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Christmas Section There are many odd superstitions counnected with Christmas candles and holly. One is that if a girl puts three holly leaves under her pillow, giving each the name of a possible husband. the one that has turned in the morning will reveal her marriage destiny. The Christmas candle is still lighted in some of the old Yorkshire farm houses, and is carried with great ceremony all around the house and into every room. The bearer must be most careful to shield the flame as each door is opened for it would be the worst of luck should the candle happen to "waff out" in a draught. Especially must the Yule candle be held over the churn. This is done in order to evict that malizious little sprite, Hobâ€"oâ€"theâ€"Churn, who hides therein and spoils the butter. Some Old Superstitions About Christmas Candles Alas! Alas! To miss a chance like that! This inn that might be chief among them all, The birthplace of Messiahâ€"had I known. I did not know; and if He comes again As He will surely come, with retinue, And banners, and an army, tell my lord That all my inn is His, to make amends. So you have seen Him stranger, and perhaps Again will see Him. Priethee say for broad, And if a soldier falls, He touches him And up he leaps uninjured? Had I known, I would have turned the whole inn ubside down, His honour, Marcus Lucius, and the rest, And sent them all to stables, had I known. they were, And who He that should be born that nightâ€"â€" For now I learn that they will mak» him King, A second David, who will ransom us From these Philistine Romansâ€"who but He That feeds an army with a loaf of Out on the hills; but how was I to hear Amid the thousand clamours of an inn? Of course, if I had known them, who There was a sign, they say, a heavenly light Resplendent; but I had no time for stars. And there were songs of angels in the aly myself ; My servants must bhave driven them away ; But had I seen them how was I to know? Were inns to welcome stragglers, up and down In all our towns from Beersheba to Dan, Till He should come? And how were me:t to know? Could I know That they were so important? Just the two. No servants, just a workman sort of man, Leading a donkey, and his wife theroon, Drooping and paleâ€"I saw them not they were Close herded with their servants, till the inn Was like a hive at swarmingâ€"time, and I Was fairly crazed among them. (by Dr. Amos R. Wells, Editor The Sunday School Times (New York) What could be done? The inn was full of folks! His honour, Marcus Lucius, and his scribes Who made census: honourable men From farthest Galilee, come hitherward To be enrolled; high ladies and their lords; The rich, the rabbis, such a noble throns As Bethlehem had never seen before. And may not see again. And there The Inn That Missed Its Glorious Chanee ‘"The Landlord Speaks: A.D. 28.‘ THE PORCUPINE ADVANCE, TIMMINS, ONTARIO The turkey has not always been the favourite bird on the Christmas menu the peacock in ancient times taking its place on the festive board. Christmas Anagram Children especially love this beanutiâ€" ful custom of having a lighted candle represent the Christmas star, and in some of the homes where the Twelfth Night candle is kept burning, each child cares for the candle for an eveâ€" ning, all taking turns. The candle is lighted, the wreath lowered to encircle the flame and when the child goes to bed it is his duty to blow the candle out. (By Alan Black) The candle is the true symbol of Christmas. Its flickering taper shining on the sill of the city house or the country cottage sends out the message of "peace on earth" quite as much as the chime of Christmas bells. No Christmas tree is complete until the candles, whether of wax or of electric lights, have been fastened to its bougshs. A charming elderly lady gives each child in the neighbourhood every year a *‘‘Twelfth Night" candle. This is a very large cathedral candle, which is to be lighted on Christmas Eve and placed on the windowâ€"sill set in a wreath of holly and so placed that its flame burns at the centre of a Christâ€" mas wreath hanging in the window. It is kept burning every evening until the eve of Twélfth Night, January 5th. Theon Twelfth Night Eve, the unburned portion of the candle and all the Christmas grcens are placed in the open fireplaze and consumed, this ending the Christmas season. The significance of this pretty rite is as follows: The candle is symbolic of the star which the wise men saw in the East, and it is kept shining through the twelve days during which the wise men were following the star on their jJourney to the manger where the young Child lay. Goodâ€"will to men So sang they On Christmas Day Now as then Shepherds first the tiding Then the kings in fur and Made their way across the Angels carolled in the cold snow covered all. Christ, the Lord, was born Round him breathing oxe In the warm stall Christmas Candles True Symbol of Yule When cluster‘d round the fire at night Old William talks of ghost and sprite And, as a distant outhouse gate Slams in the wind, all feaful wait. Expecting some old ghost of yore, Then Christmas comes in at the door. All attend to wl When Hal, the woodman in his clo: Brings home the huge unwieldy lof That, hissing on the smouldering Flame out at last a quiv‘ring spire: When in his hat the holly stands Old Christmas musters up his band When Tom at eve comes home fro: plough And brings the inistletoe‘s green boug! With milkwhite berries spotted o‘er., And shakes it the shy maid before. Then hangs the trophy up on high, Be sure that Christmasâ€"tide is nigh. andle Represents the St the Wise Men Saw When on the barn‘s thatched ro seen The moss in tufts of liveliest greel When Roger to the woodâ€"pile got And, as he turns, his fingers blow: When all around is cold and drea Be sure that Christmasâ€"tide is ne Signs of Christmas (by Frances Cornford (by Edwin Lees) ie barn‘s thatched ro across the wold at I fur and gold goPs firt Thursday, December 23rd, 193