My children, when young, went to the public school near us, the little Cove School, as it is called.  For nearly thirty years we have given the Christmas tree to the school.  Before the gifts are distributed I am expected to make an address, which is always mercifully short, my own children having impressed upon me with frank sincerity the attitude of other children to addresses of this kind on such occasions.  There are of course performances by the children themselves, while all of us parents look admiringly on, each sympathizing with his or her particular offspring in the somewhat wooden recital of “Darius Green and his Flying Machine” or “The Mountain and the Squirrel had a Quarrel.”  But the tree and the gifts make up for all shortcomings.

We had a sleigh for winter; but if, when there was much snow, the whole family desired to go somewhere, we would put the body of the farm wagon on runners and all bundle in together.  We always liked snow at Christmas time, and the sleigh-ride down to the church on Christmas eve.  One of the hymns always sung at this Christmas eve festival begins, “It’s Christmas eve on the river, it’s Christmas eve on the bay.”  All good natives of the village firmly believe that this hymn was written here, and with direct reference to Oyster Bay; although if such were the case the word “river” would have to be taken in a hyperbolic sense, as the nearest approach to a river is the village pond.  I used to share this belief myself, until my faith was shaken by a Denver lady who wrote that she had sung that hymn when a child in Michigan, and that at the present time her little Denver babies also loved it, although in their case the river was not represented by even a village pond.

When we were in Washington, the children usually went with their mother to the Episcopal church, while I went to the Dutch Reformed.  But if any child misbehaved itself, it was sometimes sent next Sunday to church with me, on the theory that my companionship would have a sedative effect—­which it did, as I and the child walked along with rather constrained politeness, each eying the other with watchful readiness for the unexpected.  On one occasion, when the child’s conduct fell just short of warranting such extreme measures, his mother, as they were on the point of entering church, concluded a homily by a quotation which showed a certain haziness of memory concerning the marriage and baptismal services:  “No, little boy, if this conduct continues, I shall think that you neither love, honor, nor obey me!” However, the culprit was much impressed with a sense of shortcoming as to the obligations he had undertaken; so the result was as satisfactory as if the quotation had been from the right service.