Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 10, 2025
Hard is the lot of childhood that knows nothing of the visits of Kriss Kringle, or the stockings hung by the chimney at night; and cheerless is any age that is not brightened by some Christmas gift, however humble. What a mystery of preparation there is in the preceding days, what planning and plottings of surprises!
And if he lingers, give him his kriss yourself and bid him go, as the wife of a mighty prince should do when the enemies are near. Let him slay the white men that come to us to trade, with prayers on their lips and loaded guns in their hands. Ah!" she ended with a sigh "they are on every sea, and on every shore; and they are very many!"
"But why won't you tell me, mamma?" persisted my little interrogator. "Don't you know Kriss Kringle?" "I never saw him, dear," said I. "Has papa seen him?" "Ask him when he comes home." "I wish Krissy would bring me, Oh, such an elegant carriage and four horses, with a driver that could get down and go up again." "If I see him, I'll tell him to bring you just such a nice carriage."
Who is Kriss Kringle?" persevered the little one. "Why, don't you know?" said I, smiling. "No, mamma. Who is he?" "Why, he is he is Kriss Kringle." "Oh, mamma! Say, won't you tell me?" "Ask papa when he comes home," I returned, evasively. I never like deceiving children in any thing.
Frequently had Gerhardt said in their presence: "Kriss Kringle is very poor this year. He hasn't so very much to give." But no child, however poverty-stricken, could be made to believe this. Every time after so saying he looked into their eyes, but in spite of the warning, expectation flamed in them undiminished. Christmas coming on Tuesday, the Monday before there was no school.
But the most minute search demonstrated that it had gone, had been taken away, in fact, for the plants which so effectually screened the lighter bones would not permit the skull to vanish. Then the frown on the sailor's face became threatening, thunderous. He recollected the rusty kriss. Indistinct memories of strange tales of the China Sea crowded unbidden to his brain.
He did not, however, see that the hermit afterwards shifted his position a little, and that Babu, desiring to be near his friend, lay down on the vacated spot. In the darkest hour of the night, when even the owls and bats had sought repose, the pirate captain stole out of the brake in which he had concealed himself, and, kriss in hand, glided under the house in which his enemy lay.
Since the tree was for children only, no gifts for the older people appeared among its branches, but in the night some silent-footed Kriss Kringle made his stealthy rounds, and left a gay little red and white stocking by every bedside. Mary discovered hers early in the morning, after the maid had been in to turn on the heat in the radiator, and close the windows.
There was something excessive, almost fanatical, in his devotion to his "white lord." He was inseparable from Jim like a morose shadow. On state occasions he would tread on his master's heels, one hand on the haft of his kriss, keeping the common people at a distance by his truculent brooding glances.
Several other interviews took place with islanders, armed with the kriss, and short two-edged iron pikes, who were very evidently pirates by profession. Although the French explored but a part of the Anamba group, the information they collected was extremely interesting on account of its novelty.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking