Chapter II: Part 2

Although it was the last of December, it is said Mary and Joseph found only an ox and an ass in this cave. The weather could not have been so very cold, as Bethlehem is about as far South as the northern part of Florida, and the shepherds had their sheep out in the open country eating grass. That the sheep might not wander away at any time, or be stolen during the dark hours, these shepherds divided the night into what was called Watches. In other words, some of the men stood guard over their flocks for three or four hours, while the others slept; then they would awaken their friends to look after the sheep. The men who came off watch would then go to sleep by the camp fire, for the Bible says, “And there were in the same country shepherds watching and keeping the night watches over their flocks.”

It was while some of these men were watching the sheep that they were greatly startled, because a beautiful angel, who shone with the brightness of God, came and stood by them. The angel saw that these poor men were scared, so, in a kind and gentle voice, he told the shepherds not to be afraid, for he had brought them good news, that would be of great joy to all the people. The angel then said, “This day is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ, the Lord. You shall find this infant Saviour wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.” When he had finished speaking, an army of angels came around him, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will.” Then all of the angels ascended into heaven.

The shepherds who beheld this glorious and beautiful sight woke those who were asleep and told them what they had seen. When the other men heard the wonderful news that the angel had brought, they all went at once to Bethlehem as fast as they could. They soon found the cave where Mary and Joseph were. Here they saw the sweetest little baby who had for his bed a manger, or horse trough, filled with straw. This little baby did not have on long clothes, made of lace, embroidery and fine linen, like the little babies have these days and times. He had only a cloth wrapped around his body, in such a way that it made for him swaddling clothes.

As soon as the shepherds saw the child lying in the manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, they knew that this was the infant Saviour of whom the angel had told them; that this Child was Christ, Son of God, and that Mary was His Mother.

The day on which the infant Saviour was born has ever since been known as THE FIRST CHRISTMAS.

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THE GOLDEN COBWEBS

A STORY TO TELL BY THE CHRISTMAS TREE[1]

Footnote 1:

From HOW TO TELL STORIES TO CHILDREN, by Sara Cone Bryant. Copyright
1905. Printed by special permission of the publishers, Houghton
Mifflin Company.

I AM going to tell you a story about something wonderful that happened to a Christmas tree like this, ever and ever so long ago, when it was once upon a time.

It was before Christmas, and the tree was all trimmed with pop-corn and silver nuts and [name the trimmings of the tree before you], and stood safely out of sight in a room where the doors were locked, so that the children should not see it before it was time. But ever so many other little house-people had seen it. The big black pussy saw it with her great green eyes; the little gray kitty saw it with her little blue eyes; the kind house-dog saw it with his steady brown eyes; the yellow canary saw it with his wise, bright eyes. Even the wee, wee mice that were so afraid of the cat had peeped one peep when no one was by.

But there was some one who hadn’t seen the Christmas tree. It was the little gray spider!

You see, the spiders lived in the corners,—the warm corners of the sunny attic and the dark corners of the nice cellar. And they were expecting to see the Christmas Tree as much as anybody. But just before Christmas a great cleaning-up began in the house. The house-mother came sweeping and dusting and wiping and scrubbing, to make everything grand and clean for the Christ-child’s birthday. Her broom went into all the corners, poke, poke,—and of course the spiders had to run. Dear, dear, _how_ the spiders had to run! Not one could stay in the house while the Christmas cleanness lasted. So, you see, they couldn’t see the Christmas Tree.

Spiders like to know all about everything, and all there is to see, and they were very sad. So at last they went to the Christ-child and told him all about it.

“All the others see the Christmas Tree, dear Christ-child,” they said; “but we, who are so domestic and so fond of beautiful things, we are _cleaned up_! We cannot see it, at all.”

The Christ-child was sorry for the little spiders when he heard this, and he said they should see the Christmas Tree.

The day before Christmas, when no body was noticing, he let them all go in, to look as long as ever they liked.

They came creepy, creepy, down the attic stairs, creepy, creepy, up the cellar stairs, creepy, creepy, along the halls,—and into the beautiful room. The fat mother spiders and the old papa spiders were there, all the little teenty, tonty, curly spiders, the baby ones. And then they looked! Round and round the tree they crawled, and looked and looked. Oh, what a good time they had! They thought it was perfectly beautiful. And when they had looked at everything they could see from the floor, they started up the tree to see more. All over the tree they ran, creepy, crawly, looking at every single thing. Up and down, in and out, over every branch and twig, the little spiders ran, and saw every one of the pretty things right up close.

They stayed till they had seen all there was to see, you may be sure, and then they went away at last, _quite_ happy.

