ell;
There's nothing half so clear and cold
As water from our well;

"And through the window, sleepy nights,
Just at the stairway's head,
A white star like a candle lights
Me safely up to bed.

"So brightly all my blessings shine
That many thanks I give--
But mostly for that home of mine
Where I was put to live."

The old lady was delighted with all this rhyming, and on the spur of the
moment she made up a very good rhyme of her own. Amos and Ann thought it
was the best of all that they had heard that day--and goodness knows they
had heard a great many!

"Suppose you lived in a gingerbread house,
With a roof of jujube paste,
And sugar shutters, and peppermint pipes,
And doors that you could taste;
In a land where weather could do no harm,
Absurd as that may seem,
With chocolate ground and lemonade rain
And plenty of snow ice-cream?

"Plenty of snow ice-cream for you,
And a soda-water pump,
And a little garden where gumdrops grew,
And taffy all in a lump.
Taffy all in a lump, hurrah!
And tarts and cookies and all.
If ever you move to a house like that,
I'll make an early call!"

DECEMBER

_XII_

_DECEMBER_

[Illustration: _Capricornus_]

The house of December was all aglow,
Each room was jolly and red;
There were bulgy stockings ranged in a row,
And holly hung overhead.
A silver star hung fair and far,
A silver bell rang clear;
And some Christmas children came out and cried,
"Come in to the Christmas Cheer!"

[Illustration: _The house of December was all aglow_]

The children had a glorious time at the December house. There was a
beautiful tree there, all lighted and ready.

"But we can't take the things off, you know," one Christmas child told
Amos and Ann, "until somebody says a rhyme."

A clock chimed two a minute later, and caught Amos in the middle of a
sentence, at the words, "it was." So he went on and said:--

"It was crammed and laden and bent with fruit,
The tree that bore in a night;
Rich with treasure from tip to root,
A very goodly sight.
Dim in the parlor's gloom it showed,
When a tiny gleam at the window glowed;
When over the hills a rooster crowed,
It thrilled through all its height.

"A rubber doll on a distant limb
Stret