His sister had faith in him, nevertheless, and, without his knowledge, she sent one of his poems to the editor of The Free Press, a newspaper published in Newburyport.  Whittier was helping his father to repair a stone wall by the roadside when the carrier flung a copy of the paper to him, and, unconscious that anything of his was in it, he opened it and glanced up and down the columns.  His eyes fell on some verses called “The Exile’s Departure.”

  “Fond scenes, which delighted my youthful existence,
     With feelings of sorrow I bid ye adieu—­
   A lasting adieu; for now, dim in the distance,
     The shores of Hibernia recede from my view. 
   Farewell to the cliffs, tempest-beaten and gray,
     Which guard the loved shores of my own native land;
   Farewell to the village and sail-shadowed bay,
     The forest-crowned hill and the water-washed strand.”

His eyes swam; it was his own poem, the first he ever had in print.

[Illustration:  WHITTIER’S STUDY AT AMESBURY, MASS.]

“What is the matter with thee?” his father demanded, seeing how dazed he was; but, though he resumed his work on the wall, he could not speak, and he had to steal a glance at the paper again and again, before he could convince himself that he was not dreaming.  Sure enough, the poem was there with his initial at the foot of it,—­“W., Haverhill, June 1st, 1826,”—­and, better still, this editorial notice:  “If ‘W.,’ at Haverhill, will continue to favor us with pieces beautiful as the one inserted in our poetical department of to-day, we shall esteem it a favor.”

Fame never passes true genius by, and when it came it brought with it the love and reverence of thousands, who recognize in Whittier a nature abounding in patience, unselfishness, and all the sweetness of Christian charity.

[Footnote 1:  The selections from Mr. Whittier’s poems contained in this article are included by kind permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.]

=Christmas=

December 25

A festival held every year in memory of the birth of Christ.  Christmas is essentially a day of rejoicing and thanksgiving and of good will toward others.  Many customs older than Christianity mark the festivities.  In our country the observance of the day was discouraged in colonial times, and in England in 1643 Parliament abolished the day.  Now its celebration is world-wide and by all classes and creeds.

=HOW UNCLE SAM OBSERVES CHRISTMAS=

BY CLIFFORD HOWARD

Of course Uncle Sam is best acquainted with the good old-fashioned Christmas—­the kind we have known all about since we were little bits of children.  There are the Christmas trees with their pretty decorations and candles, and the mistletoe and holly and all sorts of evergreens to make the house look bright, while outside the trees are bare, the ground is white with snow, and Jack Frost is prowling around, freezing up the ponds and pinching people’s noses.  And then there is dear old Santa Claus with his reindeer, galloping about on the night before Christmas, and scrambling down chimneys to fill the stockings that hang in a row by the fireplace.