quite possible. Ah! we all have seen Christmas days on
which sorrow would not leave our hearts nor our houses. But even sorrow
can be compelled to look away from its sorrowing for a festival hour which
is so solemnly joyous as Christ's Birthday. Memory can be filled full of
other things to be remembered. No soul is entirely destitute of blessings,
absolutely without comfort. Perhaps we have but one. Very well; we can
think steadily of that one, if we try. But the probability is that we have
more than we can count. No man has yet numbered the blessings, the
mercies, the joys of God. We are all richer than we think; and if we once
set ourselves to reckoning up the things of which we are glad, we shall be
astonished at their number.

Gladness, then, is the first item, the first course on our bill of fare
for a Christmas dinner.

_Entrees_.--LOVE garnished with Smiles.

GENTLENESS, with sweet-wine sauce of Laughter.

GRACIOUS SPEECH, cooked with any fine, savory herbs, such as Drollery,
which is always in season, or Pleasant Reminiscence, which no one need be
without, as it keeps for years, sealed or unsealed.

_Second Course_.--HOSPITALITY.

The precise form of this also depends on individual preferences. We are
not undertaking here to give exact recipes, only a bill of fare.

In some houses Hospitality is brought on surrounded with Relatives. This
is very well. In others, it is dished up with Dignitaries of all sorts;
men and women of position and estate for whom the host has special likings
or uses. This gives a fine effect to the eye, but cools quickly, and is
not in the long-run satisfying.

In a third class, best of all, it is served in simple shapes, but with a
great variety of Unfortunate Persons,--such as lonely people from
lodging-houses, poor people of all grades, widows and childless in their
affliction. This is the kind most preferred; in fact, never abandoned by
those who have tried it.

_For Dessert_.--MIRTH, in glasses.

GRATITUDE and FAITH beaten together and piled up in snowy shapes. These
will look light if run over night in the moulds of Solid Trust and
Patience.

A dish of the bonbons Good Cheer and Kindliness with every-day mottoes;
Knots and Reasons in shape of Puzzles and Answers; the whole ornamented
with Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver, of the kind mentioned in the
Book of Proverbs.

This is a short and simple bill of fare. There is not a costly thing in
it; not a thing which c