Raymond Macdonald Alden

The acorn and the pumpkin / La Fontaine Babe Ruth, the home-run king of baseball The bells / Edgar Allan Poe Casey at the bat / Ernest Lawrence Thayer Casey's comeback / James Wilson The cataract of Lodore / Robert Southey The cloud / Percy Bysshe Shelley Columbine and her playfellows of the Italian pantomime David Copperfield and little Em'ly [arranged] / Charles Dickens David, the shepherd boy [arranged from the Bible] East o' the sun and west o' the moon [a Norse folk tale] Gigi and the magic ring / Ann Macdonell The golden bird [a German fairy tale] The golden touch / Nathaniel Hawthorne The knights of the silver shield / Raymond MacDonald Alden The little-man-as-big-as-your-thumb-with-mustaches-seven-miles-long [a Russian legend] The maiden, the knight, and the waterfall [a Roumanian fairy tale] Miska and the man-with-the-iron-head [a Hungarian fairy tale] The peddler's song / William Shakespeare Phaeton [a Greek myth] The prince who rode through a mousehole [a Czech folk song] The raggle, taggle gypsies [Old folk song] The renowned and world-famous adventures of Punch and Judy - Rhodopis and her gilded sandals [a folk tale of ancient Egypt]. The six swans [a German fairy tale] The sky at night [from the Bible] The snow-queen / Hans Christian Andersen Song on May morning / John Milton The trial by fire [a Maori folk tale from New Zealand] Vladimir's adventures in search of fortune [a Yugoslavian tale from Serbia] White horses / Hamish Hendry The winter's tale / Charles and Mary Lamb The youth who wanted some fun [a Welsh fairy tale].

A charming Christmas story best read by all family members taking turns reading a few paragraphs on Christmas Eve. A tale of the gift of giving.

When the children of the Great Walled Country follow a stranger's advice and seek their own Christmas presents instead of giving gifts to each other, they find no presents.