Page 95 - 1930 Hartridge

■ TEnPDRRETNDR5 E Elementary Prize Essay
THE CHRISTMAS PLAY
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Alice, on arriving home from school one clay near Christmas, was told that she and her mother were invited to “An Old-Fashioned Christmas Party.” She was very glad to go. d'hey sat in one of the front rows with some of the pupils in Alice’s class. Before the play they talked about everything in the world, almost. Then the play began, right on time. First
came the watchman with his lantern. Next the curtain went up. On the stage in the hackgroutul there was a long table with all the glasses, food, and so forth on it. Around the table were sitting the lords and ladies of
the Manor.
While they were eating and drinking, the Boar’s Head came in and everyone welcomed it heartily. After eating for a time, they danced some folk-dances, for then they did not dance as we do now. It was very pretty, and the costumes were beautiful and rich. Then came some people dressed up as the mince pie, the plum pudding—the most special
dessert of that time, the mutton, and the duck. They came up to the stage through the audience so they, the audience, would feel as if they were part of the play, too. Then came some poor people begging for food and warmth. These they made comfortable and happy. They, too, came up through the audience. Alice thought old-fashioned Christmases very
nice and almost merrier than ours, for everyone made everyone else happy, and the poor people had special attention which I am afraid they, don’t get so much of now-a-days. For the finale they went out through the audience to the imaginary chapel singing “O Come, All Ye Faithful,”
in Latin. It was very, very beautiful. Some other people sang from the balconies in the hack of the auditorium. This singing was very nice, too. Alice thought the play beautiful. She was very glad she had gone. That
night when she was going to bed she said to her mother, “ Mother, I think this Is really the most beautiful Christmas that ever was!”
A. B., ’35.
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