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THE
PRACTICAL JOKE;

OR THE

CHRISTMAS STORY OF UNCLE NED.

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[2]

THE PRACTICAL JOKE.

Welcome, merry Christmas and New-Year!prized by children above all otherdays in the year. Ye are associatedwith pleasant recollections of old SantaClaus and sugar-plums—with bright visionsof a cheerful fireside, merry games,pleasant stories, and happy, smiling faces.First comes Christmas Eve, wheneach young face beams with eager curiosityand delightful anticipation—allwondering and guessing what they shallfind in their stockings next morning;while the eldest sister, with looks of[3]mystery and of importance, shares hermother's councils, and helps to distributethe precious stores. Soon they are inbed, anxious to sleep off the long hours,dreaming of rocking-horses and doll-babies,tea-sets, wooden soldiers, and allthe other delights of the toy-shop.

I never heard of a lazy child on aChristmas morning. The idle and theindustrious are all up, "bright and early."The well-filled stockings are eagerlyinspected, good wishes and prettyor useful presents given and received,and various plans proposed for the day'samusement. Night comes too soon forthe tireless lovers of fun, who go unwillinglyto bed, consoling themselves thatone week more will bring New-Year.

Dear children, long may such innocentdelights crown the year; and, inthe midst of all, forget not the childrenof the famishing poor, who have noChristmas pleasures to look forward to;[5]whose parents toil for their daily breadand scanty apparel all the year, and haveno time nor means to provide themselvesor their children with the comforts andluxuries you enjoy. Each one can sparea little to minister to the enjoyment ofthose poor suffering children, many ofwhom, perhaps, have no fathers to providefor them, some of them not even ahome to shelter them. Share with themyour abundance, and the blessings of thepoor shall rest upon you. And now, mypatient little readers, for the story.

One Christmas night we were all gatheredaround a cheerful fire in the old-fashionedparlor. Father, mother, sisters,brothers, uncles, aunts, and cousins,were all there. The blazing pine knotssent a cheerful light into every nook andcorner of the big room; the ponderouspresses, and quaint old desk and bookcase,reflecting the warm glow from theirpolished surfaces.

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