"I wish that more of us had the courage to be poor; that the world had not gone mad after fashion and display; but so it is, and the blessings we might have are lost in the effort to get those which lie outside the possible." ALICE CAREY. "To have what we want is riches; but to be able to do without is power." GEORGE MACDONALD. Hospitality DECEMBER 22 "The truest hospitality is shown not in the effort to entertain, but in the depth of welcome. What a guest loves to come for, and come again, is not the meal, but those who sit at the meal. If we remembered this, more homes would be habitually thrown open to win the benedictions upon hospitality. It is our ceremony, not our poverty, it is self-consciousness oftener than inability to be agreeable that makes us willing to live cloistered. Seldom is it that pleasantest homes to visit are the richest. The real compliment is _not_ to apologise for the simple fare. That means trust, and trust is better than fried oysters." W. C. GANNETT. "Hospitality must be for service, and not for show, or it pulls down the host." EMERSON. Hospitality DECEMBER 23 "I pray you, O excellent wife, not to cumber yourself and me to get a rich dinner for this man or this woman who has alighted at our gate, nor a bedchamber made ready at too great a cost. These things, if they are curious in, they can get for a dollar at any village. But let this stranger, if he will, in your looks, in your accent and behaviour, read in your heart and earnestness, your thought and will, which he cannot buy at any price in any village or city, and which he may well travel fifty miles and dine sparely and sleep hard in order to behold. Certainly, let the board be spread and let the bed be dressed for the traveller; but let not the emphasis of hospitality lie in these things. Honour to the house where they are simple to the verge of hardship, so that there the intellect is awake and reads the laws of the universe." EMERSON. "I should count myself fortunate if my home were remembered for some inspiring quality of faith, charity and aspiring intelligence." HAMILTON W. MABIE. Christmas Eve DECEMBER 24 A CHRISTMAS CAROL