Project Gutenberg's Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, by Edward E. Hale

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
Ten Christmas stories

Author: Edward E. Hale

Illustrator: F. O. C. Darley

Release Date: May 20, 2010 [EBook #32455]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTMAS EVE AND CHRISTMAS DAY ***

Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

CHRISTMAS EVE AND CHRISTMAS DAY.

[Illustration: DAILY BREAD.--PAGE 120.]

CHRISTMAS EVE
AND
CHRISTMAS DAY.

Ten Christmas Stories.

BY EDWARD E. HALE,

AUTHOR OF "TEN TIMES ONE IS TEN," ETC.

_WITH ILLUSTRATION BY F. O. C. DARLEY_.

BOSTON:
ROBERTS BROTHERS.
1873.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
EDWARD E. HALE,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

CAMBRIDGE:
PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON.

PREFACE.

This is a collection of ten Christmas Stories, some of which have been
published before. I have added a little essay, written on the occasion
of the first Christmas celebrated by the King of Italy in Rome.

The first story has never before been published.

It is but fair to say that I have not drawn on imagination for Laura's
night duty, alone upon her island. This is simply the account of what a
brave New-England woman did, under like circumstances, because it was
the duty next her hand.

If any reader observes a resemblance between her position and that of a
boy in another story in this volume, I must disarm censure, by saying,
that she had never heard of him when she was called to this duty, and
that I had never heard of her when I wrote his story.

E. E. H.

CONTENTS.

THEY SAW A GREAT LIGHT 1

CHRISTMAS WAITS IN BOSTON 40

ALICE'S CHRISTMAS-TREE 74

DAILY BREAD