Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1875-12-23

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Ieathern shoes, If he finds them very
neat and shining; not the great hand
some presents which the Christ-kind
brings at Christmas, but q pretty little
Y 4something to keep them in mind that
Christmas is .c0ming-a Ralf-dozen
marbles, a little ,pin-cushion, or little
box of bon-bons. The children take
great bride in having their shoesin the
! best possible condition atthis time; and
Instead Of Trusting Hans TO black and
! polish them as usual, there is great
borrowing of backing brushes from The
kitchen, and 20 much polishing and
brushing takes place in the nursery
that the nurse declares they make the
floors and their aprons biacser than
their shoes. - slf j. l 4s.
-ilTtsfs time the little leathern shoes
. had been polished till the little owners
could almost see themselves in them
and nurse bad washed hands and faces,
and put clean aprons on all tina. sui
wore this nrsery-badge; and now they
were very busy arranging the forage
for The beautiful white horse. Kind
sister Bertha was helping them, and
trying to laugh with them at their
merry chatter. ,sss .1rres.F }rtas
II ..See, sister Bertha, ;" said little Fritz.
II am going to pnt rye for the, Saints
horse in my candy-shoe, and Max is
| going to put water in his /; so there will
be both food and wafer there for the
| good horsy, and he will be we'll refresh
ed before he goes on to the next house"
! II will put sugar for him in mine,"I
said little katchen.
/ mo, indeed, Katchen, l would not
/ do h. N.nhAinol IL
ways get sugar enough, for his master
carries a great bag full of sugar things
! on his back. He would much rather
have some rye. and some good fresh
water" said wise little Wilhelm. us
not that true, Herr Dreifuss? ." he add
ded, appealing to the grave young
teacher, who sat quietly by, and who
now nodded-assent,
lyon did not see St. Nicholas to-
day." said Bertha upon this, turning to !
him. Ibid you know he came this
afternoon, between dinner and coffee,
while you were taking your solitary
walk? He was in a great hurry, but |
Christ-kind, left bag of apples and
nuts for them, aud promised to come
again tonight to bring us all another
fOretaste of Christmas" ..
~ am sorry did not see him." said
the young teacher, trying TO be inter-
ested in the pleasures of his little
pupils. -l
"However, he inquired especially |
about you," seid Bertha, 'and we gave
him such a good account that he left /
word. You must be sure to put your
very largest pair of shoes before the
II IF 70 ,1rrh for han q,
fill for you" 81 .,-s
"Oh, Herr Dreifuss," said little
Katchen, eagerly, 'syou must make
shoe for The good Saint. You con cut
everything so nicely with your knife. /
See, here is great big lump of sugar.
Cut shoe all out of sugar, and will
give you some rye to put in it. Then,
when the horse has eaten the rye, he
can eat the shoe too, e..H.
Her Dreifuss thanked the helpful
little maiden, and, to the great pleasure
OF the children, began TO carve u shoe
out of the big lump of sugar, while
Bertha silently looked on.
Usually Herr DreifusS was very skill
full in such matters, ami had made
many piece Of doll furniture for the
little folks; hut to-day his hands trem-
bled, the knife slipped, ald, in short,
everything seemed to conspire to make
him look clumsy and stupid in the eyes
of Fraulein Bertha. So he hurried
through with his task at last without
caring much how it succeeded.
SIT looks more like heart than a
shoe" cried Fritz. "Doesn't it, sister
Bertha 90
And so it did-like a great, irregu-
larly-shaped heart ;-and the place where
the foot should go in looked as if it
were the rent where this big heart was
beginning to break asunder.
The candidate saw thar Fritz was
right, and wondered at his own awk-
wardness,
''A'es, it is very poor SHOE" he
said; "we will not set it out for st. :
Nicholas we will have so many pret-
tier ones"
81 think it does very nicely" said
Bertha, land l am sure St. Nicholas :;
will think so too. You must be sure
to put it on your table, and your largest
pair of shoes before your door, just
as the childreD;do."
"Well, 7 will certainly obey you,"
said Herr Dreifuss, trying to smile
cheerfully in response to her kindness.
He went to his room, as usual, with
a heavy heart.
ayes, it is just like her angelic sweet /
ness" he thought. ''She seen my
hopeless love, and pities it; and now
she has made some little token to give
me, to show me that she is sorry for
me, and will be my friend. All j! L
ought to be happy that she is willing
to be even this much to me, since
know that she never, never can be any
thing more"
And this very stupid young man
stupid only on this subject-after set
ting his big slipL ,rs outside his door,
went to bed ana dreamed all night
long, as usual, of golden hair and kind
blue eyes. In the morning he woke up
with slight feeling of pleasant expec-
tation. ard the first thing he did was
to open his door to get his slippers.
Rut-no slippers were to be seen!
at was ali a jest, in order to hide my
slippers" he thought, "but it is not a
kind or pleasant jest. However, she
could not have meant it tunkindly-that
would be too unlike her; so l must ;
take it as she meant it,"
And with his yesterdays heavy heart
he went down to the breakfast-room.
All the children were already there
around the table, chattering like SO
many blackbirds, showing the mother
and the father the Christkindchens, anu
big cake images of himself, which ST.
Nicholas had laid on their tables and
dropped into the shining shoes before
their doors.
And his horse ate all the rye L put
in the candy Shoe" said delighted lit
tie Fritz. /
"And drank all my water!' cried
Meas.
"And ate my sugar, too" said
Katchen, ''and left big cake-rooster,
almost as big as the one in the poultry !
yard, on my table,"
"And what did he bring YOU, dear