This familiar verse recalls the eagerness of the schoolboy to be home for the Christmas holidays. And adults are no less eager to join their friends at the festive season; many travel long journeys in order to do so. Hence the great pressure of work on railway employes, and the congested state of the traffic at Christmastide. Two or three days before Christmas Day the newspapers publish what are called "railway arrangements," detailing the privileges granted by this and that company, and presenting the holiday traveller with a sort of appetising programme; and any one who will spend an hour at any of the great termini of the metropolis at this period can see the remarkable extent to which the public avail themselves of the facilities offered. The growth of railway travelling at Christmastide has, indeed, been marvellous in recent years, and it becomes greater every year. The crowded state of the railway stations, and the trains that roll out of them heavily laden with men, women, and children, wedged together by parcels bursting with good cheer, show most unmistakably that we have not forgotten the traditions of Christmas as a time of happy gatherings in the family circles of Old England. * * * * * But, as there is also much Christmas-keeping in other parts of the world, we pass now to-- [79] Huish's "Life of George the Third." [80] _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1790. [81] Copied from an undated leaflet inserted in the British Museum copy of Brand's "Antiquities," by the late Mr Joseph Hazlewood. [82] Hone's "Every-day Book," 1826. [83] Herbert H. Adams. [84] "A black Christmas makes a fat kirk-yard." A windy Christmas and a calm Candlemas are signs of a good year. [85] The "savoury haggis" (from _hag_ to chop) is a dish commonly made in a sheep's maw, of its lungs, heart, and liver, mixed with suet, onions, salt, and pepper; or of oatmeal mixed with the latter, without any animal food. [86] F. Lawrence. [87] "Old English Customs and Charities," 1842. [88] "Biographical Lectures." [89] "History of Berks," vol. xxv. [90] "Grim, King of the Ghosts." [91] "Old Times and Distant Places," 1875. [92] Eliza Cook. [Illustration] _CHAPTER XII._ MODERN CHRISTMASES ABROAD. CHRISTMAS-KEEPING IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS, 1850-1.