f the Fiddle.

Don't you hear the fiddle, fellers?
It is singing to the bow
All the glory of the music
Underneath the mistletoe!

Then good-bye, Mister Sorrow!
For the cares have run away;
Love and music both are shouting
And we answer them "Hooray!"

Don't you hear the fiddle, fellers?
It is calling us to know
Joys that circle to the music
Underneath the mistletoe.

Then good-bye, Mister Sorrow,
Good-bye for many a day!
Love's lips are smiling at us,
And our hearts respond "Hooray!"

I have often thought it very appropriate that good resolutions come
after instead of before the Christmas days. The heart is then in much
better mood to give them pleasant welcome.

A Queer Dream.

"Ah done had a queeah dream las' night!" said Sambo.

"How was that? Tell us about it," said the interested white listener.

"Ah dreamed I wuz in hebben on Crissmuss eve, en de angels all had a
Crissmuss tree en ole St. Petah played de Santa Claus, en de angels all
got new French hawps in dey stockin's; en dey couldn't play 'em at all
en de white angels all wanted fiddles en de black angels all wanted
banjoes; en dey wuz a-havin' a awful time up dar, shuah!"

"Well, how did it come out?"

"Ah dunno how it come out! Jes' ez dey wus a'pintin' a ahbitratoh, my
boy Jim sot up a howl foh 'possum en woke me up!"

The Same Old Gifts.

"What do you expect for Christmas, Major?" inquired the hospitable
store-keeper as the gray-haired Major hobbled in with his crutch and
rested his rheumatic leg on a sack of coffee.

"The same as usual, sir, the same as usual! My wife always works me a
pair of slippers two sizes too small, each one of the girls gives me a
neck-tie I can't wear because of its color, and each of the boys a
new-fangled revolver I can't shoot and have to turn over to them. Only
my old army friend in Kentucky knows me well enough to know what I can
use."

"What is that?" inquired the amiable store-keeper.

"Four gallons of mountain-dew fresh from the still, bless God! And I
always get away with it in plenty of time for good resolutions on New
Year's day!" replied the valiant Major, smiling and smacking his lips.

The Greatest Gift.

The Wise Men in the desert bare,
Heart-hungry in their need,
Behold a Star, and forth they fare
Wherever it may lead;
And find at last, full reconciled,