The Portland daily press., 1882-12-25
SELECTED STORY
A Christmas Housebreaking
HARRIET PRESCOTT sPoFFoRD.

cycle,-was that which, of all created things,
lady longed for most He saw the club roll
by, he heard their warning bells tinkle like
drops of sweetest sound, he saw their tiny
red lights flashing in the dark land his soul was
full of desire for this steed which bears one as
the outspread wings of the Afrite Danhash
carried Badoura to Camaralzaman "a sort of WISH
BILE whirlwind. For Laddy to see one of these
lofty riders on his giant wheel, whose spokes,
now viewless with motion, now dazzling as the
suns rays, seemed to be parts of the living
thing, here slipping out of sight along the
road, here mounting hill and outlined on the
pleasure that you or 1 might have over pic
ture or poem, And he had made up his
mind to become, by hook or by crook, chiefly
crook, just such poem himself, if his father,
who could amply afford it, would listen to
reason and buy bicycle. Grass never grew
under Laddy's feet, especially in the winter,
and having mastered the unruly creature, by
dint of hiring and borrowing he had never
lost chance of presenting to his father such
considerations as his tireless running of or.
rands, holding of the horse, and general good
D6uaNiOr III buo ldlAliy, w SleCb luhb no
had fairly earned his qualification.
/ suppose it is to be admitted, before going
further, that Laddy was the bad boy of the
family. Yet he was a taking little scamp, with
the honest. wide blue eyes in his sunburned
face-a face where no amount of tan could
obliterate swarm Of dimples that made his
smiles as sweet as honey. For all that, no one
loved bit of roguery so well as Laddy did. 1t
was be that tied Lucys and Sadie's long braids
together, so that when they rose to go different
ways be might enjoy the consequences. 1t was
he that made "apple-pe" of Johnnys sheets
and seasoned it with red pepper. 1t was he
that scared the whole parlor by coming down
with candle in his hand and beginning to
climb the mantel-shelf as if preparatory to
crawling ON the ceiling like fly, walking in
his sleep when he was really wide-awake, and
laughing SO gaily and sweetly when, like a
bottle of medicine he was taken and shaken,
that nobody could be very angry with him. 1t
was he that emptied Rosy doll of its stufing
and filled the body with red-cedar sawdust,
leaving little crack in one arm so that when
Rosy saw the red sawdust trickling out she
1t was he that tied all the bells in the house
with one string, and in the middle of the night
woke all the sleepers with their furious ring
ing. And in general, one might say 1t was he
that cried peace, peace, when there was no
peace!
Laddy felt himself very important member
of the family, and had no more conception Of
II Il 4; Al,
who, half inconsistency, wonder how the
world would get on without US. 1t was jolly
family, on the whole, that which was thus in
debted to him, and it was such numerous one,
that it could hardly have experienced stagna-
ton had there been no Laddy. There were a
father and mother and grandmother, of
course; it would have been queer family that
did not begin with those. And then there was
great-grandmother, too, land it was not every
family that had a great-grandmother, if she
aods so disabled that she could neither speak
nor move. but only sit all day in her chair and
look about her with pair of little sunken
eyes, that blinked as the stars blink in heaven,
and gave you the idea of her belonging al
ready to some other world than this And
then there was Aunt Mat, who did everything
for everybody; and all the servants, particular
| ly Michael; and the three older sisters and
their two brothers; and the half dozen chill
dren, more or less, of the ounger brood, who
made Eoise enough for all the children that
| followed the Pied Piper of Hamelin. For
when Sadie was not tittering, Katherine was
singing, or Lucy was bawling, or Tom was
whistling, or Johnny was playing his jews
harp, or they were all shouting, -Laddy's
shout being roar. They bang ed on the pi
ano, tramped up the stairs, slid down the BAN
lister, and would perhaps have hung on the
chandeliers, if they could have reached them.
And every little while there was a fearful agi-
tation all over the place, for Laddy was in the
river, or Johnny was being brought out of the
river, or the whole crew of them, with Tom
for captain. wers adrift upon the river. The
elder sisters painted and embroidered and
practised, and went driving, and young Syl
ves.er came to see them,-came very often, by
the way, and staid very long, and always took
| Sophy down to the gate with him, Sometimes
Rosy and Katherine were found rendered use
| less by meddling with the clay of which the
three elder sisters had been moulding ars and
vases; or Sacie or Lncy ght be seen smeared
| from ear to ear with Laura's water-colors, OF
with their gowns sewed up in Eleanor's flosses
and crewels, or half of Sophia's music would
have been taken to make Johnny's kite,
which had ended by falling into the water and
! going out to the sea. Yes it was jolly fami.
| ly, Laddy thought; especially when time came
toward Christmas and Aunt Mat was helping
the kitchen girl stone raisins, and giving any
loiterer big fat bunch, and grandmother was
showing them how to make sausage meat, and
Laura, slreaked with chrome yellow from top
knot to shoestring, was learning the mystery
of squash pies, aud the little people were al
lowed to slice up the citron, and everybody
was busy with a secret. Nothing could be
more to Laddy's mind than this state of a.
fairs, unless it was the building of the Tower
of Babel. He could think of but one thing
possible in the way of making life still livelier
and that was possession of the bicycle which
he had told everybody was to be his share OF
the Christmasing, and which he meant to ride
down the front stairs, if not the banistersl 81
like 70 see things fly round!" said Laddy, leav-
| ing one to guess whether he meant things in
general, or only the bicycle. His mother used
to say that it was no wonder she was i'll; IL @
wonder was that anybody was well in that
house.
| And what scene it wasl The fire was out
upon the hearth, the fire that it was Michael's
pride to build every morning, and the bullying
stockings hung from the nails driven into along
board laid upon the mantel-shef. Laddy knew