The Red Cloud chief., 1880-01-29
MY CHRISTMAS GIFT.

MY CHRISTMAS GIFT.
Being a bachelor, i'm independent cir
cumstances, and able to return such Of
Whites, in kind, l have usually been so
fortunate as TO receive a large number of
Christmas presents, the to
which has cast me 20 much mental and
pecuniary wear and tear at different
times, that 1 freely confess that | would,
al any period, have been willing TO come
to Pin understanding with my friends.
and agreed to stop both giving and tax.
ing, If such a proposition could have
been ventured by a civilized man in the
nineteenth century. And upon my word
l think | should have had the best of it;
for the numbers of useless and trouble
some articles which have accumulated
IN my chambers at each successive re-
turn of the Christmas season have, /
fear, put many a nail into the coffin of
my patient servant, and added several
wrinkles to the brow of a certain gentle
man who rather prides himself upop
his youthful appearance in spite of his
thirty-two years.
With this preamble / come to the
point. was seated in my comfortable
sittlng-room one Christmas Eve, mostly
smothered beneath the rolls of tissue pa
per that l had been resignedly removing
from the various little mementoes, Ia
beled with the sender's name and in
scribed with appropriate sentiments,
when another parcel was brought in. 1t
had a thin paper over it, and felt cold
and hard. "Good heavens!" / men,
tally CALCULATED, "nst another paper
weight" for / was already the happy
possessor of sixteen; but my apprehen-
sion had proved correct, and I beheld
on opening the parcel e duplicate of
seven that were already adjoining my
apartments, being one of those heavy
glass ones with a picture slipped in the
bottom. 1 read the card enclosed,
n your loving little niece" and
wss laying it down on the table near by,
without having had the spirit TO exam
inc it carefully, when l became cen
scious that through the crystal glass i'm
my hand the bonniest little face
L had ever beheld was looking
straight into my eyes. 1 hastily slipped
the photograph out and looked on the
back. The picture had been done IN
rsSsf ~ a a itttlC TuDUtu at tile
corners, and had the appearance of be-
ing old. Who, in tho name of all that
was delicious, could this little darling
beP Possibly a fancy sketch-but not
probably. She looked too real to me
for that, and as / stood entranced at the
sweetness of the infantine checks and
lips, the rumpled blonde hair, the tiny
ears and big ear-drops, the bewilderine
great eyes and the piquant little nose,
1 forgot that l had half a score of press
ing matters to attend to that night, and
rushed off to the home of the little |
niece who had given the paper-weight to
me, TO Inquire about the original of the |
picture it contained. But a keen disap- |
pointment awaited me, for the child
could give me no satisfaction whatever. |
The photograph had been given her a
year ago by a guest who was STAYING in
the house, and who was now travelling
somewhere beyond their knowledge,
and so She could not be communicated
win. Little Bessie informed me, how.
ever, that she had meant to have her
own photograph done for the paper
weight, but she had been too i'll to 90
in the cold, and so thought she'd
just put this in, though it had been
in her playhouse for a year, and was
not very fresh, and she promised me,
by-and-by, to have hers done for me,
and l could then take that out. / am
proud to say, l managed to answer the
child civilly, but atthe same time | reg
istered a vow that if necessary l would
present Bessie with an original Vandyke,
If it cost one-half l wa worth, sooner
than part with mylittle treasure. Well,
l got a good many pretty things that
Christmas, but not the very handsomest
among them gave mi half the pleasure
l got from this little picture. l was
positively in love with it, and 1 thanked
lucky stars that l had never married
rs long as the world contained such a
cherub as this. You win say all this is
very silly of me, and If it's any comfort !
to you to know it, l assure you that l
entirely agree with you.
A year rolled by; the anniversary of
my making the acquaintance of my pic
ture came around, and in the meantime
| had been altogether loyal and was
more enamored of my little charmer
than I had been at the first; but she
had come to be a little less real to me,
and l had about made up my mind that
should have to be content with the 9
pr~esentment, and to despair |
IF finding the original. In calm mo- !
ments it seemed prodigiously unlikely {
hat I would cver meet her. / had q !
Lucy Moore, who lived in a l
place near New York, and S
who was good enough to take a good f
leal of notice of me, and to listen to my
On many subjects, and I had r
'onfided to her my passion for the little G
,icture, through she had never seen it. v
rhe fact was / was rather a donkey e
bout showing it. l did not like to n
hare it with any one; but l was going h
Lucy's home for the Christmas, and ii
had promised to bring my picture Il
long and show it to her. l doubt If / "
houId have been willing to do this but q
aat ] thought it would be necessary to
ave me from q certain danger which Il
,rcatened me at my aunt's. Lucy was II
, have q friend with her for the Christ k
las, who was 3 great heiress and b Vile, Il
nd to whom she had resolutely de Err v
lined to marry me. Now l knew Lacy v
be . sensible girl, and that II 4 Il
oxvoJ hor fho niof1fra she WOuld see at ! lie