The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1884-12-26
A PERFECT CHRISTMAS.
CHAPTER I.
BY WILLIAM O. sTcppARp.


CHAPTER /.
There WIS not larger house in all
the valley than Grandfather Vrooman's.
It was old and comfortable, and seemed
to lie sound asleep, with snow blanket
all over it's roof.
Nothing short of real old-fashioned
Christmas could wake up such q house
as that.
Christmas was coming!
Unless Santa Claus and the Simp-
sons and the Hopkinses should forget
the day of the month, they would all
be there at waking-up time tomorrow
morning.
Jane" said Grandmother Nrooman.
that afternoon, to her daughter, Mrs.
Hardy, who lived with ller-"Janc, I've
got 'em all fixed now just where they're
going to sleep, and I've made up bed
on the floor in the store-room.'
"Why, mother, who's that for?'
"You wait and see, after they get
here, and we've counted EN-"
anyhow there's cookies enough, and
doughnuts.
And the pies, Jane"
"And I'm glad Liph gathered such
piles of butternuts."
ooh, mother" exclaimed little Sue.
II gathered as many as he did, and
beech-nuts. and hickory-nuts, and"
$50 you did, Sue; but wonder if
two turkeys IL go round, with only one
pair of chickens?"
Mother" said Mrs. Hardy, "the
plum-pudding?'
"Yes, but all those children! l do
hope they'll get here tonight in time
for me to know where Pm going to put
i. 'em."
At that very minute, away up the
north road. two miles nearer town,
there was sort of dot OH the white
road. If you were far enough away
from it, it looked like black dot, and
did not seem to move. The nearer you,
came to it the funnier it looked, and
the more it seemed to be trudging along
with an immense amount of small en-
ergy. Very small, indeed, for anybody
close up to it would have seen that it
was 5-year-old boy in queer little
suit of gray, trimmed with red. lie
had on warm gray cap, and right in
the middle of it were worked pair of
lctters-"O. A."-but there was nobody
with the gray dot to explain that those
two letters stood for Orphan Asylum. {"
40, nor to tell how easy it was for a
a boy of years old, with all the head
under his gray cap full of Christmas
ideas, to turn the wrong corner where
the roads crossed south of the great
OrphanoAsy building. That was
-Aat he had done, and he had walked
on and on, wondering why the big
building did not come in sight. until
his small legs were getting tired, and
/. his brave, bright little black eyes were
all but ready for crying spell.
Justes he got thoroughly discour-
aged, AZ came to the edge of the woods,
where te stood wood sleigh with
two hGses in front of it, drawn close
to the r side, and heaped with great
green y 6gbs and branches.
3The sleigh's pretty nigh full, grand
father" sang out a clear, boyish voice
beyond the fence, and a very much
older one seemed to 90 right on talking.
"Your grandmother, Liph, she al
ways did make the best m:nce pies, and
asshe can stuff a turkey better'n any one
IT know"
Grandfather, do you s'pose they'll
all Gomez"
"Guess they will. That there spruce
IL do for the Christmas tree. Your
grandmother said We must fetc..sa biz;
- one.'
That's a whopper. But will Joe
Simpson and Bob Hopkins be bigger n
they were last summer"
@Guess they've grown little. They'll
grow this time, if they eat all their
grandmother II want 'em to. Hello,
Liph, who's that out there in the
road?"
Guess it's boy"
II declare if it isn't one of them lit
tie gray mites from the 'sylumi Way
out here! I say, bub.'
am Bijah."
There was scared look in the black
eyes, for they had never seen anything
quite Like Grandfather Vrooman, when