Peace to all! the church bells say,
For Christ was born on Christmas day.
Peace to all.

Here, some will those again embrace
They hold on earth most dear,
There, some will mourn an absent face
They lost within the year.
Yet peace to all who smile or weep
Is rung from earth to sky;
But most to those to-day who keep
The feast with Christ on high.
Peace to all! the church bells say,
For Christ was born on Christmas day.
Peace to all.

R.A. GATTY, 1873.


During 1871, my sister published the first of her Verses for Children,
"The Little Master to his Big Dog"; she did not put her name to it in
_Aunt Judy's Magazine_, but afterwards included it in one of her Verse
Books. Two Series of these books were published during her life, and a
third Series was in the press when she died, called "Poems of Child
Life and Country Life"; though Julie had some difficulty in making up
her mind to use the term "poem," because she did not think her
irregular verses were worthy to bear the title.

She saw Mr. André's original sketches for five of the last six
volumes, and liked the illustrations to "The Poet and the Brook,"