Christmas Eve and Christmas Day: Ten Christmas storiesHale, Edward Everett
General
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day: Ten Christmas stories
Hale, Edward Everett
Christmas stories, American; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
"God is always kind. But God will not give us other fruit than we sow
seed for. The King here has tried to serve God as he knew how; with one
single eye he has looked on the world of God, and he has made the best
choice he knew. And God has given him what he thought not of: brave men
for his knights; wise men for his council; a free and loving people for
his army. And you have not looked with a single eye; your eye was
darkened. You saw only what served yourself. And you said, 'This is
enough;' and you had no brave men for your knights; no wise men for your
council; no people for your army. You chose to look down, and to take a
selfish brute for your adviser. And he has led you so far. We choose to
look up; to draw nearer God; and where He leads we follow."
Then King Ladislaus ordered that in the old school-room a bed should be
spread for Bela; and that every day his breakfast and his dinner and his
supper should be served to him; and he lived there till he died.
THE STORY OF OELLO.
Once upon a time there was a young girl, who had the pretty name of
Oello. I say, once upon a time, because I do not know when the time
was,--nor do I know what the place was,--though my story, in the main,
is a true story. I do not mean that I sat by and saw Oello when she wove
and when she spun. But I know she did weave and did spin. I do not mean
that I heard her speak the word I tell of; for it was many, many hundred
years ago. But I do know that she must have said some such words; for I
know many of the things which she did, and much of what kind of girl she
was.
She grew up like other girls in her country. She did not know how to
read. None of them knew how to read. But she knew how to braid straw,
and to make fish-nets and to catch fish. She did not know how to spell.
Indeed, in that country they had no letters. But she knew how to split
open the fish she had caught, how to clean them, how to broil them on
the coals, and how to eat them neatly. She had never studied the
"analysis of her language." But she knew how to use it like a lady; that
is, prettily, simply, without pretence, and always truly. She could sing
her baby brother to sleep. She could tell stories to her sisters all day
long. And she and they were not afraid when evening came, or when they
were in any trouble, to say a prayer aloud to the good God. So they got
along, although they could not analyze their language. She knew no
geography. She could count her fingers, and the stars in the Southern
Cross. She had never seen Orion, or the stars in the Great Bear, or the
Pole-Star.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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