Transcriber’s Note: The cover image was created fromthe title page by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
CHRISTMAS
HOLIDAYS;
OR,
A VISIT AT HOME.
Written for the American Sunday School Union.
KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD
AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION
PHILADELPHIA:
PUBLISHED AT THE SOCIETY’S HOUSE.
I. Ashmead, Printer.
1827.
OR,
The stage coach stopped at the door ofthe Academy in Abington, an hour later thanthe expected time, and Howard and GeorgeBarrington ran forward with eagerness, asschool boys are wont to do, when they aregoing from a retired part of the country intothe city, at the Christmas Holidays.
The stage passed rapidly along the fineturnpike road; and at dusk the blowing of thehorn announced their near approach to thegreat city; soon the coachman’s whip wasthrown on the top of the vehicle, a loud ringat the door of their father’s mansion was answeredby the servant in waiting; the boysbeheld the cheerful lighted hall, and weresoon locked in the arms of their parents andsisters, who ran out of the parlour to receivethem. The parlour too was lighted, not only[6]with lamps, but by a blazing hickory fire, forit was a cold, frosty evening, toward the endof December. “What kept you so late?”said Emma to her brother George, whosehand she still held. “I believe,” said he,“we were not longer than usual in coming,but the stage did not leave Abington for anhour after the appointed time; it was waitingfor passengers, and was very much crowded.”“I thought you would never come,”said Emma.
Howard, who had been in earnest conversationwith his mother, now turned to George,and said, “Did you not feel sorry for poorJohn when he found he could not get into thecoach? I really pitied him, for he wasjust as eager to go as we were; and I couldnot help thinking what a disappointment itwould be to his parents, who, no doubt, werelooking out as anxiously for him, as