"The fields of kindness bear golden grain,"
Is a proverb true and tried;
Then scatter thine alms, with lavish hand,
To the waiting poor outside;
And remember the birds, and the song they sang,
When the year rolls round again:
"The Christ-child came on earth to bless
The birds as well as men."

--_Mrs. A.M. Tomlinson._




CHAPTER V.

[Illustration]

YULE-TIDE IN RUSSIA

"Light--in the heavens high,
And snow flashing bright;--
Sledge in the distance
In its lonely flight."

--_Shenshin._


In this enormous kingdom which covers one-sixth of the land surface of