Christmas doesn’t come on the twenty-fifth of December. It begins with the first cold, snappy day, when ladies, fur-coated, and with unaccustomed red noses patter down Broadway. Tall fragrant pine trees, their branches roped in, are piled on the curbs. There are little stacks of very, very green stands, leaning against a box of rosy cheeked apples. Delivery boys bustle about, much more energetically than ever before. In the windows cauliflowers and half frozen beets cuddle in a bed of red crepe paper in an attempt to keep warm and cheerful. Next door the fish-man has garnished his wares with holly and eked a “Merry Christmas” on the frosty window pane. On the corner the Salvation Army girl stamps to keep warm and tinkles her little bell. And it’s not even December twenty-fourth! A ROMANTIC ADVENTURE INTO RELIGION Once upon a time there Was a little Girl. And she never read the Bible, and when her fond parents Decided that she ought to be Religiously educated, she Rebelled, and on Sundays developed Colds--and so forth. But-- When anyone mentioned Saul or Rachel or Anything, she felt Uncomfortable And blushed And giggled And tried to Change the subject, which She couldn’t always do. And everyone accused her of not “Having religion” Until she fully Believed it. Bye and bye When she grew older she Began to wonder What this =religion= That everybody thought so much about-- That preachers preached about-- That revivalists ranted about-- Is. And when she asked People Some carefully stroked their beards And thoughtfully cleaned their spectacles And said:--“It is The divine life in the human soul” whatever That is. And some Sat up straight And promptly answered “The natural gratitude to God for creating us which makes us want to obey his commands, in return,” which Was clearer, but sounded too much like a Bargain. And she asked some who had been Brought up on Catechisms and Things. And they Looked shocked at the Question. Perhaps because they Didn’t know. And there were many More answers But The girl thought That, as there Were so many and So many people had Bothered about it, It must be pretty Important and Useful. And so she looked Up in card indices and Read many Deep books And had many Deep discussions And things. Finally she decided That Religion is a very Personal thing, And so There couldn’t be a Single definition for Everyone. But as for herself, she Considered it One’s idea of perfection, The attempt to live up to this idea as an ideal, And One’s attitude toward the world in trying to do this.