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1 Chapter 1 : Christmas Stories The First Christmas of New England and Other Tales by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Fiction, Classics [Harriet Beecher Stowe] on theinnatdunvilla.com *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. "Well, there be good men and godly in Old England that get to heaven in better coats and with easy carriages and fine houses and servants. Fickett It was a warm and pleasant Saturday--that twenty-third of December, The winter wind had blown itself away in the storm of the day before, and the air was clear and balmy. The people on board the Mayflower were glad of the pleasant day. It was three long months since they had started from Plymouth, in England, to seek a home across the ocean. Now they had come into a harbour that they named New Plymouth, in the country of New England. Other people called these voyagers Pilgrims, which means wanderers. A long while before, the Pilgrims had lived in England; later they made their home with the Dutch in Holland; finally they had said goodbye to their friends in Holland and in England, and had sailed away to America. There were only one hundred and two of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower, but they were brave and strong and full of hope. Now the Mayflower was the only home they had; yet if this weather lasted they might soon have warm log-cabins to live in. This very afternoon the men had gone ashore to cut down the large trees. The women of the Mayflower were busy, too. Some were spinning, some knitting, some sewing. It was so bright and pleasant that Mistress Rose Standish had taken out her knitting and had gone to sit a little while on deck. She was too weak to face rough weather, and she wanted to enjoy the warm sunshine and the clear salt air. Everybody loved Mistress Standish and Mistress Brewster, for neither of them ever spoke unkindly. The air on deck would have been warm even on a colder day, for in one corner a bright fire was burning. It would seem strange now, would it not, to see a fire on the deck of a vessel? But in those days, when the weather was pleasant, people on shipboard did their cooking on deck. She had hung a great kettle on the crane over the fire, where the onion soup for supper was now simmering slowly. Near the fire sat a little girl, busily playing and singing to herself. This afternoon Remember had been watching Hannah build the fire and make the soup. Now the little girl was playing with the Indian arrowheads her father had brought her the night before. She was singing the words of the old psalm: What songs are the little English children singing now? Christmas, Remember, is the birthday of the Christ-Child, of Jesus, whom thou hast learned to love," Hannah answered softly. And we are English, thou hast told me, Hannah. But the reason why we do not sing the Christmas carols or play the Christmas games makes a long, long story, Remember. Hannah cannot tell it so that little children will understand. Thou must ask some other, child. But thou wilt tell me wilt thou not? No one spoke for a few seconds, until Hannah said almost sharply: But," she added, with a kind glance at little Remember, "wouldst thou like to know why we have left Old England and do not keep the Christmas Day? Thou canst not understand it all, child, and yet it may do thee no harm to hear the story. It may help thee to be a brave and happy little girl in the midst of our hard life. Come here, child, and sit by me, while good Mistress Brewster tells thee how cruel men have made us suffer. Then will I sing thee one of the Christmas carols. Most of us were born in England, and England is the best country in the world. He said he would send us away from England if we did not do as he ordered. Now, we could not think as he did on holy matters, and it seemed wrong to us to obey him. So we decided to go to a country where we might worship as we pleased. But thou must not think too hardly of him. He doth not understand, perhaps. Right will win some day, Remember, though there may be bloody war before peace cometh. And I thank God that we, at least, shall not be called on to live in the midst of the strife," she went on, speaking more to herself than to the little girl. We trusted Him in whom we believed. Yes," she went on, "and shall we not keep on trusting Him? He who has led us thus far will not leave us now. There thou wast born, Remember, and my own children, and there we lived in love and peace. We could not talk well with the Dutch, and so we could not set right what was wrong among them. And worst of all, Remember, we were afraid that you and little Bartholomew and Mary and Love and Wrestling and all the rest would not grow to be good girls and boys. And so we have come to this new country to teach Page 1

