"Christmas Eve" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... closed in it would be Christmas eve. All day I had three points—a chair beside the kitchen table, a lookout melted through the frost on the front window, and ...
— Laddie • Gene Stratton Porter
... the Flag A Million More An Old English Oak Anthem Betzko Beyond Byron and the Angel Change Charge of the "Black-Horse" Charge of Fremont's Body-Guard Charity Chickadee Christmas Eve [Illustrated] Daniel Do They Think of Us? Dust to Dust Fame Fido Gettysburg: Charge of the First Minnesota Heloise Hope Hurrah for the Volunteers! Isabel Lines on the Death of Captain Coats Love will Find Mauley [Illustrated] Men Minnetonka [Illustrated] Mrs. McNair My Dead ...
— The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems • H. L. Gordon
... in the morning, he rode with them after dinner (from last August he had found himself riding north more often than south, since Marjorie lived in that quarter); and now all had been crowned last Christmas Eve, when in the enclosed garden at her house he had kissed her two hands suddenly, and made her a little speech he had learned by heart; after which he kissed her on the lips as a man should, in the honest ...
— Come Rack! Come Rope! • Robert Hugh Benson
... FORWARD. The composer Grieg and his wife spent Christmas Eve, 1868, with Bjrnson's family in Christiania. Grieg, who then gave to Bjrnson a copy of the first part of his Lyriske Smaastykker, has written the following account of the origin of this poem: "Among these was one with the title 'Fatherland's Song.' I played ...
— Poems and Songs • Bjornstjerne Bjornson
... and resolved that during the holidays he would go again to the old Welsh town and try what he could do, and so it came about that he accompanied Neil as far as Carnarvon, where he proposed to spend a day and then go over to Stoneleigh on Christmas Eve, more to please Neil, who had urged him so strongly to stop there, than for any particular satisfaction it would be to him to pass the day with strangers, who might or might not care to see him. He knew there was a cousin Bessie, a girl of wondrous beauty, if Neil was to be believed, ...
— Bessie's Fortune - A Novel • Mary J. Holmes
... gathered from all quarters. They went hungry, and suffered much that winter; but by leading the cattle far into the woods they managed to keep them alive, and Gudrid did not fail of milk. Her boy was born on Christmas Eve, and christened by Karlsefne himself. He named him Snorre ...
— Gudrid the Fair - A Tale of the Discovery of America • Maurice Hewlett
... carefully, wisely, even merrily, for fun had a large share in Christmas at The Savins; but only Theodora knew that Billy had bought a small annuity for Cicely, and that the papers were to be given to her, not in the basket on Christmas eve, but when she was quite ...
— Phebe, Her Profession - A Sequel to Teddy: Her Book • Anna Chapin Ray
... were in truth sick of a war that offered neither glory nor profit. Having indulged in the usual diplomatic skirmishing, they sent representatives to Ghent to discuss terms of peace. After long negotiations an agreement was reached on Christmas eve, 1814, a few days before Jackson's victory at New Orleans. When the treaty reached America the people were surprised to find that it said nothing about the seizure of American sailors, the destruction of American trade, the searching of American ships, or the support of Indians on the frontier. ...
— History of the United States • Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard
... just like a statue of sandstone; only going on weaving, like a machine; and never quickening the cast of her shuttle; while St. Barbara was telling her so eagerly all about the most beautiful things, and chattering away, as fast as bells ring on Christmas Eve, till she saw that Neith didn't care; and then St. Barbara got as red as a rose, and stopped, just in time;—or I think she would really ...
— The Crown of Wild Olive • John Ruskin
... PAUL. Christmas Eve ten years ago! You may be right. I remember it was a short time before I had ... the crash with father. I had come home at Christmas just because I imagined that that was the best time to come to an understanding with father about all of those ...
— The German Classics, v. 20 - Masterpieces of German Literature • Various
... greatly in debt. One Christmas Eve a Polish Jew came to his house in a sledge, and, after rest and refreshment, started for Nantzig, "four leagues off." Mathis followed him, killed him with an axe, and burnt the body in a lime-kiln. He then paid his debts, greatly prospered, ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 • E. Cobham Brewer
... of grace divine In little cradles they do weave— Little cradles therewith they line On Christmas Eve. ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Dec. 19, 1917 • Various
... of a lark Christmas eve," answered Alan. "We can't do it Christmas day because—Well, I may as well tell the rest of you—mamma has just asked Polly and all the other Adamses to come here for dinner and the evening, so we can have our fun, ...
