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Paqi Sktbn
^ ^ ^ ^A/^OMKN’S PAGK ^
A Christmas Story
Once upon a time there was a rich
family in our town. The family con
sisted of the father, mother, and two
replacement sons. The 'father and
mother were not young—their two real
sons had gone to fight for our country
when the first call to arms was sounded.
One now slept in Flanders Fields, and
the loving mother did not expect to see
her firstborn again until the sea gives
up its dead.
So when time had healed their grief
^ little, they went from one orphanage
to another until they found two boys
who, at least in their own minds, re
sembled the'r boys at the age of ten and
twelve. They planned to bring these
boys up as their own, even in a better
fashion, for the years give a perspective
for seeing our mistakes and an added
ability to correct them.
These boys were just average boys
they craved not to chop wood or to
carry coal, but they did do it to help
mother, whom they loved beyond any
thing. They helped father, too, and
were proud to be called his sons, albeit
he was not to be compared to mother
who, when all was said and done, was
just perfect. Things ran along much as
they do in the ordinary family wi^h its
ups and downs. But Christmasj was
coming! The boys were crossing off
the days on the kitchen calendar, and
wondering what kind 'of a Christmas it
would be.
They had never had any real, sure-
enough Christmas. So one night, when
they were pretending to study (remem
ber I said that they were average boys),
father came in from the postoffice.
After settling himself comfortably, hav
ing removed his coat and replaced his
shoes with house slippers, he turned
to the reading-table and said, ,“Well,
good people, we have to make some
plans for Christmas.” The boys’ hearts
skipped several beats. Father and moth
er exchanged glances; then mother
smiled, and said, “Would you all like a
tree?” Would they? Well, I should say
so!
They talked about trimming the tree,
father promising to go out in the woods
with the boys on Saturday afternoon to
cut a good cedar. When the question
of presents came up, father said, “I
reckon you boys have some money
saved.” At this, William Johns (called
‘W. J.’ for short) and Justin Bradley,
(who even in the home had been termed
‘J. B.’) looked kind of sad, for neithei
had been able to forego the movies.
W. J. extracted seventy-three' 'cents
from h-‘s fat, little china pig, while J. B.
shook out $1.15 from his iron bank.
Mother turned back a corner of the rug,
and held up what looked like quite
bank roll to the small boys, but it con
tained only $3.38. Father produced a
two dollar bill which had been given to
him by a man from whom he had never
expected to get it. These savings rep
resented the available cash for Chrst-
mas.
Now you will think this is strange, for
I had said in the beginning tnai this
was a rich family. Well, they were rich
in several respects. Kind hearts, we
know, are more than coronets, and coro
nets,' we know, are valuable, hard to
obtain, and costly to maintain; while
simple faith is more than Norman blood.
Their faith in the infinite love and care
of the’r Heavenly Father, and their
noble act of taking two boys to live with
them in their old age was the highest
type. Everything of value which this
couple had was theirs forever—they paid
no insurance on their treasures, for they
were stored where moth and rust could
not corrupt nor thieves break through
and steal.
“Now,” said father, “since there are
four of us, let’s have a four-dollar Christ
mas.” To these boys, who never had
had much money, four dollars seemed
a big sum. “We will put down the
amounts we have,” continued father,
“and get to work to earn more so that
when each one of us has four dollars
we can go out and buy our presents.
We have the tree and the trimmings,
so we are in that much to begin with.”
“Yes,” said mother, “And I hsJjve raised
the turkey.” The boys couldn’t see their
way clear to earn the necessary amount
to make four dollars, but father offered
to pay them twenty-five cents an hour
to repair the garden fence, clean out the
chicken house, and to whitewash the
whole thing. J. B. earned seventy-five
cents delivering for the bakery shop,
so they brightened up at father’s offer.
The boys agreed that mother should not
be permitted to do anything more, for
they would take it upon themselves to
earn her share.
By Saturday night the job was fin
ished, and W. J. had earned $3.30, while
J. B’s share was $2.60. “Now,” said
J. B., “we have the home folks fixea,
what do you say if we ask father if he
will let each of us have a boy from the
orphanage spend Christmas with us if
we earn four dollars more? We could
do without some little presents, and get
’em something nice; we could sleep on
that old bed up in the attic and give
’em our room, and part of our money
we could give to mother for their board
and carfare. You know how we would
have liked such a visit; and I know a
boy I’d like to ask.”
“Well, let’s put it up to mother; if
she will have them, father won’t say a
word.” So they hunted mother up, un
folded their plan, and she thought it the
best ever. They talked about it at sup
per that night, and father exclaimed,
“Hey, what’s all this? I want to be in
on all the Christmas doin’s.” The ar
rangements were explained again, and
father insisted on paying the carfare
as his share, so the boys voted him a
good sport, and said he could have the
extra dessert, even though it was not.
his turn. You see mother served the
dessert in five portions, because she
said she never knew when father might
bring someone home to supper!
It would take me too long to tell you
all the things they did to earn, the
money, but talk about beavers—com
pared to those two boys beavers are
just lying around in the sun. Needless
to say they got the money.
Two days before Christmas the whole
family went shopping. Among the many
purchases was a comb for mother’s hair
made out of some gray stuff just the
color of her hair; sort of silver color,
with shiny stones in it. For father they
bought a set of travel books, because
he enjoyed reading them so much.
When he sat down to read travel books
he really thought that he was living in
the place described in the story; if he
was reading about a hot climate, he
would wipe the perspiration off his face,
and if the story was about a cold place
he would get up and put another log
on the fire. They also bought mother