Christmas we have had today, Granny. Is there anything more lovely in
all the world than Christmas?"

"Nay, child, nay," said Granny, "not to such loving hearts as yours."

[*] Reprinted by permission of the author from her collection,
"Christmastide." Published by the Chicago Kindergarten College.




THE LITTLE SHEPHERD[*]

By Maud Lindsay


The shepherd was sick and the shepherd's wife looked out from her door
with anxious eyes. "Who will carry the sheep to the pasture lands
today?" she said to her little boy Jean.

"I will," cried Jean, "I will. Mother, let me."

Jean and his father and mother lived long ago in a sunny land across
the sea, where flowers bloom, and birds sing, and shepherds feed their
flocks in the green valleys. Every morning, as soon as it was light,
Jean's father was up and away with his sheep. He had never missed a
morning before, and the sheep were bleating in the fold as if to say,
"Don't forget us today."

The sheep were Jean's playfellows. There was nothing he liked better