— Half a Dozen Girls • Anna Chapin Ray
... think of it he felt that what it most, if not absolutely first, involved was his immediately again putting himself in relation with her. The fact itself had met him there—in his own small quarters—on Christmas Eve, and had not then indeed at once affected him as implying that consequence. So far as he on the spot and for the next hours took its measure—a process that made his night mercilessly wakeful—the consequences possibly implied were numerous to distraction. His spirit dealt with them, in the darkness, ...
— The Wings of the Dove, Volume II • Henry James
... of honor, now, that if I buy this little farm of Locust Hill, and settle it upon your mother, you will marry Dr. Grimshaw on this coming Christmas Eve?" ...
— The Missing Bride • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth
... Christmas Eve—a memorable day in its own way—dawned in due course. It was not the siege alone, with its attendant inconveniences, that made it memorable. It was not that the season accentuated the want of ...
— The Siege of Kimberley • T. Phelan
... want to be used as a milking stool by the Maiden All Forlorn, Skiddy slid away Christmas eve. With him went Jack the Jumper, and they had a wonderful time ...
— The Tale of Ferdinand Frog • Arthur Scott Bailey
... at the village was Christmas Eve. My boy was in a critical condition, very low and weak, with a temperature that stayed around 101 deg. and 102 deg.. As night approached I watched with the greatest anxiety for the party from Fort Yukon, and, just as the last lingering glow of the long twilight was fading from the south, ...
— Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled - A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska • Hudson Stuck
... seemed even to have touched the hearts of G.H.Q. for on Christmas Eve the C.O. received a wire through Brigade to ask "How many of your officers have wives in Egypt?" He was compelled to reply that no officer had managed the feat suggested. But it is nice to speculate on how the staff ...
— The Fifth Battalion Highland Light Infantry in the War 1914-1918 • F.L. Morrison
... On Christmas Eve, Mary and Susan Jenks brought up to Roger a little tree. It was just a fir plume, but it was gay with tinsel and spicy with the fragrance of the woods, and it was topped by a ...
— Contrary Mary • Temple Bailey
... It is Christmas eve and Jack and Mary have been married a year. Jack is preparing to go out. Mary is secretly disturbed over his going but hides it. "Mother" sits by the fire knitting. Mary is ...
— The Arena - Volume 4, No. 23, October, 1891 • Various
... replied Emma; 'we always have on Christmas Eve. Master wouldn't neglect to keep it ...
— The Pickwick Papers • Charles Dickens
... six children." Laine made some notes in a book and put it back in his pocket. "I'm going out. Have a cab here at eight-thirty. The things I bring back will be put in the room at the end of the hall. On Christmas Eve you are to buy what I've mentioned in this"—he handed him an envelope—"and with them take the bundles in the room to the place you went to yesterday. You are not to know who sent them, and when you come back you are to forget you've been, and no one is to be told. You have a great habit of telling ...
— The Man in Lonely Land • Kate Langley Bosher
... It was on Christmas eve that we rose early by starlight, and had our cups of coffee in the open air, beside the Kala'at er Reehha, (Castle of Jericho,) while the tents were being struck and rolled up for returning to Jerusalem, where we were ...
— Byeways in Palestine • James Finn
... "It was Christmas eve, now remember, And out in the cold world alone, A cold night, too, in December, There wandered a poor ...
— Cricket at the Seashore • Elizabeth Westyn Timlow
... has kept up the observance of old customs; no Christmas Eve has ever been passed under the roof of his Harmas without the consecrated meats upon the table; the heart of celery, the nougat of almonds, the dish of snails, and the savoury-smelling turkey. Then, stuck into the Christmas bread (15/7.), the sprigs of ...
— Fabre, Poet of Science • Dr. G.V. (C.V.) Legros
... the story the people all marched away carrying their candles and singing. Each night they marched and sang in this way until at last it was Christmas Eve. ...
— The Mexican Twins • Lucy Fitch Perkins
... and country look to the rather dark rooms with the help of plenty of holly and mistletoe, which had come in a Christmas hamper from Robin Redbreast, by Lady Myrtle's orders, though she was no longer there. For by this time it was Christmas Eve. ...
— Robin Redbreast - A Story for Girls • Mary Louisa Molesworth
... does not worry," Dorothy cautioned the young man. "I know she has a trouble, and I am sure somehow it will be all adjusted by to-night. I depend upon the witches of Christmas Eve." ...
— Dorothy Dale's Queer Holidays • Margaret Penrose
... it is confidently asserted, that if any one watches on Christmas Eve he will hear subterranean bells; and in the mining districts the workmen declare that at this sacred season high mass is performed with the greatest solemnity on that evening in the mine which contains the most valuable lobe of ore, which is supernaturally lighted up with candles in ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 182, April 23, 1853 • Various
... the frost is called "Father Frost," and is personified as a white old man, or "a mighty smith who forges strong chains with which to bind the earth and the waters," and on Christmas Eve "the oldest man in each family takes a spoonful of kissel (a sort of pudding), and then, having put his head through the window, cries: 'Frost, Frost, come and eat kissel! Frost, Frost, do not kill our oats! Drive our flax and hemp ...
