ptions as a whole will apply to them all. The
preparations for Christmas commenced in the beginning of December by
butchering, brewing and baking, so as to lay in large stores of the
essential elements for enjoyment and hospitality. The fattened animals
were slaughtered, the tallow made into candles, the meat salted, smoked,
and otherwise prepared for a whole year. The rich brown Yule-ale was
made in large quantities, and poured in kegs and barrels. Bread of many
varieties was baked for days and days, and stored away in proper places,
a large share of it being intended for the poor, who began their rounds
of calls a week before Christmas, receiving presents of brown and white
loaves, large cuts of meats and cheese, rolls of sausage, etc. The
school-master, the parish mid-wife, the village night watchman, and
other semi-public characters of small degree were carefully remembered
at this time. The village tailor with his journeymen and apprentices
appeared a few weeks before Christmas and made the wearing apparel for
the family and servants out of home-spun fabrics for the whole year. The
village shoemaker with his crowd of workmen followed close upon the
former, and made up the boots and shoes out of leather which had been
prepared to order, finishing up by repairing the stable harnesses,
sometimes making new ones. It was a busy season; the house-wife was kept
astir early and late to give directions, and superintending all these
things.

Finally the day of Christmas Eve came, on which everything must be in
readiness, pans and kettles be scoured, floors scrubbed and strewn with
white sand and fresh juniper twigs, even the stables for the cattle
receiving an extra scrubbing. The yard was swept and every nook and
corner of the premises put in holiday attire, and last of all, the hired
men and girls were expected to retire to their respective quarters for a
similar cleaning, and make their appearance about five o'clock in the
afternoon in clean linen and new clothes, ready for the great event, as
for a marriage feast. In the mean time pots and kettles were boiling on
the hearth in the great kitchen, baskets were being filled and sent off
to the poor who were too feeble to call for their gifts; the family and
servants contenting themselves that day with a lunch, well known all
over Sweden as dopparebroed. It being now dark, the long table was set in
the large common room. The whitest linen, the finest plate, plenty of
fresh w