A merry Christmas to Every member o f The Progressive Farmer Family!
A. Farm and Home Weekly for the Carolina, Virginia. Tennessee nH Oenrn:
PROGRESSIVE PARMER VOL. XXI. NO. 45.
THE COTTON PLANT VOL. XXIII. NO. 44.
RALEIGH, N. C, DECEMBER 20, 1906.
Weekly: $1 a Year.
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A CHRISTMAS SCENE IN OUR MOUNTAIN WOODS.
HOW TO "KEEP" CHRISTMAS NOT MERELY
OBSERVE IT.
There is a better thing than the observation of
Christmas day, and that is "keeping" Christmas.
Are you willing to forget what you have done
for other people and to remember what other peo
ple have done for you; to ignore what the world
owes you and to think what you owe the world;
to put your rights in the background and your du
ties in the middle distance and your chances to
do a little more than your duty in the foreground;
to see that your fellow-men are just as real as
you arje, and try to look behind their faces to
their hearts, hungry for joy; to own that probably
the only good reason for your existence is not what
you are going to get out of lite, but what you are
going to give to life; to close your book of com
plaints against the management of the universe
and look around you for a place where you can
sow a few seeds of happiness are you willing to
do these things even for a day?
Then you can keep Christmas.
Are you willing to stoop down and consider the
needs and the desires of little children; to remem
ber the weakness and loneliness of people who are
growing old; to'stop asking how much your friends
love you and ask yourself whether you love them
enough ; to bear in mind the things that other peo
ple have to bear on their hearts; to try to under
stand what those who live in the same house with
you really want, without waiting for them to tell
you; to trim your lamp so that it will give more
light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so
that your shadow will fall behind you; to make
a grave for your ugly thoughts and a garden for
your kindly feelings, with the gate open are you
willing to do these things even for a day?
Then you can keep Christmas.
And, if you can keep it for a day, why not al
ways? But you can never keep it alone. Dr.
Henry van Dyke, in the Youth's Companion, Bos
ton. -
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