— The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought • Alexander F. Chamberlain
... tour, it has been seen, closed at Brighton on the 13th of November. Immediately after this, it was announced that three Christmas Readings would be given in London at St. Martin's Hall—the first and second on the Christmas Eve and the Boxing Day of 1858, those being respectively Friday and Monday, and the third on Twelfth Night, Thursday, the 6th of January, 1859. Upon each of these occasions the "Christmas Carol" and the "Trial from Pickwick," were given to ...
— Charles Dickens as a Reader • Charles Kent
... Christmas eve. In the old oak hall Preparations were made for the Christmas ball. Gay garlands were hung from ceiling and wall; The Yule log was laid, the tables arrayed, And the Lady Lorraine and her whole cavalcade, From the pompous old steward ...
— The Jingle Book • Carolyn Wells
... and Biddy into ecstasies at the notion of a "real Christmas"), that brought to my mind the immanence of the festival, and the fact that I had as yet bought no presents. Such was the predicament in which I usually found myself on Christmas eve; and it was not without a certain sense of annoyance at the task thus abruptly confronting me that I got into my automobile and directed the chauffeur to the shopping district. The crowds surged along the wet sidewalks and overflowed into the street, and over the ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... on their journey, and every day went a little distance toward the south, till at last, on Christmas Eve, they came to an ancient city at the foot ...
— Wonder-Box Tales • Jean Ingelow
... bare back his brother insisted upon exhibiting to his guest; for it was decorated with a facsimile of the picture on the stove, showing roses and luscious peaches and grapes in red relief. Three years before, on Christmas Eve, the boys had stood about the red-hot stove, undressing for their bath, and Finn, who was naked, had, in the general scrimmage to get first into the bath-tub, been pushed against the glowing iron, the ornamentation ...
— Boyhood in Norway • Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen
... it every morning—that I could sleep two years; could over-sleep all the thousand tears that shall yet flow. Foolish wish! I am sometimes such a silly child. Do you remember that two years ago on Christmas Eve you gave me white pearls and mother said then: 'Pearls mean tears'? She was right, they ...
— The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, Volume 2 • Rupert Hughes
... day the Discovery was clear of the harbor bar, and was soon bowling along under steam and sail towards the south. The last view of civilization, the last sight of fields and flowers had come and gone on Christmas Eve, 1901, and Christmas Day found the ship in the open expanse of the Southern Ocean, though after such a recent parting from so many kind friends no one felt inclined for ...
— The Voyages of Captain Scott - Retold from 'The Voyage of the "Discovery"' and 'Scott's - Last Expedition' • Charles Turley
... quite right, and did not even smile at her telling the organist so many family items. The days flew by, as they always fly in holiday time, and it was Christmas eve before anybody knew it. The family festival was quiet and very pleasant, but quite swallowed up in the grander preparations for next day. Carol and Elfrida, her pretty German nurse, had ransacked books, and introduced so many plans, and plays, and customs and merry-makings ...
— The Birds' Christmas Carol • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... as cook for a short time for a company that was constructing a railroad from Wilmington to Los Angeles, I moved to the latter place and obtained employment in the Old Bella Union Hotel as chef. John King was the proprietor of the Bella Union. Until Christmas eve I stayed there, and then Sergeant John Curtis, of my company, who had been working as a saddler for Banning, a capitalist in Wilmington, came back to the kitchen ...
— Arizona's Yesterday - Being the Narrative of John H. Cady, Pioneer • John H. Cady
... personality may be said to be the leavening idea, which the poet has introduced into the Greek play. It is entirely absent in the original. It baptizes, so to speak, the Greek play, and converts it into a Christian poem. It is the "new truth" of the poet's 'Christmas Eve'. ...
— Introduction to Robert Browning • Hiram Corson
... Tea The Disappearance of Crispina Umberleigh The Wolves of Cernogratz Louis The Guests The Penance The Phantom Luncheon A Bread and Butter Miss Bertie's Christmas Eve Forewarned The Interlopers Quail Seed Canossa The Threat Excepting Mrs. Pentherby Mark The Hedgehog The Mappined Life Fate The Bull Morlvera Shock Tactics The Seven Cream Jugs The Occasional Garden The Sheep The Oversight Hyacinth The Image of the Lost Soul The Purple ...
