The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-12-16
WELLINGTON, O.. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1e, $780,

peTcHdHct, tne uTSt-DOrn steps 1OrW8rU
to relieve her. OF comes the first
wrapper. Everybody exclaims:
There's anotherr' There is great fun
guessing the contents. The original
bundle suggested a dress, a shawl, or
anything that has bulk. Now it is
smaller, and the views of the excited
bystanders are correspondingly modi-
fed. And SO it runs down, and down,
while all the while there is no end of
conjecturing and guessing, and, while
exclamation follows upon exclamation,
at last the huge bulk, relieved, perhaps,
of dozen wrappings, is reduced to a
tiny box, and. when that is opened,
there sparkle the bright Jewels.
There are. OF course, a certain number
OF stereotyped gifts, and sometimes the
excitement and the surprise is largely
OF the "make-believe" sort, but there
are also genuine surprises, and where
they are, as here, attended by SO much
clatter and fun, these are rather more
numerous than they would be under
more ordinary circumstances.
The greatest sport is when there is a
young lady in the house with an ac-
knowledged lover. Poor young thing,
how she is made to blush! Every clatter
is mischievously attributed to her
adorer-his "boom," as it were-and
her vehement EXPLANATIONS are as sauce
to the pudding. That's for Sophie"
cry all the mischievous ones. "It isn't,
either"-with a face suffused with
bushes, and the tears almost starting
to her eyes" and you know well
enough it isn't"
But at last there comes a racket rath-
er more immense than any of its pred
ecessors, and this time the prophets
hat the truth-it is for Sophie, sure
enough. And what present! 1t re-
quires the united strength of two men
to roll it into the house. Apparently
it is bundle of hay, and the good
dozen bed-sheets to cover the carpet.
Poor Sophie! now her agony begins.
The noise has suddenly ceased. If
those provoking, people would only
laugh and shout, as they have all the
evening. she might somehow manage
to hide her own Illustration; but instead.
with almost fiendish purpose, everybody
becomes as grave as achurch-yard, and
the remarks take on tone of pretended
seriousness lar harder to bear than the
most dashing raillery.
While poor Sophie stands aghast be-
fore the Leviathan, a younger sister.
not yet blessed with a beau, hints ma
liciously that it can be nothing less than
a acomplete wedding trousseau, and adds,
fiendishly: "Isn't George goodP"
The biggest brother says "Pshaw,'
as he begins to unwind the cord; "it's
nothing; it's all mistake; I ordered q
load of hay this afternoon, and the
driver, installing the house for a barn
in the dark, dropped it in the wrong
place"
The hay removed, there is revealed a
bundle half the size Of the original.
Now the surmises change. George
didn't send the entire trousseau. after
all; too bad; but know it's the we'd
ding dress; there can't be any mistake
about that" This again from the same
mischievous sister.
As each successive wrapper is re-
moved some new cut is administered by
the wicked ones" Sophie actually
bursts into tears now, as the mother
tenderly takes her to her breast, saying,
almost meaningly, "Now, children,
you mustn't. Let Sophie alone" and
the poor girl keeps her face hidden
until suddenly there is a general excla-
nation: .'Oh. isn't it beautiful Look,
Sophie, look" and the naughty sister,
jumping forward and kissing away
Sophie's tears, presents to her vision q
sparkling jewel, almost as bright as her
own bright eyes. "It is beautiful, isn't
itP' Sophie makes out to say, and
then as she takes it her mother puts her
arms about her, leads her aside. and she
is plagued no more.
Such is Christmas in the land of the
Teuton. Beside it the American affair
is tame indeed. But in its own way,
beyond doubt, it suits the American
best. A German Polter-abend is almost
as noisy as an American Fourth of July.
Let the reader remember that the
crockery-breaking is going on in front
of every house; that when the crockery
gives out other noise-making devices
are resorted to, and he can form some
sort of q notion of the excitement that
attends Christmas eve in the fatherland.
Chicago Times.