Christmas, 1883. TWO CHRISTMAS EVES.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 30, 29 December 1883, Page 6

Christmas, 1883. TWO CHRISTMAS EVES.

[BY "THE BLACK KNIGHT."]

I.— Then. • HOW sweet, in the homes of Old England, ! Are thoke Christmas reunions so bright, When family and friends are assembled Round the fireside so cheerful and bright. The cold and the snow of December • ' Give zest to the sports and the ball ; And one Christmas Eve I remember The gladdest and blithest of all. 'Twas somewhere far back in the sixties, When I was scarce out of my teens. And the soene is an old country mansion, All freshened with bright evergreens, 'Mong which shone the holly's red berry And glittered the mistletoe's leaf. Oh ! that mistletoe ! how wo made merry O'er the charter it gave to the thiof I How gladsome the feast and the revel ; My aunt and my uncle how gay— My cousins Jack, Alfred, and Harry, And Ellen, Louisa, and MayHow they laughed and they shouted and sported Or joined in the mazy quadrille ; And I— how I " spooned " and I courted With sweet little Jeanie McNeill. It was love at first sight. Could I doubt it, As I gazed on the plump ruddy face Of young Cousin Jeanie from Scotland, Entranced by her beauty and grace? Ah me ! all those happy sensations Recur to me now as I write— , The dreams and the wild porturbations Of heart and of brain on that night! It was love at first sight ; and, oh rapture, I saw as I gazed in her eye That I too had effected a capture, And that she was as happy as I. While the others were mistletoe-kissing, And enjoying the fun of the fair, Little Jeanie and I were a-missing— But were kissing, I ween, otherwhere. As I felt her wee hand's gentle pressure, I knew she would ever be mine, And I dreamed of a future of pleasure, A future of bliss nigh divine. I was only a boy ; but, believo me, I felt as a god among men, Strong and hopeful— no Fate could deceive me, Nor rob me of happiness, thex.

IL-Now. How strange, in the homes of New Zealand. Comes Christmas, with sunshine and smiles ; How sad, when we think we are severed From friends by twelve thousand long miles ! But why do 1 feel sad and lonely, And o'er life's vicissitudes grieve ? For my Jeanie is mine, and mine only, And is with m? this bright Christmas Eve. Eighteen years since we stood to be married, Then sailed for this fair, fruitful shore ; And oh ! what a change on this Christmas From that of the year sixty-four ! For my Jeanie is fat, iair, and forty, Nine children around us have grown, And I am a meek man in slippers, Who can scarce call my fireside my own. Jack, our eldest, a strapping six-footer, Rules his mother, and niother rules me ; Our next, frisky Emma, is mistress— As smart as a mistress may be ; Then there's Harry, Louisa, and Alfred, i And Mary, and Lucy, and Jim, And Charlie ; and if there's a tyrant, Who knows it, believe me it's him ! To-day we have been to the Kawau (Eleven at live bob a-hcad), And they all want to go to the opera, But my proposition is bed ! But I've no chance to carry my motion ; The odds are, you see, ten to one ; 14 Sure, Christmas cion't come round so often, And the dear things are needing some fun !" So dissenting, relenting, consenting, I yield when resistance is vain, Though my pocket-book's shrunken proportions . Make me think with compunction and pain Of water-rates, gas-bill, and taxes, Of grocer and butcher to pay, And of mortgagee, fierce and relentless, To face on the next quarter day. And I sit 'mid the mirth and the music At Abbotts, my thoughts far away, For I dream of that home in Old England And the gladness of Youth's happy day. The curtain descends. Disenchanted ! Clouds gather again on my brow ; My vision of bliss has departed, And I'm down to reality now !

L'Exvoi. Kind reader— Miss, Mister, or Madam, Let me ask, ere I lay down my pen, Have you e'er, like this poor son of Adam, Lived in bliss, in some far-away then 1 Be assured that the vision will cheat you, And like me, as I make my sad bow, You will find stern reality greet you ; Don't I wish you're enjoying it now ! Auckland, 1883.