2 our children to be pure and noble. And I will try to be a good girl. But thou didst not tell me about Christmas after all. Their other name for the Christmas time is the Yuletide, and the big log that is burned then is called the Yule log. The children like to sit around the hearth in front of the great, blazing Yule log, and listen to stories of long, long ago. No one is allowed to go hungry, for the rich people on the day always send meat and cakes to the poor folk round about. And I promised to sing thee one, did I not? As Joseph was a-walking, He heard an angel sing: Then be ye glad, good people, This night of all the year, And light ye up your candles, For His star it shineth clear. Before the song was over, Hannah had come on deck again, and was listening eagerly. The song shall be thy Christmas gift. The next day was dull and cold, and on Monday, the twenty-fifth, the sky was still overcast. There was no bright Yule log in the Mayflower, and no holly trimmed the little cabin. The Pilgrims were true to the faith they loved. They held no special service. They made no gifts. Instead, they went again to the work of cutting the trees, and no one murmured at his hard lot. She heard no one speak of England or sigh for the English home across the sea. And both Mistress Allerton and Mistress Standish, whom God was soon to call away from their earthly home, felt happier and stronger as they heard the little girl singing: Page 2

3 Chapter 2 : Edward Rowe Snow - Wikipedia The First Christmas of New England and Other Tales (Paperback) by Beecher Harriet Stowe and a great selection of similar Used, New and Collectible Books available now at theinnatdunvilla.com Daily business briefing How did the first settlers celebrate Christmas? The Pilgrims who came to America in were strict Puritans, with firm views on religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Scripture did not name any holiday except the Sabbath, they argued, and the very concept of "holy days" implied that some days were not holy. Puritans were particularly contemptuous of Christmas, nicknaming it "Foolstide" and banning their flock from any celebration of it throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. On the first Dec. The next year, a group of non-puritan workmen caught celebrating Christmas with a game of "stoole-ball" â an early precursor of baseball â were punished by Gov. They had several reasons, including the fact that it did not originate as a Christian holiday. The upper classes in ancient Rome celebrated Dec. They thought Jesus had been born sometime in September. So their objections were theological? Each year, rich landowners would throw open their doors to the poor and give them food and drink as an act of charity. The poorest man in the parish was named the "Lord of Misrule," and the rich would wait upon him at feasts that often descended into bawdy drunkenness. Such decadence never impressed religious purists. Puritans in the English Parliament eliminated Christmas as a national holiday in, amid widespread anti-christmas sentiment. Settlers in New England went even further, outlawing Christmas celebrations entirely in Anyone caught shirking their work duties or feasting was forced to pay a significant penalty of five shillings. Christmas returned to England in, but in New England it remained banned until the s, when the Crown managed to exert greater control over its subjects in Massachusetts. Fearing a violent backlash from Puritan settlers, Andros was flanked by redcoats as he prayed and sang Christmas hymns. Did the Puritans finally relent? Anti-Christmas sentiment flared up again around the time of the American Revolution. Colonial New Englanders began to associate Christmas with royal officialdom, and refused to mark it as a holiday. Even after the U. Constitution came into effect, the Senate assembled on Christmas Day in, as did the House in It was only in the following decades that disdain for the holiday slowly ebbed away. In, Alabama became the first state to declare Christmas a public holiday, and other states soon followed suit. But New England remained defiantly Scrooge-like; as late as, schools and markets remained open on Christmas Day. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow finally noted a "transition state about Christmas" in New England in Christmas Day was formally declared a federal holiday by President Ulysses S. Page 3

4 Chapter 3 : Folklore, Folktales, and Fairy Tales from England: A Digital Library The First Christmas of New England and Other Tales by Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Aegypan. PAPERBACK. Special order direct from the distributor. New. Most families have a Christmas Tree or maybe even two! The decorating of the tree is usually a family occasion, with everyone helping. Prince Albert was German, and thought that it would be good to use one of his ways of celebrating Christmas in England. Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe are also sometimes used to decorate homes or other buildings. Most villages, towns and cities are decorated with Christmas lights over Christmas. Often a famous person switches them on. Every year they get bigger and better. The Church that I go to always has a Carols by Candlelight Service where the church is only lit up by candles. It is a very special service and always makes me feel very Christmassy! Lots of other British churches also have Carols by Candlelight and Christingle services. Children believe that Father Christmas or Santa Claus leaves presents in stockings or pillow-cases. Children sometimes leave out mince pies and brandy for Father Christmas to eat and drink when he visits them. Now, some people say that a non-alcoholic drink should be left for Santa as he has to drive! There are some customs that only