Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-12-24

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have asked to speak there ON New Years day, |
will like it all the better if baptized by these
little Ones who are of the kingdom OF heaven
Surely little children may run before the great
Liberator."
Gust what was thinking of" said Uncle
Nathan; "as looked at the sparks of fire, l
was saying to myself, 4 have not quite done
my duty to the boys and girls in Soitgoes.'
You and l." said he, rather sadly, putting the
locket in his purse and pressing the gold ring
gently down on it, ''you and have no child
rem. But l sometimes feel like adopting all the
boys and girls in the parish; and when l saw
that great troop of them come out OF the school
house last week, felt a little reproach, that
while looking after their fathers and mothers,
! had not dcne more for the children"
81 am sure you gave the town that great
new school house, said Kindly
"Yes that's nothing. furnished the money
and the general idea Eliot Cabot drew the
plan,-capital plan it is too; and 10 Atkins
took the job. paid the bills But how will
you arrange it for Christmas?"
"Well, said Kindly, who had an organizing
head, "we'll have Children's Party. I'll ask
all under fifteen, and if some older ones come
in, no matter; hope they will Of course the
fathers and mothers are to come and look on,
and have a real good time. We will have them
in the New Hall. wonder why they call it
the Ne0 Hall there never was any old one.
We will have some plain cake and lemonade,
music, dancing, little games, and above all
! Christmas Tree. There shall be gifts on il for
all the children under twelve. The people
who are well to do will give something to buy
the gifts for children OF their own standing,
and you and will make up what is wanting
for the poor ones. Well have little games as
well as a dance. Mrs. Toombs, Will
kins that used to be,-the minister's wife, has
deal of skill in setting little folks to play
she has not had much use for it, poor thing,
since her marriage, six or seven years ago.
What wild romp she us ed to be ! but as good
as Sunday all the time. Sally will manage
the games; I'll see to the dancing"
"The children cant dance" SAID Uncle Ma
than: you know there never was dancing
| school in town.
"Yes they cam said Kindly "The girls
will dance by nature, and the boys will fall in,
rather more clumsily OF course. But it will
do well enough for us. Besides, they have all
had more practice than you think for. You
shall get the pine-tree, or hemock, and buy the
things,-I'll tell you what, tomorrow morn
ing,-and will manage all the rest"
The next morning it was fine, bright wealth.
err; and the garments blossomed white on the
clothes-lines all round the village and with no
small delight the housewives looked on these
perennial hanging-gardens, periodically bloom.
ing, even in New England winter. Uncle
Nathan mentioned his sisters plan to one of
his neighbors, who said, "Never'll go here %
But why not 2" ooh, there's Deacon Will
berate and Squire Allen are at loggerheads
about the allusion to slavery which Rev. Mr..
Freeman made in his prayer six months ago.
They had quarrel then, you know, and have
not spoken since. If the Deacon likes it, the
Squire won't, and vice oerSa Then, Colonel
Stearns has had a quarrel and lawsuit with
| Wilkinson Of
meadow. They won't go; each is afraid of
meeting the other. Halt the parish has some
| miH against the other half. | believe there
suever was such place for little quarrels since
the Dutch took Holland. There's a tempest
in every old woman's teapot Widow Seedy-
weedy won't let her daughters come, because,
as she says, you are a temperance man, and
said, at the last meeting, that rum made many
a widow in Soitgoes, and sent three quarters
the paupers to the almshouse. She declared,
the next day, that you were personal, and in
jured her feelings and twas all because you
was rich and she was poor lone widow, with
nothing but her God to trust in ,"
"Oh dear me- )" said Uncle Nathan; sit is
queer world,-a queer world but after all it's
the best we've got. Let US try to make it bet
ter STILL"
Auut Kindly could not sleep much all night
for thinking over the details of the plan. Be-
III.
Monday afternoon she went round to talk with
the neighbors and get all things ready. Most
of them liked it; but some thought it was
queer" and wondered "what our pious IA
theirs would think of keeping Christmas in New
England" A few had religious scruples,"
and would do nothing about it. The head of
the Know nothing lodge said it was "a Furrin
custom, and l want none O. them things but
Ameriky must be ruled by 'Mericans and
we'll have no Dissertations of the Union and
no Popish ceremonies like Christmas Tree
lfyou begin SO, you'll have the Pope here next
and the fulfilment ofthe seventeenth chapter of
Revelations"
Hon. ceduthan Stovepipe also opposed it.
He was rich halter from Boston, and efgreat
Democrat - who, as he said, had lately "pur-
chased grounds in Soitgoes, intending to es.
tablish family" He would not like to have
Cinderella Jane and Edith Zuleima mix them
seves.up with widow Wheeler's children
whose father was killed on the railroad five or
six years before,--for their mother takes in
washing. No, Sir, said he, sit will not do
You have no daughters to marry, no sons to
provide for. 1t will do well enough for you to
talk about equality about meeting the whole
neighborhood' and that sort of thing but
intend to establish family and set my face
against all promscuous assembages of differ
ent classes in society. 1t is bad enough on
Sundays, when each man can sit buttoned up
i'll his own pew; but a festival for all sorts and
conditions of children,-it is contrary to the
genius of our republican institutions" His
wife thought quite differently; but the poor
thing did not dare say her soul was her own in
his presence. Aunt Kindly went off with ratll-
er heavy heart remembering that Jeduthan
was the son of man sent to the State Prison
for horse stealing, and born in the almshouse
at Bankton -Four Corners, and had been bound
out as apprentice by the selectmen of the town.
Conclusion Monday.l