, 1872-12-29

ha Gatfs e.t ,td s pao an tbers INTO %aa
the real % wedding-suppor And. after they
had eaten the supper, Bengels fiddle sounded in
the parlor and they danced, and they waltzed,
| md they pollzed. to their hearts content. And
| SO they spent the Christmas of 1861.
Too bad WAS not it? Toms leave WAS only
twenty days. It took him five to come it took
FIVE to 60: After the wedding there IVES but
scvcn little days. And then he kissed
nins n from % his 00oys eyss sa and bers sasS % snd
she begged him to be sure he should be all
| right; and he begged her to be certain nothing
| would happen to him. And for near two years
| they did not see each others faces again.
CHAPTER III.
| ANOTHER CHRISTMAS.
| Christmas Eve again!
| Moses Marvel has driven out his
own bays, IN his own double cutter,
is ao ~ Tt Fosy e
wrapped up in nannels and in furs, who is the
| little Tom Cults who has never seen his own
father. Where is Laura?
"Here she comesl here she comes!" Sure
enough; here is the stage at last. Job Stiles
never swept around With more knowing
sweep than this afternoon. And the cur
ttains were up already; and there is
s RaG Is
| first, OF course. And then she gives him her
hand so gently, and the others all help. And
| here is the hero at A1arverB side and he is
bending over his baby, whom he dares not try to
| Marvel are crying but everybody is as happy as
| o king, and everybody is talking at one time,
and ali the combination has turned out well.
Tom Cults hadhad d hole made through his left
thigh that they despalred OF his life. And, he
! lay on the ground, g bit OF ahen had struck his
left forearm, and knocked that to pieces Tom
Cults had been sent back to hospital at Wash
ington, and reported by telegraph as mortnly
| pr,+ Torv 1r1++o
the Lincoln Hospital himself, Laura Cults got
there too, and then Tom did not moan to die If
he could help it, and Laura did no: mean to have
him. And the honest fellow held to his purpose
believe; and love tells and will tells. How much
love has to do with will II believe you are
witch, Mrs. Cults" the doctor used to say to her
'Nothing but good happens to this good
| man OF yourB.n Bits OF bone camo out Just es
they were wanted to. Inflammation kept away
just as it was told to do. And the two wounds
ran race with each other in healing after their
fashion. ut will be o beautiful stump after
all" said the doctor, where poor Laura saw little
beauty. But everything was beautiful to her
when st last he told her that she might wrap up
her husband as well as she knew how, and take
him home and nurse him there. So she had tel
tho way in which it happened that her father and
her sister had brought out the baby to meet them
both at Fordyce's. Matio's surprise had worked
perfectly.
ter she had her baby in her own arms, andy on
the back seat OF the sleigh; after Tom was
well wrapped up by her side with his well arm
just supporting Tho Little fellows head; after
Aattie was all tucked in by her father, and Alr.
Marvel himself had looked round to say. All
dy!" then was it that Jem Marvel first stopped
out from the stage, and said, "Hayn't you
one word fol. me, Mattie?" Thea how they
| screamed again for everybody thought Jem
was in the West Indies. He Was cruising there,
on board the IS Gray-Wing," looking after block
aders who took the Southern route. Nobody
dreamed OF Jems being at Christmas. And
New Haven train Us they came Oh! Jem haC
been sent to New York with prize. He haG
got leave, and was on tho way to see the rest o1
them. He had bidden Laura not to say one word
and so he had watched one greeting from tht
stage before he broke in to take his part for
, another.
O! what an uproarious Christmas that wal
, when they all came home! Notion Cuttt
would not let one Of them be said! He WAS thu
, cheeriest, Of them all. BE monopolzed thu
baby, and showed immense power in the way O
baby-talk and OF tending. Laura hat
) only to sit on the side OF the roon
and be perfectly happy. It Was very soor
, Spaulding came in and his wife. OF course, th'
Cuttses had been there already. Then every
! body came. That is the simplest way Of putting
. it. They al would have beon wanted to como
> | because in that community there WAS not on
r person who did not love Laura, and Tom, AMI
| Jem. But whether they would have come o.
1 the very first night, am not sure. But this va
. Christmas Eve, and the girls we're finishing Of
= the Westinghouse just as the stage and til
sleigh came in. And, in minute, the nows Wa
: everywhere. And, OF course, everybody felt b
; the army. Nor WAS there one homestead il
r Trips Cove which was not more or less closet
y represented in the fleet or army. So there wae
: really, as the evening parted, toTn-meet
o ing in Moses MarvelB sitting~room and parlor
i aud whether Moses Marvel were most pleased
}. or Mrs. Marvel, or Laura,-wLo sat and beamed
l. or old General Simeon Cults, am sure d
: not know.
Q That WAS indeed merry Christmas!
d But after that must own it WAS hard sle6
|. ding for Tom Cults and for pretty Laura Aher
with one blue sleeve pinned neatly together, whe
o at the best lmps as he walks, quickens a
9 your compassion and gratitude, yes. Bu
= when you are selected q director OF your lur
: York to buy goods. or when you are driving
st line Of railway through the wilderness. 81
Q afraid you do not choose that hero to do you
ysa TSk we're for not Standing 9 BY riSsn iSGa ro
Cults WAS looking right and left #
II something to do, SO that he might keep the wo
q from the door. It was sadly like the life th.
1t his great-grandfather. Samuel Cults, led at Il
p old farm in old Newbury after the old war. To-
ar lost his place when he went to the front, and
= could not find it again.
r Laura, sweet girl, never COMMUNICATING, NJ
III ! MOSES MafFel,-Qe never cOulptalueu, nor NOu
he complain Il Tom and his wife and Chi
10 dren has lived With him till doomsday. 'Goe
10 luck for U.S." said Moses Marcel and thot
g. wore many words for him to say in one sentenc
d But Tom WAS proud, and it ground him to Il
ID dust to bc eating Moses Marye1's bread when
:, had not earned it, and to have nothing but h
1e Majors pension to buy Laura and the babi
I'd their clothes with, and to keep the pot aboiln
Of OF course Jem joined the fe
u again till the war was over. Then he came, al
d, came with prize-money.. He and Tom had mar
ID talks OF going into business together vii
al Toms brains and Jem's money. But nothir
an came Of this. The land was no place for Je1
n He was a regular Norseman, IS are almost {
lis Of the Trips Cove boys, who have come + fro
n sniff the tempest afar of; and when th
of hear OF Puget Sound, or Of Alaska, or o.: Wilke
ar Antarctic Continent, they fancy that they hear
is voice from some 1ong-lost home. from Whit
nd they have strayed away. And so Laura kne
uo and Tom knew, that any plans which rested I
'at Jem's staying ashore were plans which had o.
Q s; false element in them. Tho raven would
nd calling him, and it might be best, once for a