take place, or were started, in the UK. Boxing Day is a very old custom that started in the UK and is now taken as a holiday in many countries around the world. Traditionally, and before turkey was available, roast beef or goose was the main Christmas meal. One vegetable that is often at Christmas in the UK are brussel sprouts. Dessert is often Christmas Pudding. Mince pies and lots of chocolates are often eaten as well! Trifle is also a popular dessert at Christmas. The dinner table is decorated with a Christmas Cracker for each person and sometimes flowers and candles. Statistics show that in the UK, they get an official White Christmas about every 4 or 5 years and have real snow at Christmas about 1 in 10 years but often this is only normally in Scotland! Below is an animated map, made by www. The Snowman also featured the song "Walking in the Air". This time, it was sung by a choirboy called Aled Jones. Aled Jones is now an adult and is a TV and Radio presenter! All across the UK, in cities and towns, there are fireworks to celebrate the New Year. Two of the most famous fireworks displays are in London, along the River Thames, and in Edinburgh at the Hogmanay celebrations. Also in Scotland, the first person to set foot in a house in a New Year is thought to have a big effect on the fortunes of the people that live there! Generally strangers are thought to bring good luck. Depending on the area, it may be better to have a dark-haired or fair-haired stranger set foot in the house. In England it is sometimes said that a stranger coming through the door carrying a lump of coal will bring good luck. Page 4

5 Chapter 4 : Editions of The First Christmas of New England by Harriet Beecher Stowe The First Christmas of New England by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Harriet Beecher Stowe's The First Christmas of New England () is a delightful holiday story spanning both Thanksgiving and Christmas. The early Massachusetts Puritans fined anyone who celebrated the holiday. Connecticut even banned mincemeat pies. But then along came Charles Dickens, who characterized that puritanical view as -- well, Scroogelike. Slavery horrified him and he found the American people lacking social awareness. He did like Boston, though, after spending a month in the city. Neither New Hampshire nor Massachusetts law recognized December 25 as a holiday. A wave of Irish-Catholic immigrants put holly on their doorways, candles in the window and a family feast on the table at Christmas. College professors returned from their studies in Gemany with stories of gift giving and Christmas trees. Before the Civil War, Salem minister William Bentley recorded in his diary the growing holiday practice of decorating with evergreens. The tree came to symbolize home as the Civil War separated families. Union soldiers decorated Christmas trees with salt pork and hard tack. Charles Dickens made Boston his home away from home during his stay in America. Dickens always regarded Boston as his American home," wrote George Dolby, his agent. Curiosity seekers peeked at him through the half-open dining room door as he ate. He practiced his readings in front of a large mirror in his Parker House apartment. His agent knew Dickens had a success on his hands by the time he finished the first chapter: When at least the reading of The Carol was finished, and the final words had been delivered, and "So, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us every one," a dead silence seemed to prevail -- a sort of public sigh as it were -- only to be broken by cheers and calls, the most enthusiastic and uproarious. The reading moved him so much he closed his factory on Christmas Day and sent every worker a turkey thereafter. According to Charles Dickens, Christmas allowed people, like Scrooge, to change into kinder, more generous selves. Grant tried to reconcile the torn nation by declaring Christmas a national holiday. The show is sold out, but you can still get on the waiting list. This story was updated in Page 5

6 Chapter 5 : German addresses are blocked - theinnatdunvilla.com The First Christmas of New England and Other Tales by Harriet, Beecher Stowe. Wildside Press, The First Christmas of New England and Other Tales by. The Yule Log The History of Christmas Trees The evergreen fir tree has traditionally been used to celebrate winter festivals pagan and Christian for thousands of years. Pagans used branches of it to decorate their homes during the winter solstice, as it made them think of the spring to come. The Romans used Fir Trees to decorate their temples at the festival of Saturnalia. Christians use it as a sign of everlasting life with God. Nobody is really sure when Fir trees were first used as Christmas trees. It probably began about years ago in Northern Europe. Other early Christmas Trees, across many parts of northern Europe, were cherry or hawthorn plants or a branch of the plant that were put into pots and brought inside so they would hopefully flower at Christmas time. Sometimes they were carried around from house to house, rather than being displayed in a home. The Paradise Tree represented the Garden of Eden. It was often paraded around the town before the play started, as a way of advertising the play. The plays told Bible stories to people who could not read. The first