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Show Cr JoftJ;o i In Virginia, the old Dominion, storied land of early American history, his-tory, there Is an old tradition of the origin of the Yule log that is retold every Christmas. As the family sits around the Yule log and sips their Christmas eggnog on Christmas eve, the ancient an-cient legend is recounted again. One very cold Christmas eve, when the frosty wind howled across a world of snow, an old man was sitting in his little cabin wishin,. that he had a fire to warm him. Suddenly he heard the cry of Utile child sway out in the cold. The old man hobbled to the door and gazed out across the snow. The wind and tbe snow came rustling in and tbe old man shivered until his "onliesl two teef" chattered with cold. The plaintive cry of the child came again above the whistle of the wind. It went straight to the old man's heart and he wished with all his power of longing that he might have the strength to go out and find the unfortunate babe. The cry came a third lime and then a wondrous thing happened. A miraculous power filled the old man's veins. His muscles became strong and tense, bis crutch fell bach into the cabin and he stepped from his threshold thresh-old out into the snow. Hurrying over the snow with a speed he had not owned since boyhood, boy-hood, by and by he came to little child lying in a snow bank. He bent down and touched the child and a great new strength flowed over him, a strength which seemed to give him wings as he sped back to his cabin. Arriving there, he placed the child upon the bed, tenderly drew the ragged coverlet about it and then looked to see if there were a bit of furniture he could use to make a tire with which to warm the little one. At that precise moment a great log rolled across the threshold and into the fireplace. The little child looked at the log with eyes like stars stars which sent gleams of light that kindled the log with the most brilliant fire the old man ever bad seen. The dingy little room immediately was jilted with radiance and warmth, and as tbe light enwrapped the child hi laughed and laughed with a melody mel-ody like a song from tbe heart. Tbe old man turned his eyes to where the fire burned and watched the flames leap in beautiful rainbow tints over tbe log, and as his old eyes watched, tbe colors teemed to form the thape of the Cross in the fire. The flames of the Cross leaped higher and higher, blue, red, yellow yel-low and white, and as the old man watched this display, suddenly and magically there appeared a table In the center of the room, covered with a Christmas feast such as never before had been spread before be-fore his eyes. And never again was the old man hungry or cold, and never after that was there a Christmas Christ-mas in old Virginia without the Yule log and the Christmas Child to give light and warmth. And that Is the story of the Yule log as it is told In Virginia every Christmas eve. |