— The Toys of Peace • Saki
... through both Houses of Parliament in time for the constitutional assent of the Crown to be given to it and for the King-Emperor to address a solemn proclamation to the Viceroy, Princes, and people of India on the eminently appropriate date of Christmas Eve 1920. This Royal message of peace and goodwill set forth in simple language both the purposes and ...
— India, Old and New • Sir Valentine Chirol
... that they wondered where the month had gone. Christmas Eve the Happy Family spent in arranging a round-up camp out behind the house where the hill rose picturesquely, and in singeing themselves heroically in the heat of radium flares, while Luck took his camp-fire scenes that were triumphs of lighting-effects and photography,—scenes ...
— The Phantom Herd • B. M. Bower
... It was Christmas Eve, and I had gone to bed shortly after twelve o'clock, having an hour earlier bid good night to John and Mr. Gaskell. The long habit of watching with, or being in charge of an invalid at night, had made my ears extraordinarily ...
— The Lost Stradivarius • John Meade Falkner
... of fine linen, and for this he retained a particular affection, for both now and always Rousseau had a passion for personal cleanliness, as he had for corporeal wholesomeness. He was seasonably delivered from bondage to his fine linen by aid from without. One Christmas Eve it lay drying in a garret in the rather considerable quantity of forty-two shirts, when a thief, always suspected to be the brother of Theresa, broke open the door and carried off the treasure, leaving Rousseau henceforth to be the ...
— Rousseau - Volumes I. and II. • John Morley
... the first train north, stop two days, Christmas Eve and Christmas, in Asheville, and then for ...
— The Foolish Virgin • Thomas Dixon
... the remainder of my stock when at Venice, and to which I was particularly attached. I had made it so much an object of cleanliness, that it became one of luxury, which was rather expensive. Some persons, however, did me the favor to deliver me from this servitude. On Christmas Eve, whilst the governesses were at vespers, and I was at the spiritual concert, the door of a garret, in which all our linen was hung up after being washed, was broken open. Everything was stolen; and amongst other things, forty-two of my shirts, of very fine linen, and which were the principal ...
— The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, Complete • Jean Jacques Rousseau
... cheerful, loving, never naughty but most obedient. The child seemed religious by nature, which feeling was fostered by his good mother. He loved to go to church on Sundays and fast days. The midnight mass on Christmas eve, when Adam Liszt, carrying a lantern, led the way to church along the country road, through the silent night, filled the child's thoughts with ...
— The World's Great Men of Music - Story-Lives of Master Musicians • Harriette Brower
... December 21st we went down to Pyrford, which was now just finished, to stay there for the first time, and remained until Christmas Eve. On December 22nd I received a letter from ...
— The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke, Vol. 2 • Stephen Gwynn
... hull-gull, or pitching heads and tails. You are a lie-yer, Marse Alfred, and you know how it is yourself; and I beg your pardon, sir, for slighting the perfession; but when I was a little gal, I got my scare of lie-yers, and it has stuck to me like a kuckleburrow. One Christmas eve jest before ole Marster got married, he had a egg-nog party; and a lot of gentlemen was standing 'round the table in the dining-room. One of 'em was ole Mr. Dunbar, Marse Lennox' father, and he ...
— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson
... Frona's shoulders, and his eyes spoke the love his stiff tongue could not compass. The tree and the excitement and the pleasure were over with, a score or so of children had gone home frostily happy across the snow, the last guest had departed, and Christmas Eve and Christmas Day ...
— A Daughter of the Snows • Jack London
... It was Christmas Eve—cold, cloudy, and damp. The store windows were gay with every conceivable and inconceivable device for attracting attention. Parents, nurses, and porters hurried along with mysterious looking bundles and important countenances. Crowds of curious, ...
— Beulah • Augusta J. Evans
... room on Christmas eve in the fine new home in London which he had recently made for himself ...
— Modern English Books of Power • George Hamlin Fitch
... his professorship. How many people remember this, or his scholarship? But before that old rooftree was laid low, he wrote beneath it, quite offhand, a little poem, 'The Night Before Christmas,' that blends with childhood's dreams anew each Christmas Eve—a few short verses holding more vitality than all ...
— People of the Whirlpool • Mabel Osgood Wright
... tree and at the sharing of gifts which Cousin Maud made ready for Christmas eve, we were all friendly and glad at heart, and Ann found her way to join us after that she had put the little ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... person of great sanctity, on Christmas eve addressed the assembly, and represented that it would well become them, at that solemn season, to put up their prayers for some token which should manifest the intentions of Providence respecting their future sovereign. ...
