The Christmas Tree. While the winter mown ere dressing All the tree* in epotleae white, And the twilight end the ftre-li(ht I ton nd my ingle Blend end mingle, And the night Craepeth on apeee, there towera On my hearth a tree whoee flower* Bore are born In eliln bower* Far removed from mortal light. Tie the king of all the oedara, And it* brancher, green and fair, With their weight of golden fruitage Bend and'gllaten ; And 1 Ueten, While the air Beema with beniaoo* replete. Which my Up* and heart repeat. Borne on inoenee weird and sweet— Inoenee iweet beyond oompare. Myriad* of dainty bauble* Neetied In it* branche* are ; Rank* of shining, tinted taper*, Flaahing, gleaming, Each one seeming Like the star Which through all the toU and danger Led the magU to the manger Where was born the Royal Stranger From the heavenly oourt afar. A* the taper*, slowly burning, Set in darkness, one by ooa, And the troops of rosy children Round my ingle Throng and mingle ; While the fun And the look of glad surprise Fade from out their sated eye* ; " Tell us now," my princess cries, '• Of the Blessed Virgin's Son." Little Princess Golden-Lock*, Throned upon my knee again. Waits to hear the old. old story, New forever, Which hath never Ended been : How the Eastern sags* bring Treasure* to the Peasant Ring, And the hosts of heaven sing *' Peace on earth, good-will to man. Christmas in Anderson Court. It u not a palace—it waa only one dingy little room where Maggie Barton lived. It waa one of the twenty o( thirty very humble homes in Anderson court, not far from a bony, bright street in a great city. It was the day before Christ mas that Maggie sat in this forlorn room tending baby and trying to keep her two brothers ■till "so she oonld think," as she aaid. Maggie waa only ten years old, bat she bad to be mother to these boys and to the baby from morning till night, almost every day in the week, for very hard times had come to this family, and Mrs. Barton had, for several months, been obliged to leave her little ones and "go oat washing." It had not always been quite so bad—bat Maggie oonld never remember when they were not poor, though she remembered they osed to have a neat room and plenty to sat and wear. Before the strike, Mr. Barton got very fair wages, and as Mrs. Barton was a very good manager, and they all bad been well, they got along very comfortably. Bat now for four months the men bad been on a strike at the mills, and Mr. Barton had earned nothing sinoe, exoept what he would get now and then for little jobs of work, so that Mrs. Barton had to go oat wash ing to get food for the children. Maggie was tingiog to the worrying baby in her arms, and the boys were playing horae terrifically, when she ex claimed impatiently: " Now, boys, I wish yon would keep still, so I can think." " What do yon want to think about ?" said Johnny, pushing his brother over, and coming to Maggie's aide. "I'm trying to think abont Christ mas and use handsome things in the store-windows, and I'm trying to think how nice it would be to be a lady, with lots of money of buy dresses and dolls, and toys and candy. ,r " Candy 1" exclaimed Georgia, pick ing himself up from the floor and stopping his crying; "I wish I had soma candy I Can't we get some, Mag gie?" " No, Georgia, we osn't hsve one bit Mother says if we can get bread wa may be glad. Ido wish we eon Id have some thing nice to-night: and I do wish mother would come, I'm so tired." " Maggie, do yon think wall ever have money enough to boy nice things?" asked Johnny, bis round eyes growing S large end thoughtful, and nia chin ng on his dirty band. " I'm sore I don't know, Johnny ; I gaeas not—unless the mills begin again, and I don't think then are oonld ever have a carpet, or good clothes, or a big looking-glass like they have one place where mother washes. " Where do some men gat so mnoh money ?** Johnny asked : " beoanae I'm going to get s lot when I m big—if loan find oat where it comes from. " I'm sore I don't know," said Msg gia ; " I new they find it. ' When Mrs. Bnrton came home, weary and worn, Georgia ran to her, polling bar drees and tearing, "Mamma, did yon twins me a horse for Christmas?" " I've brought jon soma bread. That ia all the Christina* gift yon children will get this year," and aba cut some large pieces from a loaf, which the little boys grasped with their dirty hands sad eta voraciously. "Now, Maggie," she said, "lay the baby down, and ran ont with the boys and see the handsome stores and the happy people. Tou'va bean a good girl, dear. I eonld not gat along without RPoke the fire a little, for father*!! oaring aooa, and it ia getting vary sold." Maggie, with a faded shawl over bar head sod aragged urchin by each hand, want down the gayly-lightad streets, where people in crowds wan harrying mby, carrying boodles of presents to ■gladden the morrow—where the win rwwa, lighter than day, were brilliant ' burners erf woadarfnl things. Maggie and here brother* looked in at the windows of a candy store, and talked about old anow-oorered Santa Glaus and his pretty reindeer, and the candy ani mals, and the popped -oorn baby, and the pretty things for Cbristmastrees. Then they ran an to a toy store whose windows were a wonder-world of beauty. •• Oh, I wish I had that doll with the red silk dress on," said Maggie, " I'd like that drum, and that fanny men that keeps his head going, and that donkey, and them steam cars, and that fiddle, rattled