MARY CHRISTMAS [Illustration: BY HIS SIDE WALKED THE STRANGEST PERSON THE FOUR WESCOTTS HAD EVER SEEN] MARY CHRISTMAS BY MARY ELLEN CHASE [Illustration] BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1936 _Copyright, 1926_, BY MARY ELLEN CHASE. _All rights reserved_ Published April, 1926 Reprinted September, 1926 Reprinted January, 1927 Reprinted August, 1936 THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS PUBLICATIONS ARE PUBLISHED BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS I CONCERNING A COLLAR AND TIE 3 II A BLUE GINGHAM AND AN ANCIENT LAND 19 III UNBURIED TREASURE 33 IV A WILD CRAB-APPLE TREE 44 V THE GARDEN OF EDEN 50 VI A GOOD SAINT AND A SILVER BOX 68 VII A PILLAR OF FIRE 80 VIII SHOWERS OF GOLD AND PEARLS 91 IX FOLKLORE AND POLITICS 103 X WAYSIDE SACRAMENTS 118 XI SHORT TWILIGHTS AND DRIFTING PETALS 126 XII MARY CHRISTMAS DAYS 138 MARY CHRISTMAS _His candle shined upon my head, and ... by His light I walked through darkness...._ _My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch._ THE BOOK OF JOB I CONCERNING A COLLAR AND TIE Long years ago, in those speedless days of the late nineties when children dropped homemade curtsies and said, “Yes, ma’am” and “No, sir” quite as a matter of course, when they recited the sixty-three books of the Bible, the kings of Israel, and the twelve disciples according to St. Matthew without the least idea of achievement, when baby specialists and motion pictures were almost unknown, and when the efficacy of springtime asafœtida-bags and of sulphur and molasses taken according to the magic rule of three was sponsored by the most intelligent of parents--years ago, on a certain warm day very early in the month of June, the four Wescott children, who were swinging on a white gate beneath great elm trees, were startled by the most curious and, for the duration of a long half-hour, quite inexplicable behavior on the part of their father. At high noon, just as the church clock was sending twelve mellow, wavering notes down through the sunlit air to cling unseen to tree-tops or to hide in daisy fields--at high noon he came up the street in full view of his neighbors, and halted with no apparent embarrassment before his four awestruck children, _wearing his collar and tie_! * * * * *