just outside of Eden, within sight of its gold-locked
doors.

The robins have only two stories: one for Christmas and one for Easter.
Their Easter story is quite different. It has to do with how they got
the splash of red upon their breasts. It was when God's son was hanging
on the cross. They wanted to do something to spare him. They were too
weak to pull out the nails from his feet and hands; so they tore their
little breasts in plucking the thorns one by one from the c