The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-12-26

helper; and they are entirely dependent on char
TYP
"Can't they do anything Can't they knit7o
said Eleanor
You are young and strong, Eleanor, and have
quick eyes and nimble fingers how long would it
take you to knit pair of stockings"
"I7" said Eleanor. "What an idea | never
tried, but think | could get a pair done in
week perhapsn
"And if somebody gave you twenty-five cents
for them, and out of this you had to get food and
pay room rent, and buy coal for your fire, and oil
for your lamp
Stop, aunt, for PHYS sakeW
Well, ! will stop, but they can't they must
pay so much every month for that miserable shell
they live in, or be turned into the street The
meal and flour that some kind person sends goes
off for them Just as it does for others, and they
must get more or starve, and coal is now scarce
and high pricedn
ooh, aunt, Pm quite convinced, Pm sure !;
don't run me down and annihilate me with all these
terrible realities. What shall do to play good
fairy to these poor old women 2"
"lf you will give me full power, Eleanor, viii
put up basket to be sent to them, that will give
them something to remember all winter
ooh, certainly | will. Let me see if can't
think Of something myself"
"Well Eleanor, suppose then some fifty or
sixty years hence, if you were old, and your ia
Their and mother and aunts, and uncles, now 80
thick around you, laid cold and silent in so many
graves--you have somehow got away of 10
strange city, where you were never known-you
live in miserable garnet, where snow blows at
night through the cracks and the fire is very apt to
90 out in the old cracked stove; you sit crouching
over the dying embtrs the evening before Christ
mas-nobody to speak to you, nobody to care for
you except another poor old soul who lies moan
ing in the bed-now, what would you like to have
sent you %
"Oh, aunt, what a dismal picturep
"And yet, Ella, all poor, forsaken old women
are made of young girls, who expected 1t in their
youth as little as you do, perhaps"
"Say no more, aunt. III buy-let me sea
comfortable warm shawl for each Of these Door
women and ri send them-let me see-oh. some
tea--nothing goes down with old women like tea; ;
ac3 {'ll make John wheel some coal over TO thems
and aunt, it would not be very bad thought to
send them new stove remember, the other day,
when mamma was pricing stoves, | saw some such
nice ones for two or three dollars"
"For a new hand, Ella, you work up the idea
very well ;" said her aunt.
+" But how much ought | TO give, for any one
case, 10 these women, say %
I" How much did you give last year for any
single Christmas present %
"Why, six or seven dollars, for some those
elegant souvenirs were seven dollars that ring
gave Mrs. B was tenn
"And do you suppose Mrs B was any
alNo, really, don't think she cared much
about 1t but had to give her something, because
she had sent me something the year before, and
did not want to send paltry present to any one
in her circumstances"
"Then, Ella, give ten to any poor, distressed,
suffering creature who really needs it, and see in
how many forms of good such a sum will appear.
That one hard, cold glittering diamond ring, that
now cheers nobody, and means nothing that you
give because you must, and she takes because she
must might, if broken up into smaller sums, send
real warm and heartfelt gladness through many
a cold and cherries dwelling through many an
aching heart"
"You are getting to be an orator, aunt but
don't you approve OF Christmas presents, among
friends and equals ~
eyes, indeed said her aunt, fondy stroking
her head 81 have had some Christmas presents
that did me world of good-a little book mark,
for instance, that certain niece of mine worked
for me, with wonderful secrecy, three years ago,
| when she was not young lady with purse full
of money-that book mark was true Christmas
present; and my young couple across the way are
plotting a profound surprise to each other on
Christmas morning John has contrived, by an
hour of extra work every night, to lay by enough
to get Mary a new calico dress; and she, poor
soul, has bargained away the only thing in the
jewery line she ever possessed, to be laid out on
a new hat for himn
know, too, washerwoman who has poor,
lame boy-a patient, gentle little fellow-who has
lain quietly for weeks and months in his little
crib, and his mother is going to give him splen-
did Christmas present"
"What is it, prayW
"a whole orange Don't laugh. She will pay
ten whole cents for it for it shall be none Of your
common oranges, but picked one of the very
best going She has put by the money, cent at a
time. for a whole month and nobody knows which
will be happiest in it, Willie or his mother. These
are such Christmas presents as like to think Of
gifts coming from love, and tending to produce
love; these are the appropriate gifts OF the day.
"But don't you think that it's right for those
who hare money, to give expensive presents, sup
posing always, as you say, they are gwen from
real affection?p
"Sometimes, undoubtedly. The Saviour did not
condemn her who broke an alabaster-box of ONT
ment--rery preeious--smply as proof OF love
even although the suggestion was made, this
might have been sold for three hundred pence
and given to the poor have thought he would
regard with sympathy the fond efforts which
human love sometimes makes to express itself by
gifts, the rarest and most costly. How reJoiced
with all my heart, when Charles Elton gave his
poor mother that splendid Chinese shawl and gold
watch-because | knew they came from the very
fulness of his heart to mother that he could not
do too much fora mother that has done and suf-
fered everything for him. In some such cases,
when resources are ample, q costly gift seems to
have graceful appropriateness but cannot ap-
prove of il, If il exhausts all the means OF doing
for the poor it is better then, to give simple Of
feripg. and to do something for those who really
| need itD
Eleanor looked thoughtful; her aunt laid down
her knitting and said in tone of gentle serious
| ness
aWhose birth does Christmas commemorate,
Ella7n
sour Saviour's, certainly, aunt"
| @Yesn said her aunt. " And when ana now
| was he born in stable laid in manger thus
born. that in all ages he might be known as the
brother and friend of the poor And surely IL
seems but appropriate to commemorate Ills birth'
day by an especial remembrance OF the lowly,
| the DOOR the outcast and distressed and IL Christ
should come back 10 our city on Christmas day,
| where should we think il most appropriate 70 MS
character to find him Would he be carrying
splendid sif,s to splendid dwellings, or would ne
be gliding about In the cherries haunts OF the
desolate, the poor, the forsaken and the sorrow
| ful2p
And here the conversation ended.
| a
"What sort Of Christmas presents is Els
buying ~ said cousin Tom, as the waiter handed
in a portentous-ooking package which had been
just rung in at the door.
"Lets open it,n said saucy Will. "Upon my
word, two great gray blanket shawls Inese
| "A nd whata this
A great bolt of cotton flannel and gray yarr
stockingsp
The door bell rang again, and the waiter
| brought In another bulky parcel and deposited y