The Christmas Porringer

Karen is a little girl who lives with her grandmother in the Flemish city of Bruges, where at Christmas time children set their little shoes on the hearth and these they expect the Christ-child himself to fill with gifts. One Christmas, Karen decides that she wants to give a present to a Christ-child because it's unfair that he doesn't get any. She goes out with her grandmother and buys an earthenware porringer which gets stolen by a notorious Bruges thief Han, only to serve as a fine set up for a Christmas miracle.

Evaleen Stein (1863-1923) was an American poet and writer from the state of Indiana, who is especially well known for her children's writings. She has contributed prose sketches to the local press, and has been a contributor to several magazines and periodicals. Poems from her pen have appeared in various collections, and her work attracted attention by its finish and mastery of form, as well as by its spirit and sentiment.