The Night Before Christmas
‘Tas the night before Christmas, hen all through the house
Not a creature as stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings ere hung by the chimney ith care
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon ould be there;
The children ere nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long inter’s nap,
When out on the lan there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see hat as the matter.
Aay to the indo I fle like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and thre up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the ne-fallen sno
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects belo,
When, hat to my ondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I kne in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he histled, and shouted, and called them by name:
No, Dasher! no, Dancer! no, Prancer! and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder! and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the all!
No dash aay! dash aay! dash aay all!”
As dry leaves that before the ild hurricane fly,
When they meet ith an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they fle,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a tinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and paing of each little hoof.
As I dre in my head, and as turning around,
Don the chimney St. Nicholas came ith a bound.
He as dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes ere all tarnished ith ashes and soot;
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes-ho they tinkled! his dimples ho merry!
His cheeks ere like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth as dran up like a bo,
And the beard of his chin as as hite as the sno;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a reath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook hen he laughed, like a bolful of jelly.
He as chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed hen I sa him, in spite of myself;
A ink of his eye and a tist of his head,
Soon gave me to kno I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a ord, but ent straight to his ork,
And filled all the stockings; then turned ith a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a histle,
And aay they all fle like the don of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.
