CHRISTMAS.

For a few weeks before Christmas Day the Waits and Singers still come
round during the night time and on Boxing Days they call for their
Christmas Boxes. The singers have now degenerated into two or three
children who huddle together on the doorsteps of houses and sing through
the keyhole and letter box as fast and as loud as they can utter the
various hymns of which, "When shepherds watched their flocks by night."
As soon as they receive a halfpenny away they trot to the next house to
repeat the performance.

A Green Christmas makes a fat Churchyard.

If a Christmas Day on a Thursday be,
A windy winter we shall see.

If the sun shines on Christmas day for however short a time, the
following year will be good for fruit.


INNOCENTS DAY, DECEMBER 28TH.

Called "Dyzemass Day," it is considered very unlucky to begin anything
on this day and about sixty or seventy years ago many old people kept
this day more sacred than an ordinary Sunday.


COUNTRY DANCES.

In the old County families the Christmas or New Year's dances in which