Johnny. " Oh, there's the flng I want—that wooden horse," aaidOeorgie. "Maggie, can't I have that horse t—it won't cost more'n two cents." " No, Oeorgie, it eosta awlnl mnoh, I know, and we're so poor," groaned Maggie. " What makes us poor ? Is it because we're bad?" asked Oeorgie. " No, I don't think father is bad ; he doesn't drink a drop. I guess Ood made us poor, or else we wouldn't be so." Jnst then a big boy with a alod in his hand and a great package on his shoulder passed. Hwingiug the sled oarelessly, it hit George and threw him upon the walk. He screamed frightfully. M ggie and Johnny rushed to help him. "Is he much hurt?" aaked a lady who had a few moments before alighted from a carriage, and who had lingered to bear the curious talk of the children. " Ob, I hope not," said Maggie, trying to lift her screaming brother, "for we're ao poor. Twould kill mother if his leg ia broken, and we would all starve, I know." Bhe suoeeeded at last in getting him on his feet, and rubbed hi* leg and oom forted him. When Maggie fonnd he oonld stand, and was beginning to atop crying, ahe turned to look at the lady, who still stood by them. Bhe saw a beantifnl girl, ao lovely and so riehlv dressed it seemed to Mag gie it most be a fairy ; for to tell the troth, Maggie had always been expect ' ing to meet a fairy. Her grandmother had told her ahont the wind folk, till she believed some thing might happen to her as well as to i Cinderella. The lady stood looking at the beantifnl golden hair from which the faded ahawl had slipped, and scan ning the ragged little boys, and trying to recall their strange words about be ing poor. "Don't yon have any nice Christmas at yonr house ?" she asked, "No, indeed ; we're too poor," said Maggie. " And yon cams ont to see the pretty j toys yon cannot buy," said the lady. And Maggie, still half believing it might be a fairy or a magic god-mother, or some such creature, told her all about their hard times—about her sad father and her weary mother, and the strike, ' and bow hungry they sometimes were, i and how she tended the baby all clay, ami kept jnst a little bit of fire because they couldn't afford to be very warm. People passing turned to see the enri ons group, and many smiled because the grand, prond yonng lady bad ao for gotten herself aa to talk to a set of dirty children in the open street, where every body could see her. Bnt the prond yonng lady cared very little for the opinion of the world jnst then. Bhe was not even conscious of the people who were passing. After a few momenta ahe turned back to her carriage and drove away. Maggie thought how happy ahe mnst be, she was an beantifnl and ao rich; but if Maggie oonld have seen the torn and tortured heart beneath the velvet robe, she would have felt more pity than ad miration. The children lingered till they knew everything in the window by heart, and then, helping on the limping Oeorgie, they went on to others, till they bad seen, Maggie said, " all the pretty thing* in the world." "It's fnn to look at them, if we can't have them," she mid, aa they turned down the dark street and into Anderaon oourt to their deaolate home. And very deaolate did it seem to Mag gie that night Bhe wanted to cry, but would not, because it wonld make her father and mother feel badly. There waa jnst a little Are in the grate, for the coal was almost gone. Her mother waa walking with the crying bsbv and bad not even a smile for the children when they came in; and when they told her of Georgia's accident ahe only said: "I'm glad it waa not worse." Mr. Barton waa seated on a low bench, his elbows on his knee*, and hia face buried in hia bands. Oeorgie went to bis father's side and said, "Papa, a big haj hnrt me, and a pnrty lady came and mid ahe waa sorry; and I saw the Fnrtieat horse and everyflng; and can't ■have the horse for Christmas " "Go sway, boy," said Mr. Barton surlily. " there ain't any money to bay toy* with. We hain't got any money to buy food for to-morrow." "Father, something good will turn up soon, I'm sore," ahe said tenderly, and then took her brothers by the hand and led them to a dusky corner of the room, where they talked low for a long Mine. Then she undressed Oeorgie, and the three curled dewn on a bed which you, my reader, would have called a pile of rags. " There ain't any etockinge hnng up in this house to-night,"raid Johnny. Christmas morning the bells rang ont' on the frosty air, filling thousand* of hearts with Joy; but there waa no glad- j nera in the sound to this dejected family, i The bells said to thousands of hearts, ; " Peace on earth, good-will to men," ! but Mr. Barton shook hia head sadly and hia wan face wore no smile. He •aid it was not " peace on earth " when the rich lived in luxury and the pcor starved. When the children awakened, there were no "Merry Christmas" wishes exchanged in that dismal home. Mr. Barton bad no words for hia chil dren, he felt so gloomv and dejected. The mother spoke low end sadly—it seemed to her It wonld be a mockery to ray merry words when they had hardly elotbee enough to keep them warm, sad hardly bread enough for the day, raid the future looked ao hopelessly blank and ugly. They had just taken their aeaaty breakfast whan a load knock at the door startled them. "Dora Mr. Burton live here?" " Tea," Mrs. Barton said. "I have soma packages for this bonse," the man said. "Itis a mistake." growled Mr. Bur ton, "there wasn't anything to come hero. 