Then, in the still, dark night before Christmas Day, the dear Christ-child came to bless the tree for the children. But when he looked at it—_what_ do you suppose?—it was covered with cobwebs! Everywhere the little spiders had been they had left a spider-web; and you know they had been just everywhere. So the tree was covered from its trunk to its tip with spider-webs, all hanging from the branches and looped around the twigs; it was a strange sight.

What could the Christ-child do? He knew that house-mothers do not like cobwebs; it would never, never do to have a Christmas Tree covered with those. No, indeed.

So the dear Christ-child touched the spiders’ webs, and turned them all to gold! Wasn’t that a lovely trimming? They shone and shone, all over the beautiful tree. And that is the way the Christmas Tree came to have golden cobwebs on it.

[This story was told me in the mother-tongue of a German friend,
at the kindly instance of a common friend of both; the narrator
had heard it at home from the lips of a father of story-loving
children for whom he often invented such little tales. The
present adaptation has passed by hearsay through so many minds
that it is perhaps little like the original, but I venture to
hope it has a touch of the original fancy, at least.]

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LOCAL LEAGUE WORK

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MEMPHIS LEAGUE

The program for the current year embraces a study of the stories
of Ancient Greece, Rome and Italy, Germany, France, Russia, and
Japan, interspersed with meetings devoted to the study of
stories of Christmas and other holidays. One of the October
meetings was devoted to Thanksgiving stories. The topic for the
Second meeting in November was “Xerxes and Prehistoric Stories.”
The meetings of this league are conducted primarily for the
benefit of teachers to prepare them for telling stories to their
classes.

TUSCUMBIA, ALABAMA

Two flourishing junior leagues are maintained in the Tuscumbia
public schools. One is made up from pupils of the fifth and
sixth grades; the other from pupils of the third and fourth
grades. They meet every Friday afternoon for story-telling. The
children are greatly interested and are eager for some new
stories. It is the purpose of THE STORY HOUR to supply just such
needs, both by the stories it reproduces and by directing to
good books of stories.

BLUE MOUNTAIN, MISS.

Excellent work is reported from the leagues in Blue Mountain
College, at Mississippi Heights. These three leagues are among
the first to have been organized in the State. One league is for
the teacher girls of the school and two are for the boys and
girls respectively. Mrs. Jennie M. Hardy, who organized these
leagues, more recently organized work at some of the State
Summer Schools. She also organized the league at the Sherman
State Normal, in July, this year.

CINCINNATI, OHIO.

The Cincinnati Story Tellers’ League was organized Sept. 23,
1906, at the Kindergarten Training School on Linton Street, and
has conducted two successful series of meetings. The last annual
report shows a membership of sixty. Meetings have been held once
a month, on the fourth Tuesday, at 7:15 p.m., sometimes in
School houses and at other times at the homes of members. A
variety of interesting subjects have been profitably considered,
as indicated in the following schedules of meetings:—

Nov. 1906, “Historical Stories;” Feb. 5, 1907, “Bible Stories;”
March, 1907, “Parables, Fables and Allegories;” April, 1907,
“Fairy Stories and Myths;” Jan, 1908, “Legends of the American
Indians;” Feb. 1908, “Norse Legends;” March, 1908, “East India
and Art;” April, 1908, “Japan.” At the May, 1908, meeting a
program of miscellaneous stories was given, including “An
Adaptation of the Story ‘Cinderella’,” by Miss Lillian
Southgate; “A Mother’s Love,” by Mrs. H. Dickore; “The Camel and
the Jackal,” by Miss Pearl Carpenter; “A Story of Great Love,”
by Rabbi Grossmann; “A Hindoo Tale;” by Miss Reta M. Lockhart.
The program was enlivened with songs by Mrs. M. T. Williams.

The June meeting was held out under the trees of Eden Park, when
many enjoyable stories were told.

DES MOINES, IOWA

The graduates of the Primary Training Department of Drake
University who are teaching in Des Moines met during the Summer
of 1908 and organized a Story Tellers’ League, with Mrs. Ella
Ford Miller, of Drake University, as president. The first
meeting was held early in November at the University. It is
proposed to make a special study of stories and Story-telling
for primary grades.

The girls of the Primary Training Department of Drake University
have also organized a club to meet twice a month, taking up
practically the same work.

