Classic Christmas Stories Read Online Free Page A

important work, and generally only one in a family could aspire to it.
     The big Yule log, generally called the “back junk, ” four feet in length and
     round as a flour-barrel, was rolledin close to the back of
     the chimney and was supposed to last during the twelve days at Christmas.

    Powder guns were fired off out of doors near each one’s house as soon as the
     sun set on Christmas Eve. The cod-oil lamp trimmed with zealous care and
     brightened to reflect the fire light like a mirror, were then lighted, one
     swinging from a hook in each corner. “Hooking” the lamp and keeping it bright
     all the time was a work of art which generally fell to the tidiest girl in the
     house.
    After the supper table was cleared away the neighbours began to flock in, and
     soon the red decanter and old-fashioned cut glasses were produced. This was
     called “breaking” the ice, and when it was broken it grew fast and furious. The
     younger folks soon asserted themselves and claimed fifteen square feet of the
     floor for dancing, compelling the older people to move back the “settles” and
     chairs close to the walls. Merely a dance that broke the ice was all that was
     indulged in on Christmas Eve. The religious aspect of the feast must not be
     forgotten, and it seldom was, in spite of all the carnal temptations in the way
     of eating and drinking. The real thing in the dancing line was not witnessed
     till St. Stephen’s night, and it was kept up every night at one kitchen or
     another till the twelve holidays were over. The lion’s share of this business
     was done by the “mummers, ” fools or “jannies, ” whichever name you wish to give
     them, as they were alluded to by all three.
    Probably in no outport in Newfoundland were the old Christmas customs kept up
     and were wholeheartedly celebrated than in Trinity. The back-bone of Trinity’s
     prosperity in the days under review was the seal fishery. The three big
     mercantile firms were Brooking’s, Slade’s andStoneman’s. A
     score or more of smaller stores and shops did active trades by reason of the
     existence of these wholesalers. The principal sealing skippers whose names are
     handed down to us in sealing history and deep sea voyages are Andrews, Facey,
     Ash, Coleman, Field, Dorothy, Morris, Eagan, Fowlow, Christian, Answorth and
     Verge. Harry Andrews, known by his friends under the familiar name of “Billy
     Lindy, ” was for many years the high liner in the sealfishery before the coming
     of the steamers. His first ship was the Selah Hutton and then the Peerless . His name was known all over the country.
    It has been said of Brigus that it lived on the fat of the sealfishery for half
     a century after the industry was prosecuted in wind-jammers. This could be said
     with equal if not greater truth in Trinity. Not only was it a town of shops but
     also a town of mechanical tradesmen. There were shoe makes, tinsmiths,
     carpenters, blacksmiths, sail makers, masons, coopers and tailors who kept the
     town trade going on the money circulated amongst all the residents of the town—a
     self-supporting country. The decline came on gradually after Bremner closed the
     Brooking premises and Walter Grieve withdrew, but the traces of quondam
     prosperity are there today in the neat well-kept homes and gardens and streets,
     churches and schools. Even a stranger visiting the place for the first time and
     meeting the residents cannot feel to be impressed by the fact that he is in the
     midst of a cultural and hospitable people imprinted with the heritage of a
     prosperous past.

Memories of Christmas Concerts in a Newfoundland Outport
    by James R. Thoms
    A
UNT SIS WAS AN extraordinary character.
    I remember that she made the best buttermilk buns you ever tasted. She lived
     right on the edge of the barasway, and on Saturday afternoons, after jumpin’
     clumpets for a couple of hours if it was wintertime or chuckin’ hoops in the
     summer, we would go home