t the angel said unto them, "Fear not, for
behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all
people. _For unto you is born, this day, in the city of David, a
saviour,--which is Christ the Lord._ And this shall be a sign unto you: ye
shall find the babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, _lying in a manger_."

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,
praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will toward men."

When the angels were gone up from them into heaven, the shepherds said to
one another, "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which
is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us." And they came,
with haste, and they found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a
manger. And when they saw Him in the manger, they knew that the wonderful
thing the angel said had really happened, and that the great deliverer was
born at last.

THE CHILD-MIND; AND HOW TO SATISFY IT

"It is the grown people who make the nursery stories," wrote Stevenson,
"all the children do is jealously to preserve the text." And the grown
person, whether he makes his stories with pen or with tongue, should bring
two qualities at least to the work--simplicity of language and a serious
sincerity. The reason for the simplicity is obvious, for no one, child or
otherwise, can thoroughly enjoy a story clouded by words which convey no
meaning to him.

The second quality is less obvious but equally necessary. No absence of
fun is intended by the words "serious sincerity," but they mean that the
story-teller should bring to the child an equal interest in what is about
to be told; an honest acceptance, for the time being, of the fairies, or
the heroes, or the children, or the animals who talk, with which the tale
is concerned. The child deserves this equality of standpoint, and without
it there can be no entire success.

As for the stories themselves, the difficulty lies with the material, not
with the _child_. Styles may be varied generously, but the matter must be
quarried for. Out of a hundred children's books it is more than likely
that ninety-nine will be useless; yet perhaps out of one autobiography may
be gleaned an anecdote, or a reminiscence which can be amplified into an
absorbing tale. Almost every story-teller will find that the open eye and
ear will serve him better than much arduous searching. No one book will
yield him the i