— Bulfinch's Mythology • Thomas Bulfinch
... worth living for. A month later there was a stone bridge above the grotto, and Margaret and I stood on it and looked up at the moonlit Castle, as we had done once before, and as we have done many times since. For all those things happened ten years ago last summer, and this is the tenth Christmas Eve we have spent together by the roaring logs in the old hall, talking of old times; and every year there are more old times to talk of. There are curly-headed boys, too, with red-gold hair and dark-brown eyes like their mother's, and a little Margaret, ...
— The Upper Berth • Francis Marion Crawford
... Queen Philippa. This gallery cuts into the triforium on its north side, and contains niches in which are sculptured angels with musical instruments. Until the middle of the last century it was customary for the surpliced choir to sing the Gloria in Excelsis from the gallery on Christmas Eve. ...
— Exeter • Sidney Heath
... man, a member of the Chapel, although not a Saint, tried to do his best with him, but his visits only led to scenes of irritation, and Warlock obeyed none of his commands. After a visit on the afternoon of Christmas Eve he took Amy aside: ...
— The Captives • Hugh Walpole
... Sara understood why she had so enjoyed the delightful little snapping sounds, which made her think of corn dancing against the lid of a corn-popper—or of the snapping of little dry twigs under the pointed shoes of a brownie, slipping through the woods alone on Christmas Eve. She thought it was the most completely satisfying sound she had ever heard. She thought, too, that the broken rules under the tree made a charming litter, and wished that the Gunki who were raking them up would leave them there instead. But they went on piling them into wheelbarrows ...
— The Garden of the Plynck • Karle Wilson Baker
... On Christmas Eve, here and there in the town, ground-floor rooms were hired and decorated with palm branches; or palm booths were built, decked with oranges and boughs of cinnamon berries, lighted with candles and lanterns and furnished with seats for the king, queen, and musicians, ...
— The Flower of the Chapdelaines • George W. Cable
... room to another, always the active, cheery, hopeful boy, who kept everybody informed of what was going on in the outside world; and he, too, evidently had some weighty secret pressing against the buttons of his jacket. Christmas eve came, and the children began to think it never would be dark enough for them to get ready ...
— Choice Readings for the Home Circle • Anonymous
... cold which I had experienced in the general's troika in St. Petersburg might be compared to a moderate rheumatism, that which I encountered in the sleigh outside the walls of Moscow, on Christmas Eve, 1876, was like a fierce gout. The ride was in all conscience Russian enough to have its ending among gypsies, Tartars, or Cossacks. To go at a headlong pace over the creaking snow behind an istvostshik, named Vassili, the round, cold moon overhead, church-spires ...
— The Gypsies • Charles G. Leland
... On Christmas eve they sat over the stove, after the little ones had gone to bed, and discussed the situation. The wind hurled itself against the house in a very frenzy of rage, shaking the icicles from the window-ledge and hissing through the patched panes. The snow that sifted in through the ...
— Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch • Alice Caldwell Hegan
... One Christmas Eve the people at a farm-house a couple of versts from a church went to bed early, intending to go to early morning service by candle-light. The farmer woke up, and on going out to see how the weather was, he saw the church lit ...
— The Hero of Esthonia and Other Studies in the Romantic Literature of That Country • William Forsell Kirby
... laughing. Then the bunny uncle went close to the tree, off which Dr. Possum was taking some bark, and felt of it with his paw. The tree was indeed as slippery as an icy sidewalk slide on Christmas eve. ...
— Uncle Wiggily in the Woods • Howard R. Garis
... the Dedication and Title of a Church rank as principal festivals; but may not be observed on Advent Sunday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Epiphany, between the Fifth Sunday in Lent and Low Sunday inclusive, Ascension Day, or from Whitsun Eve to ...
— Ritual Conformity - Interpretations of the Rubrics of the Prayer-Book • Unknown
... think so," said Max, "must have been made of a different kind o' dust. We weren't so well off and happy last Christmas eve, Lu." ...
— Elsie's New Relations • Martha Finley
... whole affair. The house was empty, and political economists could conceive no reason for the waste of rent except that it was haunted. The rest was all Miss Broughton's imagination, in 'Tales for Christmas Eve.'" ...
— In the Wrong Paradise • Andrew Lang
... overrated his weakness. At all events the rejected one arrived and Clement Searle departed. On a dark December day he took ship at Southampton. The two women, desperate with rage and sorrow, sat alone in this big house, mingling their tears and imprecations. A fortnight later, on Christmas Eve, in the midst of a great snowstorm long famous in the country, something happened that quickened their bitterness. A young woman, battered and chilled by the storm, gained entrance to the house and, making her way into the presence of the mistress and her ...
— A Passionate Pilgrim • Henry James
... on Christmas Eve to find that our day had passed in almost absolute calm. It had been a glorious winter day, a day of bright sunshine and pure clear air. The Germans had hardly fired at all. A few cannon-shots only had replied to our artillery, which let ...
