ty years have passed since the
"good old days" described in this selection. New York in 1660 was a
small place. It was called New Amsterdam, and its inhabitants were
chiefly Dutch people from Holland. Knickerbocker's "History of New
York" gives a delightfully humorous account of those early times.

The festival of St. Nicholas occurs on December 6, and with the
Dutch colonists was equivalent to our Christmas.

WORD STUDY: _sanctum sanctorum_, a Latin expression meaning "holy
of holies," a most sacred place.

_noblesse_, persons of high rank.

_olykoeks_ (_[)o]l' y cooks_), doughnuts, or crullers.

_Mynheer_ (_m[=i]n h[=a]r'_), sir, Mr.

_Vrouw_ (_vrou_), madam, lady.

_Tobit_, a pious man of ancient times whose story is related in
"The Book of Tobit."

_Haman_ (_ha' man_), the prime minister of the king of Babylon, who
was hanged on a gibbet which he had prepared for another. See "The
Book of Esther."

_Har' le quin_, a clown well known in Italian comedy.

Look in the dictionary for: _gorgeous_, _rhomboids_, _primeval_,
_patriarchal_, _burgher_, _crone_, _porpoises_, _beverage_,
_divertisements_.

A WINTER EVENING IN OLD NEW ENGLAND

Shut in from all the world without,
We sat the clean-winged hearth about,
Content to let the north wind roar
In baffled rage at pane and door,
While the red logs before us beat
The frost line back with tropic heat;
And ever, when a louder blast
Shook beam and rafter as it passed,
The merrier up its roaring draft
The great throat of the chimney laughed.

The house dog on his paws outspread
Laid to the fire his drowsy head,
The cat's dark silhouette on the wall
A couchant tiger's seemed to fall;
And, for the winter fireside meet,
Between the andirons' straddling feet
The mug of cider simmered slow,
And apples sputtered in a row.
And, close at hand, the basket stood
With nuts from brown October's woods.

What matter how the night behaved?
What matter how the north wind raved?
Blow high, blow low, not all its snow
Could quench our hearth-fire's ruddy glow.

[Illustration: A Winter Evening in Old New England.]

THE OLD-FASHIONED THANKSGIVING[20]

I do not know but it is that old New England holiday of Thanksgiving
which, for one of New England birth, has most of home associati