COVINGTON, KY., TEACHERS’ LEAGUE

A number of teachers in the Public Schools of Covington, Ky.,
who believe in the value of constructive literature,
particularly in the primary and grammar grades, organized
themselves into a Story Tellers’ League in October, 1908. These
teachers represent all the grades of the Public Schools and
every school in the city. Their purpose is to cultivate the art
of story-telling so that they may make use of it in the
school-room for ethical instruction, as an aid to composition,
both oral and written, to enliven the teaching of history and
geography, and to stimulate nature-study. There is filed with
the editor of this league the source, the outline, the purpose
of each story told, so that the members who may have use for it
in their work may have ready access to it. By the interchange of
their experiences with their stories in the school-room, the
teachers hope to develop a plan by which the pupils in their
charge may be made acquainted, in a systematic and natural way,
with the great stories every child should know.

COVINGTON, KY., JUNIOR LEAGUE

In November, 1906, some forty students in the High School at
Covington, Ky., were organized into a Junior Story Tellers’
League. They met in the school on alternate Fridays, immediately
after dismissal. From the beginning, the meetings were
interesting, profitable and instructive. So enjoyable were they,
that members of the faculty were pleased to come in, not
occasionally, but regularly, to listen, and to contribute their
share to the pleasure of the meeting. The programs were
definitely planned, and a variety of stories was told at each
meeting. These included myths, fairy-tales, folk-tales, fables,
festival-stories, Bible-stories, and an occasional good
anecdote. During the first year, also, there was a systematic
presentation of the King Arthur legends in story form; and
during the second year the story of Ulysses was developed in the
same manner. At the close of the regular program, volunteer
stories were called for, and there was always a response.

Many excellent story-tellers were developed, and one genius was
discovered. The latter was a girl, who, at fifteen, gave promise
of becoming a rival to Uncle Remus, himself, in telling, in
dialect, the folk-tales of the South. Our National President,
after hearing her, saw fit to invite her to tell stories before
the Knoxville Convention of 1907.

In May, 1908, a public meeting was held, to which the parents,
teachers, and friends of the story-tellers were invited. No
successful evening’s entertainment was ever so easily prepared.
Seven students, whose stories, told at the regular meetings, had
been so well selected and so charmingly presented that their
companions desired to hear them again, were elected to tell them
in public. This, with some musical selections furnished by the
school glee-clubs, formed the program of the evening, which an
enthusiastic audience voted a success. The outcome of that
meeting was a demand for two more leagues, one of which has
recently been organized.

MANKATO, MINN.

Our organization is very simple. The club membership changes
from term to term of our school year. Three times a year a group
of from fifteen to twenty-five comes to me as student teachers.
We then organize a Story Club which meets once in two weeks. We
elect an Executive Committee. This Committee, a group of three,
prepare the programs. We have our meetings in different homes
and serve very simple refreshments. Those not on the program
bring their needle work.

I have had in mind these ends in keeping up the
organization,—First, A good time together;—Second, A better
knowledge of Story material; and Third, An opportunity to _tell_
stories.

We have as yet no Junior organization. I have thought of it, but
am not quite sure whether it is the best thing for us. All
teachers should feel indebted to the National League. I have
this year for the first time told stories to “grown-ups” and am
amazed at their delight in them.

HELEN M. REYNOLDS.

OXFORD, OHIO.

Among the lecturers in the summer term of the Ohio State Normal
College of Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, during the summer
of 1908, was Mr. Richard Wyche, who has done so much to advance
the great movement known as the Story Tellers’ League. Through
his inspiration there gathered at twilight every Wednesday
evening under the magnificent trees of the campus a group of
students and faculty members to tell stories.

Realizing the possibilities for a greater field of work, a
permanent organization was effected known as the Story Telling
League of the Ohio State Normal College of Miami University. The
constitution was a very flexible one, the main condition being
for each member to pledge himself on his return home to organize
a branch league. One hundred and fifty-six members promised
service.

In various County Teachers’ Institutes held in the State during
the month of August, branch leagues were formed, meeting in
church, school house, library, village park or courthouse.
Everywhere the harvest fields were ripe and workers ready and
eager. From all parts of the country, even as remote as the
state of Washington, came inquiries for help in the movement of
such promising influence.

ANNIE E. LOGAN.

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NATIONAL LEAGUE NOTES

On November 19, at 2:45 p.m., the Detroit University School held an invitation gathering in honor of Richard T. Wyche, President of the National Story Tellers’ League. Mr. Wyche made an address on story telling to children.

* * * * *

Dr. Henry Van Dyke, Princeton University, who is a member of the Advisory Board of the National Story Tellers’ League, has accepted the American Lectureship in the University of Paris for the current year. He writes to express interest in the League work, but regrets that, on account of absence, he will not be able to take any active part this year.

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Story-Telling to Children

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● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
when a predominant form was found in this book.
○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).