documented use of a tree at Christmas and New Year celebrations is argued between the cities of Tallinn in Estonia and Riga in Latvia! Both claim that they had the first trees; Tallinn in and Riga in Little is known about either tree apart from that they were put in the town square, were danced around by the Brotherhood of Blackheads and were then set on fire. This is like the custom of the Yule Log. You can find out more about the Riga Tree from this website: The man is dressed a bishop, possibly representing St. It is described as a tree decorated with "apples, nuts, dates, pretzels and paper flowers". The first person to bring a Christmas Tree into a house, in the way we know it today, may have been the 16th century German preacher Martin Luther. A story is told that, one night before Christmas, he was walking through the forest and looked up to see the stars shining through the tree branches. It was so beautiful, that he went home and told his children that it reminded him of Jesus, who left the stars of heaven to come to earth at Christmas. The Riga tree originally took place a few decades earlier. The custom of having Christmas trees could well have travelled along the Baltic sea, from Latvia to Germany. In the s and s, the countries which are now Germany and Latvia were them part of two larger empires which were neighbors. Another story says that St. Boniface of Crediton a village in Devon, UK left England and traveled to Germany to preach to the pagan German tribes and convert them to Christianity. He is said to have come across a group of pagans about to sacrifice a young boy while worshipping an oak tree. In anger, and to stop the sacrifice, St. Boniface is said to have cut down the oak tree and, to his amazement, a young fir tree sprang up from the roots of the oak tree. Boniface took this as a sign of the Christian faith and his followers decorated the tree with candles so that St. Boniface could preach to the pagans at night. There is another legend, from Germany, about how the Christmas Tree came into being, it goes: Once on a cold Christmas Eve night, a forester and his family were in their cottage gathered round the fire to keep warm. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. When the forester opened the door, he found a poor little boy standing on the door step, lost and alone. The forester welcomed him into his house and the family fed and washed him and put him to bed in the youngest sons own bed he had to share with his brother that night! The next morning, Christmas Morning, the family were woken up by a choir of angels, and the poor little boy had turned into Jesus, the Christ Child. The Christ Child went into the front garden of the cottage and broke a branch off a Fir tree and gave it to the family as a present to say thank you for looking after him. So ever since them, people have remembered that night by bringing a Christmas Tree into their homes! In Germany, the first Christmas Trees were decorated with edible things, such as gingerbread and gold covered apples. Then glass makers made special small ornaments similar to some of the decorations used today. In an unknown German wrote: The first Christmas Trees came to Britain sometime in the s. In Victorian times, the tree would have been decorated with candles to represent stars. In many parts of Europe, candles are still used to decorate Christmas trees. Tinsel and The Legend of the Christmas Spider Tinsel was also created in Germany, were it Page 6

7 was originally made from thin strips of beaten silver. There are also folk stories about how tinsel was created - by The Christmas Spider! These tales seem to have started in Eastern Germany or Ukraine but are also told in parts of Finland and Scandinavia. When the children go to sleep on Christmas Eve a spider covers the tree in cobwebs. Then on Christmas morning the cobwebs are magically turned into silver and gold strands which decorate the tree! In, the famous inventor Thomas Edison put some of his new electric light bulbs around his office. And in Edward Johnson, who was a colleague of Edison, hand-strung 80 red, white and blue bulbs together and put them on his tree in his New York apartment there were two additional strings of 28 lights mounted from the ceiling! In the Edison company published a brochure offering lighting services for Christmas. In another Edison advert offered bulbs which you could rent, along with their lighting system, for use over Christmas! There are records in a diary from where settlers in Montana used electric lights on a tree. Electric tree lights first because widely known in the USA in when President Grover Cleveland has the tree in the White House decorated with lights as his young daughters liked them! Another claim to the first widespread sale of strings of lights comes from Ralph Morris, an American telephonist. In, he used telephone wire to string together small bulbs from a telephone exchange and decorated a table top tree with them. Leavitt Morris, the son of Ralph, wrote an article in for the Christian Science Monitor, about his father inventing Christmas Tree lights, as he was un-aware of the Edison lights. In a hospital in Chicago burned down because of candles on a Christmas Tree. In insurance companies in the USA tried to get a law made that would ban candles from being used on Christmas Trees because of the many fires they had caused. However, people still used candles to light Christmas Trees and there were more fires. His family came from Spain and made novelty wicker bird cages that lit up. Albert thought of using the lights in long strings and also suggested painting the bulbs bright colors like red and green. Many towns and villages have their own Christmas Trees. She set the record on 19th December on the set of Guinness World Records: Die GroBten Weltrekorde in Germany. Artificial Christmas Trees really started becoming popular in the early 20th century. In many countries, different trees are used as Christmas trees. Page 7

