Middletown transcript., 1883-12-21
MIR. CHIRRUP's CHRISTMAS
BY HELEN WHITNEY CLARK.

Mr.. Chirrup was glum. Any one
else, any one with less amiable dispo-
sition, that is, would have been ''cross''
under the same provocation.
But Mr.. Chirrup was never cross,
and he was seldom "glum'
However, when it comes to the day
before Christmas and you have no
money to buy your wife a Christmas
gift, or anything to put in the chill
dren's stockings, and no prospective
turkey, or mince-pie and plum-pudding
for your Christmas dinner, you are ex-
cusable for being glum.
So, at least, thought Mr.. Chirrup, as
he sat looking out of the window Of
Lawyer Ledgerly's Office, where he was
employed at by-no-means-eXtravagant
salary. Lawyer Ledgerly was ill
too i'll to be seen, =" his mother-in-law
said. So there was no hope of antici-
pating his next quarters salary, as he
had sometimes done on similar pressing
occasions.
For Mr.. Chirrup's salary was so small
and his family so large, it was not
much wonder there was usually some
difficulty in making the salary stretch
from one quarters end to another.
All these things Mr.. Chirrup pom
dered as he sat looking out of the
window in Lawyer Ledgerly's Office,
which was on Fifth street, just oppo-
site Union Market. And our hero-if
little Mr.. Chirrup can be called any
body's hero-grew GUNNER than ever,
and beat the "Devil's tattoo" on the
window-sill, as glum people usually do.
For the sight of the market-stalls
crowded with Christmas luxuries, was
not exactly calculated to cheer up
man in Mr.. Chirrup's circumstances.
He was still gazing moodily at the
well-flled market-stalls, at the crowds
of people, jostling and elbowing each
other, when he suddenly started and
peefed sharply from under his eye
brows, as if he had seen some one he
knew.
That short, sleek-looking gentleman
in the nobby hat and overcoat, with
huge market-basket in one hand, and
gold-headed cane in the other. Surely
that was Mr.. Chirrup's elder brother,
Rothschild
AS he made the discovery, Mr.. CHR
rup-Mr. Rothschild Chirrup that is
was evidently pricing a turkey a
monster turkey it was, too, the big
gest that Mr.. Chirrup either Of
the Mr.. Chirrups-had seen in the
market. And the would-be purchaser
held it up, punched it, turned it around
and held it up again for all the world
as if he were exhibiting it for the ben
eft Of his brother, looking glumly
down from the window opposite.
But in reality he was only deciding
in his own mind that this was really
the biggest, the plumpest, the tenderest
and most tempting looking fowl he had
seen yet, and therefore he would take
it. And plump it went, forthwith, into
Mr.. Rothschild Chirrup's huge market
basket, which seemed yawning to re-
eeive it.
Mr.. Chirrup-O1r Mr.. Chirrup this
time, came as near sneering as he had
ever done in his life, when the turkey
disappeared in his brothers. basket.
For bitter estrangement had existed
between the two brothers from time
immemorial-or thereabouts.
"No doubt he can buy turkeys, .
thought Mr.. Chirrup-Caleb his name
was. No doubt he can buy turkeys,
and celery, too" For big bunch of
celery, large enough for a winter bou-
quet, had followed the mammoth tur-
key to its hiding-place.
"And if there's one thing 1 like
better than another, its celery, F" thought
Mr.. Caleb Chirrup, trying very hard to
look grabbed and revengeful, but not
succeeding very well. However, he did
manage to look quite savage and re-
sentful for him, which is saying a good
deal.
Mr.. Rothschild, in the meantime,
pursued the even, but pompous, tenor