The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-12-25
First Christmas.
BY ROSE TERRY COOKE.

beaped on the barn floor in hundreds.
"Oh. Father" said his wife very
gently. being a little wan, meekfaced
creature. with scarce the Pungency OF a
mouse or the spirit of a weakly lamb.
WELL what new?" snapped Eiah
Hoskins, turning on the door-siil to
look at her under his shaggy eyebrows.
why, ha'nr We got no better than
tbatY it's real slim lookin', seems as
though we'd ought TO kinder put the
bes' foot foremost seem AbueT's ccmin
to Thanksgivin' and Netty's comm TO
stay"
ITS good 'nough, Sary Ann. got a
6rst-rate offer for the rest on 'em TO
Hickory Farm, and they won't take no
runts there, now, tell We. It's good
,nough. 1 dono Why folks has got to
guzzle and stuff Jest because it's a
Thanksgiyin' Day. its bad enough to
have ye set to that the bronze turkey
had to be slaughtered for it. never
saw his excl for foawI. and begrudge
MIN to be used to hum, when he's worth
IS good money to the city. most any
where"
Sary Ann held her peace. and the
tyrant Of the family took himself Of.In
his remarks about the bronze turkey he
said nothing of the fact that his vile
had given her black silk apron to
neighbours wife in exchange tor SIX eggs
of this mighty breed, three Of which
Matched out into two cocks and q hen;
a pair were kept for breeding, foreor-
dained to be the chief figure at Thanks
giving. Mrs. Hoskins had petted, pam
pered, waited on, watched over and ran
after with an anxious Gaze its real
parent never could have equaled. she
had put pepper-corns on its unwilling
tongue for the good Of its digestion: she
had rubbed sulphur and lard, kerosene
oil, wormwood tea and nobody knows
what else into its infant feathers: and
chopped onion-tops and scalded meal
and 'pussley' for il, till the kitchen was
odorous; and now il was plump and
glossy as a ripe chestnut, and all ready
70 be killed for the feast. Yet 'Liah
grudged il. There are more than four"
people like Elijah Hoskins in the world
he had been born into a state of sin and
misery, as the catechism says. ground
into the dust BY penurious and narrow
parents, and the awful poverty that is
the lot of somehow Englandfarme who
drag out a life on its lonely hillsides
more frugal in its fare than a hermit's, |
and far more dreadful TO endure, since !
its privations and distress are not to be
endured alone.
'Liah had inherited, however, the |
fruit of all this laborious poverty in the |
n
profitable; but FREE from mortgage or |
debt of any kind. Principally wood |
land, il had been unproductive enough /
and when he married Sarah Ann Parks /
he induttsd the gentle, shy young girl /
into a life of hard WORK and OF self |
repression which had almost worn her |
out; but for her children she wonld /
have been very glad 70 take the place 4
ready for her in the lonely little grave /
ward at the foot OF Saltash MOuntain, /
where her father and mother slept this 4
long time; but she had that motherly /
heart that is faithful 10 the very end. 4
and she resolved not only to live, but to
be as cheerful as her life would allow
for the sake of Abner and Netty, her
boy and girl.
Abner had long since left home and
the stern will Of his father, and worked
a country store to be cashier in Haver-
ford Bank, and row he was married,
and had little girl Of years: but he
had not seen his home for ten years; h.
was coming home to this Thank sgivinC
for the second time only since he lett
the farm twenty years ago, q boy of
Perhaps il he had STAYED with \
his father and spent mis- life in this
hand-to-h hand battle with the elemental
forces Of nature that farming means on
the highlands Of New England. Abner
would have repeated him in character;
but what was greed in the elder man
developed only into care, economy and
thrift in the younger; and 10 his work
he carried the same energy, presidency
and shrewdness that distinguished
Elijah. Living among other people he
learned. his own powers and failings
soon enough 10 balance and correct
them, and marrying a woman OF gener-
Gus temper, high spirit. intelligent and
warm heart, all that was best within
him grew and prospe ed. Netty was
muCh youn ger than Abner; and when
she was fourteen her father suddenly
discovered that his acres of Wild wood
land had become valuable; q railroad
was laid out Just below the Hoskins
Farm, and wood for ties and sleepers 1
came in demand. Every cent Elijah {
Hoskins received he laid out IN buying i
more wild land, till be owned forests far I
upi on the Canadian border, sold for I
nominal prices by owners who did not /
see as he did that the railroad meant an
outlet and sale for the lumber hitherto !
for want of transportation.
If Mrs. Hoskins had asked her hus- I
band when she by chance discovered :
he was selling timber 10 the Northern {
Company, for new dresses, or '
furniture, or household convent noes,
The would have received but one !
answer brief and hard enough, and she :
Knew 1t; but when she took her life in I
her hand, as il were, and asked him to c
ct Nstty 20 to Haverford to school. he I
lid not refuse TO consider the matter. 1t T
5 the glory and strength Of New Eng {
and that education is 70 its people an 8
Unborn necessity: the 60 pei q matter
" choice as TO its support and further
Ince; highly respectable and not to be 5
ct aside ntt can be supported cheaply '
nough, but even a New England infidel /
If there be such an anomaly on its $
onely hills ian infidel in open opinion /
q san, practicable infideiity IN another q
be unwilling enough TO /
20 his son or daughter grow up without s