8 Chapter 6 : A Religious Christian Christmas Children's Story - The First New England Christmas - Kids Sto [ [ [ The First Christmas of New England and Other Tales [ THE FIRST CHRISTMAS OF NEW ENGLAND AND OTHER TALES BY Stowe, Harriet Beecher (Author) Feb[ THE. They present an inexorable wall, against which forbidding and angry waves incessantly dash, and around which shifting winds continually rave. The approaches to safe harbors are few in number, intricate and difficult, requiring the skill of practiced pilots. But, as if with a pitying spirit of hospitality, old Cape Cod, breaking from the iron line of the coast, like a generous-hearted sailor intent on helpfulness, stretches an hundred miles outward, and, curving his sheltering arms in a protective circle, gives a noble harborage. Of this harbor of Cape Cod the report of our governmental Coast Survey thus speaks: The width and freedom from obstruction of every kind at its entrance and the extent of sea room upon the bay side make it accessible to vessels of the largest class in almost all winds. This advantage, its capacity, depth of water, excellent anchorage, and the complete shelter it affords from all winds, render it one of the most valuable ship harbors upon our coast. Let us look into the magic mirror of the past and see this harbor of Cape Cod on the morning of the 11th of November, in the year of our Lord, as described to us in the simple words of the pilgrims: It is a harbor wherein a thousand sail of ship may safely ride. The "fir trees, the pine trees, and the bay," rejoice together in freedom, for as yet the axe has spared them; in the noble bay no shipping has found shelter; no voice or sound of civilized man has broken the sweet calm of the forest. The oak leaves, now turned to crimson and maroon by the autumn frosts, reflect themselves in flushes of color on the still waters. The golden leaves of the sassafras yet cling to the branches, though their life has passed, and every brushing wind bears showers of them down to the water. Here and there the dark spires of the cedar and the green leaves and red berries of the holly contrast with these lighter tints. No voice or sound from earth or sky proclaims that anything unwonted is coming or doing on these shores to-day. The wandering Indians, moving their hunting-camps along the woodland paths, saw no sign in the stars that morning, and no different color in the sunrise from what had been in the days of their fathers. Panther and wild-cat under their furry coats felt no thrill of coming dispossession, and saw nothing through their great golden eyes but the dawning of a day just like all other days--when "the sun ariseth and they gather themselves into their dens and lay them down. There had been stormy and windy weather, but now dawned on the earth one of those still, golden times of November, full of dreamy rest and tender calm. The skies above were blue and fair, and the waters of the curving bay were a downward sky--a magical under-world, wherein the crimson oaks, and the dusk plumage of the pine, and the red holly-berries, and yellow sassafras leaves, all flickered and glinted in wavering bands of color as soft winds swayed the glassy floor of waters. In a moment, there is heard in the silent bay a sound of a rush and ripple, different from the lap of the many-tongued waves on the shore; and, silently as a cloud, with white wings spread, a little vessel glides into the harbor. A little craft is she--not larger than the fishing-smacks that ply their course along our coasts in summer; but her decks are crowded with men, women, and children, looking out with joyous curiosity on the beautiful bay, where, after many dangers and storms, they first have found safe shelter and hopeful harbor. It was old Master Cotton Mather who said of them, "The Lord sifted three countries to find seed wherewith to plant America. Elder Brewster, with his well-worn Geneva Bible in hand, leads the thanksgiving in words which, though thousands of years old, seem as if written for the occasion of that hour: Let them which have been redeemed of the Lord show how he delivereth them from the hand of the oppressor, And gathered them out of the lands: Both hungry and thirsty, their soul failed in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their troubles, and he delivered them in their distresses. And led them forth by the right way, that they might go unto a city of habitation. They that go down to the sea and occupy by the great waters: For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, and it lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to heaven, and descend to the deep: They are tossed to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and all their cunning is gone. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them Page 8

