The Children's Book of Christmas Stories. Various

       *From "Kristy's Queer Christmas," Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1904.

       XXX. MR. BLUFF'S EXPERIENCES OF HOLIDAYS*

       XXXI. MASTER SANDY'S SNAPDRAGON*

       * This story was first published in Wide Awake, vol. 26.

       XXXII. A CHRISTMAS FAIRY*

       * Reprinted with the permission of the Henry Altemus Company.

       XXXIII. THE GREATEST OF THESE*

       *This story was first printed in the Youth's Companion, vol. 76.

       XXXIV. LITTLE GRETCHEN AND THE WOODEN SHOE*

       XXXV. CHRISTMAS ON BIG RATTLE*

       * This story was first printed in the Youth's Companion, Dec. 14, 1905.

PREFACE

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      Many librarians have felt the need and expressed the desire for a select collection of children's Christmas stories in one volume. This books claims to be just that and nothing more.

      Each of the stories has already won the approval of thousands of children, and each is fraught with the true Christmas spirit.

      It is hoped that the collection will prove equally acceptable to parents, teachers, and librarians.

      Asa Don Dickinson.

(DETAILED) CONTENTS

       Table of Contents

      (Note.—The stories marked with a star (*) will be most enjoyed by

       younger children; those marked with a two stars (**) are better suited

       to older children.)

       Christmas at Fezziwig's Warehouse. By Charles Dickens

       * The Fir-Tree. By Hans Christian Andersen

       The Christmas Masquerade. By Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

       * The Shepherds and the Angels. Adapted from the Bills

       ** The Telltale Tile. By Olive Thorne Miller

       * Little Girl's Christmas. By Winnifred E. Lincoln

       ** A Christmas Matinee. By M.A.L. Lane

       * Toinette and the Elves. By Susan Coolidge

       The Voyage of the Wee Red Cap. By Ruth Sawyer Durand

       * A Story of the Christ-Child (a German Legend for Christmas Eve). As

       told by

       Elizabeth Harrison

       * Jimmy Scarecrow's Christmas. By Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

       Why the Chimes Rang. By Raymond McAlden

       The Birds' Christmas (founded on fact). By F.E. Mann

       ** The Little Sister's Vacation. By Winifred M. Kirkland

       * Little Wolff's Wooden Shoes. By Francois Coppee, adapted and

       translated by

       Alma J. Foster

       ** Christmas in the Alley. By Olive Thorne Miller

       * A Christmas Star. By Katherine Pyle

       ** The Queerest Christmas. By Grace Margaret Gallaher

       Old Father Christmas. By J.H. Ewing

       A Christmas Carol. By Charles Dickens

       How Christmas Came to the Santa Maria Flats. By Elia W. Peattie

       The Legend of Babouscka. From the Russian Folk Tale

       * Christmas in the Barn. By F. Arnstein

       The Philanthropist's Christmas. By James Weber Linn

       * The First Christmas-Tree. By Lucy Wheelock

       The First New England Christmas. By G.L. Stone and M.G. Fickett

       The Cratchits' Christmas Dinner. By Charles Dickens

       Christmas in Seventeen Seventy-Six. By Anne Hollingsworth Wharton

       * Christmas Under the Snow. By Olive Thorne Miller

       Mr. Bluff's Experience of Holidays. By Oliver Bell Bunce

       ** Master Sandy's Snapdragon. By Elbridge S. Brooks

       A Christmas Fairy. By John Strange Winter

       The Greatest of These. By Joseph Mills Hanson

       * Little Gretchen and the Wooden Shoe. By Elizabeth Harrison

       ** Big Rattle. By Theodore Goodridge Roberts

I. CHRISTMAS AT FEZZIWIG'S WAREHOUSE

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CHARLES DICKENS

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      "Yo Ho! my boys," said Fezziwig. "No more work to-night! Christmas Eve, Dick! Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's have the shutters up!" cried old Fezziwig with a sharp clap of his hands, "before a man can say Jack Robinson. … "

      "Hilli-ho!" cried old Fezziwig, skipping down from the high desk with wonderful agility. "Clear away, my lads, and let's have lots of room here! Hilli-ho, Dick! Cheer-up, Ebenezer!"

      Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away, or couldn't have cleared away with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in a minute. Every movable was packed off, as if it were dismissed from public life forevermore; the floor was swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug, and warm, and dry, and bright a ballroom as you would desire to see on a winter's night.

      In came a fiddler with a music book, and went up to the lofty desk and made an orchestra of it and tuned like fifty stomach-aches. In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came the three Misses Fezziwig, beaming and lovable. In came the six followers whose hearts they broke. In came all the young men and women employed in the business. In came the housemaid with her cousin the baker. In came the cook with her brother's particular friend the milkman. In came the boy from over the way, who was suspected of not having board enough from his master, trying to hide himself behind the girl from next door but one who was proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress; in they all came, anyhow and everyhow. Away they all went, twenty couple at once; hands half round and back again the other way; down the middle and up again; round and round in various stages of affectionate grouping, old top couple always turning up in the wrong place; new top couple starting off