11 m "This istheplaoe," said the man, with a smile, ana he placed on the floor a box which Mrs. Burton began to ex amine. " Oh, there's my horsey I" screamed Georgia," "I knowed rd have that bone." " And there ia the doll with the red dreea," exclaimed Maggie. " And a dram I" screamed Johnny, grasping the article and giving it a few sonnda rape with hia fist, which made them all start. "There's beeu some mistake," said Mr. Barton, bnt nobody heeded him. The baby squeezed the rubber doll to make it oiy, Johnny had found the atioka and was drumming with all his might, while Mrs. Burton kept taking thiugs out of the box, and baby helping her. Mr. Barton stood looking on, very sour and suspicious, when another knock at the door aroused him. "Mr. Bnrton live here?" " Yes." " I have some flour for him, and some other articles." In came a barrel of flonr and a tnrkey, and half a dozen other things whioh taste good on Christmas. This time they all began to langh. Mrs. Barton leagued more than she had in fonr months, and Mr. Burton smiled and said "he'd like to know who had dared to send them these things," and somehow the words aame into his mind, "Good-will to men," " Peace on earth." " There's some good-will in the world after all." When the third man knocked and said he brought a load of ooal, there was such laughing, and talking, and bopping aronndof ehildren it won Id have blessed yonr heart to have heard them. " I knew that lady was a fairy, or a princess, or something," said Maggie. " Hhe hzs sent these things, for she ask ed where we lived, and said, ' Dear heart,' when I told her abont yon all, and that we hadn't only enough coal to last a few days, and how hungry we got" Mr. Barton went to get the coal in, and said he never was so glad of work in hia Ufa; and Johnny filled the grate and made snoh a fire as they had not seen since the winter before. * " I wonder wbat'll oome next," said Maggie, clanping her bands and jump ing np and down in her gladness. "My child, don't expect anything | more. I'm afraid all this will prove only a dream," said Mrs. Burton. Bnt something more did oome, and this time it was the princess herself. Hhe shrank back a moment when she saw the dirty floor, the ragged bedstead, and thought of six people crowded in this one little room. Her daintiness and elegance had never before oome face to face with snch squalor, bnt she had , been passing throngh great experiences ■of late, and she was brave enough to I meet this. " And this is the little girl who told | so tonchiugly her sad story last even ing ?" she said, stroking Maggie's golden (locks. "And this is yonr mother, and this ▼our father," she said, shaking their hands and smiling so sweetly that Mr. Burton said afterward it was just like an angel right from heaven. ";1 thought I would drop in and wiah I yon a merry Christmas," she said. I .""Mr. Barton wiped the tears on his . sleeve and began thanking the lady. "The good Lord has sent us help ia our distress," he said. " If He has shown me bow I can be i good for something, I am glad." ahe said with a smile. " Yonr little girl | tells me yon are in tronble and I have come to aee if I can help yon out of it." Now I need not tell yon, my reader, , bow they talked till Mr. Burton said " all the trouble seemed lifted off their hearts ;" and how, after oho went away, they aet the turkey roasting bafore the fire ; and how they were so hnngry they only waited for one side to get done, and sliced it off and ate it while the other aide waa cooking ; and bow the children ate nuts and candy till tbey couldn't Mi any more, and carried some to all the children in the oourt; and how Mr. Bar ton said he never aaw snob a blessed day in all his life; and bow be tended the baby, and kissed Maggie half a dozen timea, when she put ber arms ; * round hia neck and bugged him so hard, he ooaldn't help it; and bow the ! children in Anderson oourt came in to see the beautiful doll in the rad silk dreea ; and how they squeeced the rub ber doll till it buret; and bow the boya wanted to beat Johnny's dram "jest two timesand bow they stood and gaped at Johnny aa if be had been a hero, and not a poor ragged little boy like them selves—you can imagine all that, but I am going to tell yon a little abont the ! princess herself. Hhe waa the only ebild of vary wmlthy parents. Hhe bad been petted and pretty nearly spoiled by too mnch hap piness. Miaa Princess bad oome to fancy her self the special favorite of Provi-lenee, not dreaming that God and all sensible people saw that her life waa poor and mean. Bat oar prinoeoa had ben baring and trouble# of late. I will not tell about them for it von Id take a whole atorr book to tell it all, bat they had been working a great and excellent change in the character of oar Prineoea. Trouble ia good for ae all if we are atroag enough not to be eraahed by it Her father anxioaa to cheer hie child, and believing aomething beaati fal to wear woe the beet oomfort, had given her a great deal of money and told her to aeleot for hereelf a Hqrfe mi( et of jewelry for a Ohriatmoa preeent. Hhe felt it wn aboard to eootfae her no re heart with Jewel a, eo the did not aeleot them till ber father urged her again and again, and the afternoon before Ohriat moa aha had driven out to parohoae them. And iuat aa ahe otepped from her oar riage Maggie and her brother* were there—to atop into her life a*inil to be prtotud, but when an m * '* OMB 14 wU ' never be