9 out of their distresses. He turneth the storm to a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. When they are quieted they are glad, and he bringeth them unto the haven where they would be. There was no Watts, and no Wesley, in the days of the Pilgrims; they brought with them in each family, as the most precious of household possessions, a thick volume containing, first, the Book of Common Prayer, with the Psalter appointed to be read in churches; second, the whole Bible in the Geneva translation, which was the basis on which our present English translation was made; and, third, the Psalms of David, in meter, by Sternhold and Hopkins, with the music notes of the tunes, adapted to singing. Therefore it was that our little band were able to lift up their voices together in song and that the noble tones of Old Hundred for the first time floated over the silent bay and mingled with the sound of winds and waters, consecrating our American shores. Him serve with fear, His praise forthtell; Come ye before Him and rejoice. Praise, laud, and bless His name always, For it is seemly so to do. The Lord our God is good, His mercy is forever sure; His truth at all times firmly stood, And shall from age to age endure. Thou rememberest, Master Coppin? When He wills to answer prayer, there will be found both carpenter and screws in their season, I trow. Give us thy mind on it, old girl; say, wilt thou go deer-hunting with us yonder? Old Deb is in the spirit of the thing and opens out like a cannon. The old girl is spoiling for a chase in those woods. Thereat there was a crying to the different mothers of girls and boys tired of being cooped up,--"oh, mother, mother, ask that we may all go ashore. There be springs of water, I trow. How say you, Mr. You are our governor. What order shall we take? Why, the lions and bears will make one mouthful of ye. Why else am I come on this quest? Not being good enough to be in your church nor one of the saints, I come for an arm of flesh to them, and so, here goes on my armor. The clang of armor, the bustle and motion of men and children, the barking of dogs, and the cheery Heave-o! The impatient children ran in a group and clustered on the side of the ship to see them go. In all the roughness and the terrors of the sea she hath been like a little sunbeam to us--yet she is so frail! Mistress Winslow will never raise that child--now mark me! They are flesh and blood, and she looks as if she had been made out of sunshine. But if he must come to the wilderness I will come with him. Margery soon appeared, dragging the culprit after her. Enough to have blown us all up! Here, Master Clarke, Master Clarke, come and keep this boy with you till his father come back, or we be all sent sky high before we know. There is a richness and sweetness gleaming through the brief records of these men in their journals, which shows how the new land was seen through a fond and tender medium, half poetic; and its new products lend a savor to them of somewhat foreign and rare. At night our people returned and found not any people or inhabitants, and laded their boat with juniper, which smelled very sweet and strong, and of which we burned for the most part while we were there. We shall not want for Christmas greens here, though the houses and churches are yet to come. It hath the look to me of a land which the Lord our God hath blessed. The soil is free--no man hath claim thereon. This is a sore evil in Old England; but we will make a country here for the poor to dwell in, where the wild fruits and fish and fowl shall be the inheritance of whosoever will have them; and every man shall have his portion of our good mother earth, with no lords and no bishops to harry and distrain, and worry with taxes and tythes. The record of their adventures is given in their journals with that sweet homeliness of phrase which hangs about the Old English of that period like the smell of rosemary in an ancient cabinet. We are told of a sort of picnic day, when "our women went on shore to wash and all to refresh themselves;" and fancy the times there must have been among the little company, while the mothers sorted and washed and dried the linen, and the children, under the keeping of the old mastiffs and with many cautions against the wolves and wild cubs, once more had liberty to play in the green wood. Goodman "had nothing in hand," says the journal, "but took up a stick and threw at one of them and hit him, and they presently ran away, but came again. He got a pale-board in his hand, but they both sat on their tails a good while, grinning at him, and then went their way and left him. We are told, moreover, how the party who had struck off into the wilderness, "having marched through boughs and bushes and under hills and valleys which tore our very armor in pieces, yet could meet with no inhabitants nor find any fresh water which we greatly stood in need of, for we brought neither beer nor water with us, and our victual was only biscuit and Holland cheese, and a little bottle of aqua vitae. So we were sore athirst. Plymouth Harbor, as Page 9

