Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-12-25
Gales and Sketches.
The Red Light.
By AMY RANDOLPH.
II was Christmas Eve.

Not one of the ideal Christmas ewes of
poets and romance writers, wherein the
moon is always at the full the snow al
WAYS a-sparkle like pulverized diamonds,
and the air always still and cold and clear.
bu, the stormy twilight. with the snow
driving steadily from the east, the wind
raw and biting, and the sky. what you
could see of il-back as ink.
But it was Christmas Eve, all the same.
and Bertha Hooper's cheeks were as red
as the bitter-sweet berries in the woods
as she sat. all wrapped up, in the train
that was steaming northward.on her way
to spend Christmas with her Aunt Almira
| Higgins.
Christmas in the country! To Bertha.
who had lived all her life in the brick
walls and stone pavements OF city, the
very words seemed to convey somewhat
OF cheer and ioyOusness. And Bertha, AS
she sat with her eyes closed. and her little
gloved hands safely nestled into "A gray
squirrel mufl, behed in her minds eve
great fires of logs roaring up wide
throated chimneys, walls testooned with
hemlock boughs aud black-green tufts of
mistietoe; and she had half commenced
poem on Christmas and its cherished as
1ociations when the ruthless conductor
came along for her ticket
How tar are we from Montcourt sta
tion?" she inquired. as she gave up the
piece of past, board.
Next but one, Miss said the man. as
he hurried ON, with his lantern under his
arm. ''Half an honr yet"
She had never been so far from New
! York in all her life before. The driving
rain in which she had left her home, had
changed rs they progressed northward in
1 to the steady fall OF snow. which tluttered
around them like white waving shroud.
! But Bertha Hooper cared little for this.
Had not Aunt Almira promised to send
Zebedee. her youngest son, to the station
with pony to meet her on the arrival of
the six forty train from New York? And
was not Zebedee to have a lantern with a
red glass door to il, so she could identify
| him at once.
She was very pretty as she sat in her
| little black toque, with its curling plume
Of cardinal red and the wine red ribbon
bow at her throat-pretty with the bloom
and freshness of eighteen. She was dark,
with large hazel eyes, almond-shaped and
long-lashed, a clear, ROSY bloom on either
check, and wavy, dark hair hanging in
slken fringe over her broad. low fore
head.
"Mont-Court-Stat P" bawled the
brakeman. putting in snow-powdered
fur cap, and Withdrawing ii as quickly as
if he had been magnificent edition OF
Jack -in-the. box which children much re-
ioice at in holiday time. And Bertha
Hooper knew she had reached her desti-
nation.
Stiff and cramped from the length of
time in which she had been sitting in one
position. she rose up. with little steel
clasped travelling bag in one hand and a
dainty silk umbrella in the other, and
made her way to the door.
| All she could see when she stepped out
upon the wet and slippery platform, was
blur of driving snow, through which
the lights of the solitary little country
depot cleaned fitfully; but the next in
slant something flashed athwart her vision
like friendly red eye-and beneath the
reflector over the station door. she saw a
tall. fine-looking young man, in fur
trimmed overcoat, a sealskin cap set
iauntily on one side of crop of chestnut
curls, and red lighted lantern swinging
| from his left hand, as he stood straining
his eyes into the stormy darkness. as if to
catch sight of some familiar face in the
little crowd.
"Cousn Zebedee ~ cried Bertha, aloud.
and she made one spring into the arms OF
this blonde -whiskered young giant. For
had not she and Zebedee played dominoes
and fox-and- geese together in the days
when she wore blue ribbon sashes, and
his hair was closely .shorn mat of
carroty oh Cousin Zebedee, I'm
so glad to see you; and hadn't any idea
yon had grown half so handsome !"
And she gave him great hug, at the
same time holding up her rosebud lips for
kiss.
But, to her infinite amusement, the hero
of the sealskin cap seemed little back
ward in responding to her cousinly ad-
vances.
I'll beg your pardon" said he. slight