Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-01-04
VOL. XXVII.

\SA<e 4AAA IL
/ my recent recollections; / forgot entirely,
| for the moment, the little incident of
family dicipline, and, springing up, dress
ed myself hastily, not tolose the Christmas
/ fun. NV wife, in her morning gown, was
already watching the children through the
crack of the door; and as l Joined her,
| cast upon me a look of perpleNity, grail
tude and happiness that puzzled me
| strangely. ''Ahr said she, ''you played
me a cruel trick; but am so gladr
"What do you mean?" said l. 'Now
you needn't make believe any longer, you
stern parent" she responded playfully,
''look therer' Whereupon posted my
self behind her, to get good view over
her shoulder through the crack of the
door-in which position nothing was
more naturally accidental than the gentle
sliding of one arm around her waist, and
whisper of merry Christmas" ins her
ear, followed with another slight ceremony
! indicative of affection, but conducted
with the minimum of resonance Gust the
| least little. smack) so as not to inform the
children of our presence. After which
preliminaries, | peeped into the boys
room. There they sat, waist-deep in bill.
! lows of bed-clothes, Harry's brown head
!
and their eager eyes fixed on the stock
ings, out of the depths of which our
naughty son was fishing treasures, with
| his nimble fingers for a hook, his whole
arm for line, and his bending body for
a pole.
'sHello Ern, what's this? 1t feels
round 1t is round !. 1t amt an orange!!!
Here she comes!! Hooray-look here
it's BALL.M That's bully; we wanted a
ball, didn't WEI"
eyes" chimed Ernest. II like a ball
better than anything. Two can play at
ball. 1t takes two" Meanwhile Harry
had picked up the stocking again, and
cried out, "There's something hard in the
! toe It's your turn now, Ern you pullit
OUT
q pause to remark that the genuine
handiwork of. Santa Claus may be recog
niZed in this there is always treasure
in the toe of the stocking, to be discov-
cred, dug after, extricated. unrolled and
fejoiced over, after everything else had
been displayed. This is the last drop,
that makes the child's cup of joy over
| flOw-the sweetest surprise of all.
| The something hard proved to be a
| jack-knife, over which the boys set up a
perfect war-whoop of mutual congratula-
thing was wrong. Harry was not getting
his lesson" at all. A swift glance at the
| fireplace told me that the empty stocking
at the farther side had not been removed.
ran to examine it, and found to my con-
sternation that the label bore the name of
good little Ernest In the confusion of
| the domestic preparation (and discussion)
] of the night before, | had pinned the
wrong names to the stockings, and the
fat was all in the fire." Evidently my
wife thought had relented, or never
! meant to be severe, and that after she
went to bed, | had blessed both the boys
alike. l was just about to try by an expla-
nation to straighten out matters, when
she turned, with her finger ON her lip,
and beckoned me back to our observa-
tory.
The boys were sitting in the midst
of their trophies, quiet from very fullness
of joy. Suddenly Harry broke out /:
"Look here, Ern 1 don't want these
things. Santa Claus has plenty of good
children to give things to; he can't waste
| them on naughty ones. You take them
and you'll let me play with them, won't
you You always do, you know"
"Now, you mustn't feel SO, Harry, :"
said gentle Ernest. "Look here; I'll
tell you secret Santa Claus brings
them but other folks help, or at least,
they tell him what to fetch and some
times, guess, when he says, / won't
give anything to that naughty boy they
tease him till he says, Well, if you get
the things, I'll put them in the stocking.
That must be the way, for l heard father
say the other day, I'll get him jack
knife; the boy is big enough to have a
iack-knife :; and mother said, We'll, and
| FL get ball that's a good thing for
boys, though I never could see much fun
in it myself" And then l went into the
room, and both of them said 'Sh-l'
But mother told somebody else that he
might buy something for Santa Claus to
give to you, and l shan't tell who it was
but he bought pop-gun, and can't think
what has become of it"
"That was you, you splendid, dear,
good BROTHER cried Harry, ''and I'm
never, never going to get angry with you
again as long as live. But Tll tell you
something somebody sent Santa Claus a
| little white slate for you, and what do you
think? !? found it in the top of my stock
ing-I know it was my stocking, you see,
because mother let me print my name on
the paper, and said she would pin it to
the stocking, so that Santa Claus shouldn't
make any mistakes-and wasn't it funny
He did make mistake, after all, and
stuck your slate right in the top of it. So
+ Ijust hid it in my night-gown, to surprise
you, and look a. there That's a bully
slate, Ern it cost fifteen cents''
"Why, that's your fifteen cents, Harry,
that you saved up! Now that's splendid
but, | say, you'll never get sled, if you
spend your money that way You were
going to get a sled, you know"
"Never you mind the sled," replied
Harry, little embarrassed; ''it takes too
awful long to get sleds. like states, on
the whole, ever SO much better and then
you see, Ern, yesterday afternoon-you
know-after that-you know-after l
struck you'll just begged mother to let
me go down to Murray's for minute,
and she didntask me any questions (moth-
er always knows what a fellow means) and
l made her promise she wouldn't tell any
body, not even father-that is, not till
after this morning-and I just legged it as
tight as I could go, and got that slate, and
mother gave it to Santa Claus-and-and
look here, Ern, you do forgive me, don''
you?"
Ernest is no milk-sop, as his reply
showed. "Of course" said he, "a fel
low amt going to hate his own brother
What if fellow did strike fellow, if he
didn't exactly mean to, and is real sorry:
But there's no use talking of those things
Christmas day. Mother says everybody
must be happy Christmas day"
"That's so,' assented Harry, as if 8
great weight were off his heart but,
say, Ern, you've got stocking, too, and
you've forgot ali about it. Now that's
just like you; you cared more for my
stocking than yon did for your own"
J Well, it was such fun said Ernest
land besides, I've got my slate But Fl
, just scud out and get my stocking now
Say, is the floor cold?''
awful replied Harry, with shive
of remembrance, you'd better put OF
, your shoes"
This delay was lucky for me. At tn
! first allusion to that other stocking,
turned and saw that all the gifts intende
for it were lying on the table still, wher
they had been left the night before
=. | L for 10