— In the Field (1914-1915) - The Impressions of an Officer of Light Cavalry • Marcel Dupont
... are to spend their vacation with me. We are going out to Eugenia's to-morrow afternoon to spend Christmas eve ...
— The Little Colonel's Chum: Mary Ware • Annie Fellows Johnston
... in he turned back to go to the station to find out the exact time at which the train arrived. At last he did go home and called Salome and discussed at length the dinner for the morrow. Then only he went to bed worn out; but he was as excited as a child on Christmas Eve, and all night he turned about and about and never slept a wink. About one o'clock in the morning he thought of getting up to go and tell Salome to cook a stewed carp for dinner; for she was marvelously successful with that dish. He did not tell her; and it was as well, no doubt. But he ...
— Jean-Christophe, Vol. I • Romain Rolland
... getting enough to buy a ton of coal, and so put an end to poor George's daily pilgrimage to the coal yard, but now as the Christmas week drew near she decided to use it for gifts. Father Gerhardt was also secreting two dollars without the knowledge of his wife, thinking that on Christmas Eve he could produce it at a critical moment, and ...
— Jennie Gerhardt - A Novel • Theodore Dreiser
... days over his unkind speech, and on Christmas Eve, when he paid his next visit, he brought Anna a peace-offering in the shape of a valuable proof engraving of a picture she had long coveted. Malcolm had had it beautifully framed. Anna was enchanted with the gift, but Mrs. Herrick privately called her son to account ...
— Herb of Grace • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... The spooks are at it again! Christmas eve—yes, yes! [Places rat-trap on the floor.] There! Now they have their portion. And now comes the turn of the feathered wretches. They must have grain, of course, so they can soil the tin roof for me. Such is life! The church wardens pay for it, so it's not my affair. But if I were to ask for an extra ...
— Lucky Pehr • August Strindberg
... (Christmas Eve) was the weirdest stunt I have ever seen. All day the Germans had been sniping industriously, with some success, but after sunset they started singing, and we replied with carols. Then they shouted, ...
— The Healing of Nations and the Hidden Sources of Their Strife • Edward Carpenter
... bravely to do the chores; for it was Christmas Eve, and even in the remoteness of the Abilene Valley, some of the old-time festivity of Christmas was felt. Mary's mother had had good times at Christmas when she was a little girl, and Mary's imagination did the rest. ...
— The Next of Kin - Those who Wait and Wonder • Nellie L. McClung
... of Browning's Christmas Eve and Easter Day." The only observation I need make upon this review—which was merely intended as introductory to a fuller estimate of the poem, to appear in an ensuing number of "The Germ"—is that it exemplifies that profound cultus of Robert Browning ...
— The Germ - Thoughts towards Nature in Poetry, Literature and Art • Various
... old roan, shaking his head; I have work to do at home this Christmas evedrive on with the boy, and let your doctor look to the shoulder; though if he will only cut out the shot, I have yarbs that will heal the wound quicker than all his foreign intments. He turned, and was about to move off, when, suddenly recollecting himself, he again ...
— The Pioneers • James Fenimore Cooper
... Trumpington, And Ditton girls are mean and dirty, And there's none in Harston under thirty, And folks in Shelford and those parts, Have twisted lips and twisted hearts, And Barton men make cockney rhymes, And Coton's full of nameless crimes, And things are done you'd not believe At Madingley on Christmas Eve. Strong men have run ...
— Poems of To-Day: an Anthology • Various
... the night of Christmas eve, when mass is celebrated, because our Lord was born in the night (De Consecr., dist. 1). And in like manner it is celebrated on Holy Saturday towards the beginning of the night, since our Lord rose in the night, that is, ...
— Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas
... the blessed Christmas Eve; the light is failing fast; when down the High Street comes Mark's portly bulk. The next minute he has entered the old doctor's house, and is full of the afternoon's run, for he has ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Volume V. • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.
... On Christmas Eve De Wet saw that he had before him a prey that would fall into his hands as easily as Sannah's Post or Waterval Drift, and he resolved to clutch it at once. His burghers, though dispersed, were within ...
— A Handbook of the Boer War • Gale and Polden, Limited
... stepping-stones. There! Isn't that a worse Upas tree than poor old Ronnie's? Mine is a life untouched by love, or any gentler feelings. All that sort of thing was killed in me when I was quite a little chap. It is the story of a broken halo. Perhaps I'll tell it you some day. Meanwhile, this being Christmas Eve and not Ash Wednesday, I'll make no more confessions. Don't you want to hear the result of my psychic investigations, concerning ...
