Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1886-01-09
THE HOUSES CHRISTMAS TREE.

am a church mouse, but am not SO
very Door. l am not lonesome either,
for nv mother lives in my church, and
nv grandmother and [ i have five sisters,
each with a nest of her own, and as
nice a family in it as you would wish
to see. | AVE cousins, too, plenty OF
them, but they are distant cousins, and
live a long way Oft, under the church
organ, Idon't know how they live, |
am sure. They can't find much to eat,
1 fancy, but the paste i'll the hymn book
covers, and cough drops-eVerybody
carries cough-drops at that church,
but they cough all the same. And be-
side | saw a cat in there once when
the door was open. But | suppose
nv cousins are fond of the preaching,
or OF the organist, and so they are con-
tented. Then l have all aunt, my Aunt
Frisky, who keeps house in the church
parlors. They say that is the place for
bread and butter, and cotton, and
sewing-society rags. But L o the
children, SO / wouldn't change my
home in the Sunday-school room for
anybody's. l shan't tell where my
hole is, for you would all be wishing
for nv nest, it is so warm and so soft.
My grandmother has a Plymouth Col
lection in hers 1t was the minister's
book, so she has his autograph, and
she is very proud of it. But nay nest is
better. l nave a leaf of a Bible, and
part of the "Book Of Praise" and the
cover of a library book, all chewed up
as fine as feathers; a beautiful red and
green cover it was; and | have plenty
Of stuff for lining The superintendent
asked, one Sunday, If any one had seen
a blue silk mitten that one OF the girls
had lost, and a gray veil, and a purse
l had to stuff my tail in my mouth to
keep from laughing out, for my
little Sweetie was fast asleep OIL them
at that very minute. l did give one
squeai, but Mrs. Smiths baby cried
just then, and everybody looked that
way and didn't notice.
There is enough to eat in my part of
the church, too, especially Sunday
n~ights-candy. You would wonder
where the children get SO much candy
for us when they put all their pennies
in the collection envelopes, but l sup
pose their mothers send it. 1t is NICE
candy. And the young people never
forget us when they have Il sociable up
here. We CAN drag off cake enough to
last for days. So it is very seldom we
get so hungry we nave to gnaw wood.
But let Inc tell you the kindest thing
that Was ever done for any mouse !:
One day, after Sunday was all over
and done with, some of the people
came up here, chattering and Chatter
ing, rs they always do, while we, YOU
MAJ be sure, were as whist as so many
oysters. | couldn't max out what
they were about; folks are SO queer,
anyhow they are always doing some
thing with no SENSE in it. But my
grandin other has seen a great deal Of
this sort Of hing. She has grown
gray in Sunday school work. And she
said she believed, upon her WHISPERS, it
wa, a Christmas tree. Ny grandmOth-
er is a wise Old mou e; she knows cnalk
from cheese, and she Vas right about
its being a Christmas tree; but it was a
queer looking thing, all covered with
brush and rafting stuff. L saw
anything like it in all my travels in the
lecture room or the church narlOrs; it
WASH t smooth and straight like the
trees that hold up the galleries in my
Sunday school, and it wasn't soft and
gray ike Inc. l couldn't make ont,
and my mother couldn't, for a while
what they were trying to do going up
ladders and putting on more stuff when
there seemed 10 be too much on al
ready.
l kept a good watch through my
crack and sa wthem tie ON yellow balls
and threads, OF no use i'll the world.
No mouse could eat them to save his
life, and they are not half SO nice for
bed clothes as a lesson paper But by
and by they tied on candles, and this
seemed something like for candles
are pretty fair eating. Then came
long strings of something small and
white. These were hung like ropes
from the top to the bottom of what
they called "a tree" twisting them out
and in, up and down, and all over.
My! but | knew that smell! AS sure
as N stands for lose it was popcorn.
When all was done they locked the
doors so nobody could get in to disturb
US, and went off. Did You ever hear
OF such kindness before? We should
have been just as well pleased If they
had left he corn on the platform, with
Out taking the trouble to pop Or shell
it, but L suppose they thought we
would like 10 have a tree like other
folks, and [ ain sure it was very sweet
of them.
There was more corn han we could
eat, and | sent Peepsie, my youngest
but two, right away to invite my Aunt
FriSky and all her family, SO we had
what my grandmother cal ed Il real
old fashioned Christmas party, and
before the whistle sound d at the rub
Der factory we had eaten all we could
and tugged off the rest. II would have
been better if they had left the corr on
the cob, but they meant we'll, and
don't wish to find fault.
The next day the people came again,
with some little no-good tin boxes and
foolish whistles, and trash like that,
for the children. The children, poor
things! were pleased; they knew he
better. They had %a!storv read to them,
and some singing, and were merry
enough in their way.
But if you ask who had the mcrriest
Christmas in the whole wide city, |
can tell you-it was the church mice.