Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1869-12-23
SANTA CLAUS COUSIN.
A STORY FOR CHILDREN.

Once upon time there was large,
50 uare, oldlashioned house that stood at
the edge Of the pleasant town of Bingen,
in the State Orwell, no matter what. But,
it was beautiful State, apd Bingen was
beautiful town Moreover, so exceeding
ly fine and pleasant is everything con
nected with this story, the house |
have mentioned was one of the most
delightful houses that could possibly be
lived in, with square rooms all over it, and
not single little crampy siderOom from
top to bottom. 1t had big chimDeys, and
replaces, and great entries from side to
side of the house, and portico at one end,
and piazza at the other. To cap the
climax, there was the prettiest pair of
twins in that house that ever lived in any
house, don't care where it may be.
The names Of these twins were Lutte
and Sadie Ellis. There were o4ler chill
dren in the family, six older ones, almost
grown up, and baby younger; but we
don't care much about them now. Our
business is with the twins
Lutte and Sadie were eight years old,
and month and day besides, at the
time shall tell of; and the next day was
going to be Christmas.
1t was beautiful afternoon, lift was cold,
and our little girls had been out sliding
They had such a delightful time, sitting
on the heels of their boots, and sliding
down over the hard crust of the snow on
a little hill at the back of the house,
and tumbling heels over head at the bot
tom, that that they forgot all about supper
The sun was setting, and the red light it
threw made the snow crust look pink, and
set the windows of all the houses glittering
like fire, and made the vane at the top of the
church-spire near by so bright that it was
like another sun up there in the shape of
half-folded fan, dazzling your eyes to
look at. Nor did the two children escape
that rosy light. Their red cheeks were
redder, the lovely brown hair that escaped
from their crimson hoods shone in every
wave and turn; and as to the crimson
hoods themselves, they were as bright as
Goals of fire, if the children had but
known it.
So, with all this fun and shine, they
would have lost their supper if their I'M
Gle Tom had not come out to the back
door, and, put'ing his hands up about his
mouth to round the sound out loud, shout
ed to them at the very top of his voice to
come in.
They went Immediately; not because
they wanted to, but because Uncle Tom
had just come from far away to make
/ them visit, and it wouldn't do to be i'm.
| polite to him
SO in they went rosy and glowing, and
breathless but with cold toes and fin
gers only they didn't mind that. The
whole family gathered around the supper
table, and the sunset looked in and turned
everything red. Even the delicious white
bread looked as if it had been stepped in
strawberry juice; and as to the children s
cheeks, cherries were nothing to them.
They didn't say much during the sup
per- They let the older folks talk, and
they ate, finding themselves hungry, now
they came to think of it. Besides, they
liked to hear Uncle Tom tell stories; for
he was sailor, and had been everywhere
on earth. don't know but he had been
to the moon. His face looked like the
man in the moon, round, bright and laugh
ing. shouldn't be surprised if he toer4
the man in the moon, only he didn't come
down a bit too soon. He came at the right
time to 7.
say that the twins didn't talk much
during supper. In fact, they said only
one word at the very end of supper. Thtr
they both started, looked up from thtil
plates, cried out, 80 I" and, jumping Out
of their chairs, ran to the window
And there, just outside, and facing them
stood man with handorgan, and {
little girl with q tambourine. They mad,
the most splendid music, those two; thou.
the hand-organ seemed to have bad cold
and missed note here and there, anC
once in a while made an awful .queAl b.
mistake. But for all that the music Wa
glorious, and the twins almost looked thei
eyes out of their heads, and listened thei