10 they found it, is thus described: The bay is a most hopeful place, innumerable stores of fowl, and excellent good; and it cannot but be of fish in their season. Skate, cod, and turbot, and herring we have tasted of--abundance of mussels clams the best we ever saw; and crabs and lobsters in their time, infinite. Two or three great oaks, pines, walnut, beech, ash, birch, hazel, holly, and sassafras in abundance, and vines everywhere, with cherry- trees, plum-trees, and others which we know not. Many kind of herbs we found here in winter, as strawberry leaves innumerable, sorrel, yarrow, carvel, brook-lime, liver-wort, water-cresses, with great store of leeks and onions, and an excellent strong kind of flax and hemp. And now let us look in the glass at them once more, on Saturday morning of the 23d of December. Mary Winslow and Rose Standish are sitting together on deck, fashioning garments, while little Love Winslow is playing at their feet with such toys as the new world afforded her--strings of acorns and scarlet holly- berries and some bird-claws and arrowheads and bright-colored ears of Indian corn, which Captain Miles Standish has brought home to her from one of their explorations. Through the still autumnal air may now and then be heard the voices of men calling to one another on shore, the quick, sharp ring of axes, and anon the crash of falling trees, with shouts from juveniles as the great forest monarch is laid low. Some of the women are busy below, sorting over and arranging their little household stores and stuff with a view to moving on shore, and holding domestic consultations with each other. What came nearest to the hearts of all was the loss of Dorothea Bradford, who, when all the men of the party were absent on an exploring tour, accidentally fell over the side of the vessel and sunk in the deep waters. What this loss was to the husband and the little company of brothers and sisters appears by no note or word of wailing, merely by a simple entry which says no more than the record on a gravestone, that, "on the 7th of December, Dorothy, wife of William Bradford, fell over and was drowned. Earthly having and enjoying was a thing long since dismissed from their calculations. They were living on the primitive Christian platform; they "rejoiced as though they rejoiced not," and they "wept as though they wept not," and they "had wives and children as though they had them not," or, as one of themselves expressed it, "We are in all places strangers, pilgrims, travelers and sojourners; our dwelling is but a wandering, our abiding but as a fleeting, our home is nowhere but in the heavens, in that house not made with hands, whose builder and maker is God. But Mary Winslow, as she sat over her sewing, dropped now and then a tear down on her work for the loss of her sister and counselor and long-tried friend. From the lower part of the ship floated up, at intervals, snatches of an old English ditty that Margery was singing while she moved to and fro about her work, one of those genuine English melodies, full of a rich, strange mournfulness blent with a soothing pathos: All lovers young--all lovers must Consign to thee, and come to dust. She sat by me last night and stroked my head when that ugly, stormy wind waked me--she looked so sweet, oh, ever so beautiful! When the Lord would show who was greatest in his kingdom, he took a little child on his lap. I long to have a home on dry land once more, be it ever so poor. The sea wearies me. Only think, it is almost Christmas time, only two days now to Christmas. How shall we keep it in these woods? I remember I used to go forth with them and help dress the churches. God help the poor children, they will grow up in the wilderness and never see such brave sights as I have. They will never know what a church is, such as they are in old England, with fine old windows like the clouds, and rainbows, and great wonderful arches like the very skies above us, and the brave music with the old organs rolling and the boys marching in white garments and singing so as should draw the very heart out of one. All this we have left behind in old England--ah! For if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out they had leisure to have returned. But now they desire a better--that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed of them to be called their God. Chapter 7 : The History of Christmas Trees -- Christmas Customs and Traditions -- whychristmas?com Compre o livro The First Christmas of New England and Other Tales by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Fiction, Classics na theinnatdunvilla.com: confira as ofertas para livros em inglãªs e importados The First Christmas of New England and Other Tales by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Fiction, Classics - Livros na Amazon Brasil- Page 10

11 Chapter 8 : - The First Christmas Of New England And Other Tales by Harriet Beecher Stowe The First Christmas of New England and Other Tales by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Fiction, Classics (Hardcover) Published August 1st by Wildside Press Hardcover, pages. Chapter 9 : When Americans banned Christmas This day, December 25,, is the first recorded celebration of Christmas. For the first three hundred years of the church's existence, birthdays were not given much emphasis--not even the birth of Christ. Page 11