CHRISTMAS LONG AGO.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 14, 14 December 1932, Page 12

CHRISTMAS LONG AGO.

Were there ever, we wonder, outside Ills own pages, such glorious Christmases as Dickens conjures up for our delight with the magic of his pen. How gleefully the flames leap up the chimney of the snug, curtain-drawn inn parlour; how gratefully the incense -rises from the steaming punch-bowl, and how merrily the church bells clash their chimes through tho crisp, clear air, over a landscape agleam with its fresh mantle of snow! One’s pulses beat to the lift of Ins music and the trip of dainty feet: W e watch with envy kissing under the mistletoe, and involuntarily rise to Mr Wardle’s bidding: “Fill up! It will be two hours good before you see the bottom of the bowl through the deep rich colour of the wassail:” It must indeed have been good to be young in those days—to look on as Mr Pickwick, in all the glory of speckled silk stockings,' leads out the old lady in rich brocade, “saluting her with all the courtesy and decorum under the mistletoe,” and to watch the young lady with tho black eyes, and the other young ladies, make a sudden dart forward, and, before Mr Pickwick knew distinctly what was the matter, surround him, and with one consent present their pretty lips to be kissed in turn. Can’t you hear Scrooge’s “A Merry Christinas, Bob! A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year—Bob, make up the fire and bring another coal scuttle, before you dot another ‘i,’ Bob Cratchet!” To feast with Bob on his famous goose is a banquet indeed, though it be but in fancy, and it is an intoxication to join in Sir Roger as led by Mr and Mrs Fezziwig “after the cold roast and boiled.”