THE PEACE EGG AND OTHER TALES

CONTENTS.


THE PEACE EGG

A CHRISTMAS MUMMING PLAY

HINTS FOR PRIVATE THEATRICALS, I., II., III.

SNAP-DRAGONS

OLD FATHER CHRISTMAS

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THE PEACE EGG.




THE PEACE EGG.

A CHRISTMAS TALE.


Every one ought to be happy at Christmas. But there are many things
which ought to be, and yet are not; and people are sometimes sad even
in the Christmas holidays.

The Captain and his wife were sad, though it was Christmas Eve. Sad,
though they were in the prime of life, blessed with good health,
devoted to each other and to their children, with competent means, a
comfortable house on a little freehold property of their own, and, one
might say, everything that heart could desire. Sad, though they were
good people, whose peace of mind had a firmer foundation than their
earthly goods alone; contented people, too, with plenty of occupation
for mind and body. Sad--and in the nursery this was held to be past
all reason--though the children were performing that ancient and most
entertaining Play or Christmas Mystery of Good St. George of England,
known as _The Peace Egg_, for their benefit and behoof alone.

The play was none the worse that most of the actors were too young to
learn parts, so that there was very little of the rather tedious
dialogue, only plenty of dress and ribbons, and of fighting with the
wooden swords. But though St. George looked bonny enough to warm any
father's heart, as he marched up and down with an air learned by
watching many a parade in barrack-square and drill-ground, and though
the Valiant Slasher did not cry in spite of falling hard and the
Doctor treading accidentally on his little finger in picking him up,
still the Captain and his wife sighed nearly as often as they smiled,
and the mother dropped tears as well as pennies into the cap which the
King of Egypt brought round after the performance.