On a day like this the most ardent lover of Nature could scarcely fail to
shrink from her cold, pallid face and colder breath. Our return to the
home, whose ruddy firelight is seen through the frosted window-panes,
will be all the more welcome because we have been shivering so long
without. The grace of hospitality has been a characteristic of the master
of the house for over half a century, and therefore the reader need not
fear to enter, especially at this Christmas-time, when the world, as if
to make amends for the churlish welcome it gave to its Divine Guest, for
whom no better place was found than a stable, now throws open the door
and heart in kindly feeling and unselfish impulses.
We propose to make a long visit at this old-fashioned homestead. We shall
become the close friends of its inmates, and share in their family life;
they will introduce us to some of their neighbors, and take us on many
breezy drives and pleasant excursions, with which it is their custom to
relieve their busy life; we shall take part in their rural labors, and
learn from them the secret of obtaining from nature that which nourishes
both soul and body; they will admit us to their confidence, and give us
glimpses of that mystery of mysteries, the human heart; and we shall
learn how the ceaseless story of life, with its hopes and fears, its joys
and sorrows, repeats itself in the quiet seclusion of a country home as
truly as in the turmoil of the city.
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