The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-12-26

kept his watch for the fly, or where the starved
mouse still wrestled feebly with the cheese rind.
That crack was pet of Jennies. She had
watched its growth from its very infancy, and
now in its gaping old she regarded it with real
pride and affection. Il was a funny crack. 1t
matched hollow In the floor. 1t was born
about the time the floor began to sag aud the
more the floor sagged the wider the crack grew.
as though it had such an affection for the floor
that it could not bear any increase of the dis
lance between them, but saggng down, cracked
itself wider and wider in the effort not to let the
floor get away from it. Many a time Jennie had
lain and watched this crack as now in the bright
moonlight. or by the freight when shirts were
10 cents dozen and fires not an impossible lux
ury.
Christmas aad cracks, hunger. mice and spi-
ders mingled in vague confusion in Jennies
mind as she lay there in the bitter cold that che
scarcely felt She fell to remembering things
long past; old fances thronged her brain and
then fed leaving it chill and vacant till they
came out again.
Then something strange happened. Jennie
saw face looking through the crack in the cell
ing More than that, she recognized the face.
1t was that Of Teddy Mccarthy, the little gamin
she had found half frozen in the street one
Christmas, and had brought in and warmed. fed
and clothed. as far as girls clothing could fit
out a young and energetic boy. The face had
Teddys regular laugh all over il, and tat it was
really Teddy was very certain when, the next
moment. he came tumbiing through tine crack
the floor and stood on his head for full ten Sec
onds, as preliminary to somersaut and jump
that landed him plump on the table There was
no rnistaking that it was Teddy. after that
Jennie's ideas were not very clear, still she
knew that she was wondering however he could
her hand to touch him. 1t fell fiat on the table
right on the spot where she saw him sitting,
without touching anything. Jennie thought
this strange still there was no mistaking that it
4
the young iacknapes he was The moro as
the next moment Dinnie Clarity, Teddy's chum.
took q header out of the crack in the same queer
fashion, rolled to the floor pinched Teddy's legs
cheerily, and finally landed on the three legged
chair, which. promptly dumping him the
floor, he took refuge on the stool. Dnnie was
fat as a tub OF butter now, but when Teddy. on
that same Christmas day after having satisfied
his own appetite, had remembered that he had
left Dinnie under dry goods box in neighbor
Ing alley, and had dragged MIN in to feast on the
remains, he was as slim and starved an urchin
as ever found board and lodging in New York's
streets.
Jimmy, We Amt as nice as We used to be. are
ye! exclaimed his youthful fairness, with glance
around the room and critical SILVER.
Its merry Christmas we've come to tell yeZ,
jimmie, but yez don't look as merry as ye might,
Teddy held himself still long enough to say.
ITS jolly time yez gave us hera vance, wasn't
1t, Dnnie?'
its sorry we are to see We looking so on a merry
Christmas day" added Dinue.
Jennie didn't try to touch Dinnie; somehow
her arm wouldn't mo when she tried to raise
1t: her head felt strange, too, and she would have
wondered what was the matter if other things
had not taken ner time.
Dinnie was not more than fairly settled on the
stool when other folks began to drop through
the crack in tho ceiling. one after another until
jennie lost all track of them There was jim
min kIal.o xxhn bod nf F1r ~
bare feet. Christmas before last, with all that
Jennie had saved in three months toward a new
dress for herself. And Jimme's sister Bet, had,
on another Christmas gone home warm in some
clothing OF Jennies that wasn't much for looks
or hit but that was thick and whole. and, more
over, was full half of Jennie's own stock of
wear Then there was Mickey Cusack, who had
got pair Of skates one Christmas after Jennie
had seen him cycling them in the store window
every morning for three weeks.
Aud along with these and raft of other
youngsters, male and female, who came ;umb
ling down in the same mysterious fashion, were
plenty Of grown folks. Big Policeman Connolly
was one, and he wanted to know, 'Bedad. did
she remember the tonne whin Fiddy-that's me
wofe-was near dying Mt this same Christmas
tonne, an We nursed her three noights, wan
afther another. an workin' days, till she was up
again. And Biddy was there, too, with her
three children that ''moight have been mother
less but fur that gyurl there. an it's meself
thatll nivver forgit it." Burly Jack Smith, the
trackman was another one and he wanted it
understood that he hadn't forgotten who it was
that had nursed him through the tremens once
on the floor below, and made him swear off when
he got well, an oath that he had kept we'll
that now he owned his own horse and truck and
pretty wife BESIDES which was the female that
came tumbling through the crack at the same
time that Jack did. Tommy Neal bright and
handsome, was there, too. Tommy had been
there before on one Christmas time three wears
"a vad N for
three weeks when the cops were after him for a
little matter of mistake about the ownership
of some rope that had been on the deck of a
schooner one night and In a South-street junk
shop in the morning.
In short every woman, child two cats and a
stray dog that Jennie could remember ever to
have befrended at Christmas time, and lots
more that sue didn't remember anything about
were in the throng that filled the room so full
that the cold air had no chance to blow ia
through the cracks And every mothers and
fathers daughter of them was saying Merry
Christmas and thanks that were heartfelt if uu-
couthly said.
And they all evidently felt as merry as they
they talked. for the pranks that they cut up
were something dreadful The boys stood on
their heads more than their heels and the
girls they didn't stand on their heads, but two
of them did stand on the table, aud shrieked
with glee until IL upset, and let them down in q
heap on the floor. The big policeman whacked
The truckmen danced a solitary JIG on
the STOOL while everybody gathered
around and shouted at him. Teddy and
Dinnie, lean and fat, balanced themselves side
by side on the rail. and made merry grimaces at
Jennie. Mickey Cusack stood on the edge of the
headboard, and pretended to skate along at the
rate of mile minute. Everybo did some
thing lively or comical. Never was such riot
ing, merry, mad throng gathered together in any
place In New York, Or the rest Of the world
With yule log and Lord of Misrule in cap
and bells, it might have passed for an early En-
glish Christmas festival gone crazy.
Jennie, lying back. with her head on the spot
where the pillow would have been if it hadn't
been pawned month before, feebly wondered
what 1t all meant She knew that she couldn't
move, and that there funny culver in her
heart-beats; then there was something in her
head that seemed to go round and round to
keep time with the merriment in the room go.
ing faster and faster as the fun waxed merrier
and merrier Still she felt warm. and happy
nnd ntah1 Ia and = l,o, A.