— The Upas Tree - A Christmas Story for all the Year • Florence L. Barclay
... returned to Glanyravon on Christmas Eve. She had not visited it before, since she left it when her father married. She had seen her father, his wife, and her little brother almost yearly in London, whither Lady Mary Nugent insisted on dragging her husband annually; but she had not hitherto had love, or ...
— Gladys, the Reaper • Anne Beale
... have been initiated. But the introduction of the much-desired, necessary structural alterations on the ground floor gave the deathblow to a very old and enjoyable social function which used to take place annually at Christmas-time. It was the custom to hold a sort of carnival on Christmas Eve in the large central hall, which, for that one special occasion, was dubbed the "Hall of All Nations," and it was for the time being divested of all its former paraphernalia of miscellaneous goods which were replaced by a varied ...
— Recollections of Calcutta for over Half a Century • Montague Massey
... though no white teacher had yet passed by that way. These kaingas are all vanished now, and their very names are well-nigh forgotten; but Pukehika (a few miles below Pipiriki) afforded the traveller a memorable experience. At daybreak on Christmas Eve he records that "three bells for morning prayers were heard from different hamlets in the neighbourhood." On reading this astonishing statement, one's thoughts fly at once to Kinglake's well-known experience in the Arabian desert, when on a Sunday morning he heard distinctly ...
— A History of the English Church in New Zealand • Henry Thomas Purchas
... was to take place on Christmas Eve, and the whole of the day before and far into the night the Colquhoun house was thronged with actors rehearsing charades and tableaux, and officers painting and preparing decorations, and putting them up. All were in the highest spirits; the talk and laughter were incessant; the work was being ...
— The Heavenly Twins • Madame Sarah Grand
... On Christmas Eve, at the tomb of the Ibarras in a gloomy wood, Elias appears, wounded and dying, to find there a boy named Basilio beside the corpse of his mother, a poor woman who had been driven to insanity by her husband's neglect and abuses on the part of the Civil Guard, ...
— The Reign of Greed - Complete English Version of 'El Filibusterismo' • Jose Rizal
... will it appear that "the angel of martyrdom is brother to the angel of victory"; and among the memorable scenes which an earnest chronicler will delineate with noble pathos, few can exceed in moral interest that which the Piazza of San Marco, at Venice, presented on Christmas Eve, 1821. There is not a spot in Europe, within the limits of a city, more distinctly remembered by the transatlantic traveller,—the only spacious area of solid ground under the open sky, in that marvellous ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859 • Various
... sisters, and in India no one can go to church on Christmas without a new and holiday-colored garment. One after another they come from Jewel's deft fingers and lie on the floor in a rainbow heap. When Christmas Eve comes all are finished—except her own. On Christmas morning all the family are in church at that early service dearest to the Indian Christian, with its decorations of palm and asparagus creeper, its carols and rejoicings and new and shining raiment. ...
— Lighted to Lighten: The Hope of India • Alice B. Van Doren
... I didn't have a bit of trouble. I told him all about the tree I had Christmas Eve, and the presents, and the little colored lights, and the fun we had singing and playing games. And then how, on Christmas morning, there was a lovely new snow on the ground, and Mr. Easterbrook ...
— Mary Marie • Eleanor H. Porter
... desire to renew the pleasures of foreign travel. He accordingly went by sea to Italy, and arrived at Leghorn in the opening days of December. He was still wandering in Southern Europe when Parliament reassembled, and the Christmas Eve of that year was rendered memorable to him by an interview with ...
— Lord John Russell • Stuart J. Reid
... dame was very aged, but her eyes glistened like two stars. She carried on her arm a flower-pot, in which a little fir tree was growing. "This tree I shall guard and cherish," she said, "that it may grow large by Christmas Eve, and reach from the floor to the ceiling, to be adorned with lighted candles, golden apples, and toys. I shall sit by the fireplace, and bring a story-book out of my pocket, and read aloud to all the little children. Then the toys on the tree ...
— Good Stories For Great Holidays - Arranged for Story-Telling and Reading Aloud and for the - Children's Own Reading • Frances Jenkins Olcott
... does not matter a bit how late we sit up on Christmas Eve, and the longer the story is, the better; and if you don't believe in ghosts how can it be a story of something you could not account for by the ...
— Among Malay Pirates - And Other Tales Of Adventure And Peril • G. A. Henty
... journeymen had tarried to finish, were brought in. William's heart beat almost audibly; they were for his friend, Mrs. Bradley. Should he be the errand-boy on this occasion? A petition to be permitted to spend Christmas eve from home had been trembling on his lips all day, but each time, when about to speak, his resolution failed. But now the words. "Bill, run off with these shoes to Mrs. Bradley, the market-woman," filled him with delight, ...
