The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1885-12-25


81 hope not, my son; but must say that
you talk great deal"
'Things must say themselves, mother. Little
Batty Perouse, he's just like me. He says the
queerest things"
"What does he say?"
''You can't most always say 'em over again
They're queer. Sound kind o. like picture
of something you never saw
''Some small children are very old, James.
They get over it as they grow older"
TITS curious, mother. Seems to me never
had just such feeling about Christmas, and
I'm awful glad about those green's"
Grandfather Starin and some other people
may also have had that sort of feeling, but he
did not say another word to his wife about Holt
days or the cradle. He sat still in his arm
chair, after supper, untit at last, he seemed
to speak without intending to:
Maria I'm getting DID,"
1--WE are both growing old, john"
u believe my memory is failing me. Here
I've been sitting and trying to bring up
and to think over all about DIR. Penouse, and
what he said and what he did. l can't make
it out, somehow. He didn't do right by me,
Maria. He was dreadfully bitter and obsti-
nate man. l can't, somehow, remember just
how 1t was"
The old man paused and his wife's fingers
wiped a stitch of her knitting as she respond
''He was set in his way"
$50 was Hester. She isn't one bit like you
and me. She sided with her husband from
first to last. Either she was wrong or / was
wrong, and she'd ought to have seen her duty
'He was her husband"
He sat still again, stroking his full, white
beard, and trying to remember, and his foot
again got upon the rocker, but even that slow
and gentle motion confused him worse. Up
tn hour yyb tbau IN had /,
memories played hide and seek with him, and
the things he wanted would not come up.
Things he did not want, just then, came up in
their places. 1t was very curious thing, and
dreadful trial to an old man who needed to
think up his quarrels. He did not repeat to
his wife any of the things he had heard in the
village and he postponed until morning say
ing anything about what he had done or
meant to do with his purchases.
Away down the road there was a light in
Mrs. Perouse's window until about nine
o'clock. She had some sewing to do, and she
was dreadfully tired when she lay down, with
the baby beside her. and Batty in his crib at
the foot Of the bed. Both of them were
sound asleep, and she went softly. just before
she lay down, and hung something at the
head Of the crib. 1t looked like a pair of
wooden stockings and pair of mittens.
"pm glad can do that much. He will see
them first thing in the morning."
Batty awoke. AS soon as he looked at the
window and was sure about being there, he knew
he had been dreaming. He tried ever so hard to
remember what it had been about, and the
effort kept him awake. ALI of it that he could
get back was what must have been toy store
a mile long.
"Guess 1t was Christmas" he said, "but it
won't come"
Then he thought he heard something
crunch, crunching upon the snow in front Of
the house. Then some bells went by, and
after that there was some more crunching, but
it was very faint. He lay SO still he hardly
breathed, for Jim Denike had told him that
Santa Claus came in sleigh with bells, and
you could hear him if you watched for him.
Puns was shut up away back in the kitchen,
and he was not an easy-barking dog, anyhow.
He had to be set a-going. 1t grew so still that
Batty said to HIMSELF
''If any kind of Christmas should come I
could hear it before it got here"
Batty's mind was evidently in fever on
that subject, but his eyelids came together
again after while. Old people are apt not
to sleep well, and Grandfather Starin had
more trouble than usual that night. He knew
what time the moon went down by the change
in the kind of light that poured in at his win
dow, but it was u glorious night, even after
only the stars were left on duty.
The winter was doing its very best for that
Christmas, and Jim Denike believed that he
had done something, for lie said 30. He came
home from somewhere or other very late. All
the rest were in bed, and the parlor that con-
tanned the Christmas tree was locked. He
went to his own room, next to that of his
father and mother, and all the while he was
undressing they could hear him chuckling
outrageously.
sPm afraid he's been saucy to some one,"
said his mother, to herself. 81 must ask him
about it in the morning"
Another chuckle from his room, sounded as
if Jim were stuifing a pillow into his
mouth, and then all was still
1t was SO very still around the Starin home
stead that Grandfather Starin said it kept him
awake, and that IT confused his memory more
than good deal of noise would have done.
Before five o'clock in the morning-Christ-
mas morning-he gave the matter up, and
arose and dressed himself without saving a
word to his wife. He was always an early
riser, and he was one of those men who never
tell why they do anything. He went down.
stairs to the sitting-room and raked the embers
out of the ashes and heaped up wood for
quick, hot fire. There was the cradle. and he
looked into it for full minute, but there was
nobody there. There had not been for nearly
thirty years, and 80 far as he knew there
never would be again. He shook his head,
and 1t looked as il he were shaking it at that
cradle in some sort of defiance His face
grew set and determined, and he said:
"We will have Christmas, anyhow, if
money will buy one."
Then he walked out into the kitchen, but he
stopped there only long enough to light an
other fire, and to glance at the wrapped up
packages. He passed from that into the open
air, and nobody could have helped looking
away all around the sky to see how uncom-
monty crowded it was with stars, and how
with all their might and main they were
shining.
He went on to the barn to take look at his
well-fed stock. He patted his great oxen,
three yoke OF them, and threw some corn into
their managers. One stall was vacant, and his
feet carried him into it, without any corn in
his hands. He must have forgotten that there
were no oxeR there, for he said it was queer
thing to do and thus he added:
"My memory is failing me. What have to
do with that manger? It's as empty as Hest
er's CRADLE"