— Watch—Work—Wait - Or, The Orphan's Victory • Sarah A. Myers
... which they had built a fire; yet they were perfectly contented. They sat down, side by side, on one of the bunks, and opened the basket. 'I don't know whether you can have any of this,' said Strong Ingmar to father, 'for it's my Christmas dinner, you know.' 'Seeing it's Christmas Eve you must be a good to me,' said father. 'At a time like this I suppose it would never do to let a poor old charcoal burner starve,' Strong Ingmar ...
— Jerusalem • Selma Lagerlof
... evidently did not wish her to see it, she wisely restrained her curiosity. She was herself busy with various little secrets—there was some knitting to be done whenever his back was turned, and she had made several shopping expeditions. On Christmas Eve Stefan was gone the whole afternoon, and returned radiant, full of absurd jokes and quivers of suppressed glee. He was evidently highly pleased with himself, but cherished with touching faith, she thought, the illusion that his ...
— The Nest Builder • Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale
... had placed the cold, fresh-smelling little tree in a corner of the sitting-room, it was already Christmas Eve. After supper we all gathered there, and even grandfather, reading his paper by the table, looked up with friendly interest now and then. The cedar was about five feet high and very shapely. We hung it with the gingerbread animals, strings of popcorn, and ...
— My Antonia • Willa Cather
... On Christmas Eve a serious misfortune befell Columbus. What with looking for gold, and trying to understand the people who talked about it, and looking after his ships, and writing up his journal, he had had practically no sleep for two days and a night; and at eleven o'clock on the 24th ...
— Christopher Columbus, Complete • Filson Young
... patients, engineers without jobs, teachers without schools, and travellers without funds. One man arose and said: "Chauncey Depew, the World has given us such an excellent dinner, and you have given us such a merry Christmas Eve, we would like to shake hands with you as ...
— My Memories of Eighty Years • Chauncey M. Depew
... into Circle City, and even I, Sitka Charley, am tired. It is Christmas Eve. I dance, drink, make a good time, for to-morrow is Christmas Day and we will rest. But no. It is five o'clock in the morning—Christmas morning. I am two hours asleep. The man stand by my bed. 'Come, Charley,' he says, 'harness the dogs. ...
— Love of Life - and Other Stories • Jack London
... can hand buns," said Connie at once. "No harm if he does tread on a few. I shall count on you then next week Thursday, three days after Christmas. Take care not to stir abroad on Christmas eve for that's when the Jersey witches hold their meeting at the rock ...
— The Spanish Chest • Edna A. Brown
... They part on good terms, to meet at Christmas. Crisparkle, with whom Helena has fallen suddenly in love, arranges with Jasper that Edwin and Landless shall meet and be reconciled, as both are willing to be, at a dinner in Jasper's rooms, on Christmas Eve. Jasper, when Crisparkle proposes this, denotes by his manner "some close internal calculation." We see that he is reckoning how the dinner suits his plan of campaign, and "close calculation" may refer, as in Mr. Proctor's theory, to the period of the moon: on Christmas ...
— The Puzzle of Dickens's Last Plot • Andrew Lang
... who was a very old lady now, and deeply devoted to him; but the imperative desire to be near his adored overcame any other feeling, and he, with the Princess and her son and father, was due to arrive at Heronac on the day before Christmas Eve. ...
— The Man and the Moment • Elinor Glyn
... come to him this year with all his old-time joy, An imitation Santa Claus must serve his little boy; Last year he heard the reindeers paw the roof above his head, And as he dreamed the kindly saint tip-toed about his bed, But Christmas Eve he will not come by any happy chance; This year his kindly Santa Claus must guard a trench ...
— Over Here • Edgar A. Guest
... the spirits of the bells up there in the old steeple at midnight on Christmas Eve. Six quaint figures, each wrapped in a shadowy cloak and wearing a bell-shaped cap. All were gray-headed, for they were among the oldest bell-spirits of the city, and "the light of other days" shone in their thoughtful eyes. Silently they sat, ...
— Kitty's Class Day And Other Stories • Louisa M. Alcott
... It was Christmas Eve when they moved him, and late that night Beth kept her vigil by him, sitting over the fire with her elbows on her knees and her face between her hands, listening dreamily to the clang and clamour of the church-bells, which floated up to her over the snow, mellowed by ...
— The Beth Book - Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius • Sarah Grand
... at Salford, on Christmas Eve of the year 1818. His father and his grandfather before him were brewers, and the business, in due course, descended to Mr. Joule and his elder brother, and by them was carried on with success till it was sold, in 1854. Mr. Joule's grandfather ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 363, December 16, 1882 • Various |
