Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1890-01-04


there were socks tearfully and wonder
fully made. cabbages and potatoes, pork
and hams, sausage and beans, honey and
''quince sauce, and In the center, on
dinner-plate OF delf, actually was a
little money, which the kindly faced old |
chancellor counted anon as II II burned /
his fingers. The boy who brought six |
girls and took them all to supper put |
down quarter OF dollar with as much |
ceremony as II 1t had been 4 Bank Of |
England note for Gl00, and the school |
teacher gave fifty cents, and one sister
a whole dollar. and so the little pile ac-
cumulated. and the chancellor got so ex-
cited and tremulous that he had 10 get a
girl In scarlet waist 10 help him count
IL up at the last. and he gave the min
lister sly poke in under the fifth rib
and told him ''it was just good enough
for him"
hut the merriest, prettiest scene Of
all was out In the long. low kitchen,
with the yellow pumpkins and rosy
apples piled in the corners, where the
lights were swsying lanterns hung high
| against the ceiling, and where, inside
/ the row OF deacons and brethren
1
| wall and the fiickering shadows dancing
across their grim, rugged faces, was a
| double, triple circle OF the happy, hearty
country lads and lasses playing with
noisy enthusiasm and unconscious grace
| the old game of ''chase the squirrel"
Have you forgotten the romping old
frolic so full OF fun and kisses; forgot
ten how you sat in one chair in the
center and your best girl in another, and
how you kissed her when you began and
then held her chair close against your
own in the mad chase that followed
when William Merritt tried to catch and
kiss prim little Prudence Putnam How
she flew around those chairs with lighter,
swifter steps than ever Jimmie Powers
tripped into his favorite minuet, darting
breathlessly in and out among the girls
and boys, and how his heavy boots
stamped and pounded the hard floor a.
he pursued her and caught her at last,
painting In a corner, and for one brief,
blessed minute held her close and kissed
her, and how the pair in the chairs
kissed, too, for company, as they gave
their places up to the runners! There
were wall-howers in the game, too, Just
rs there are at any ladies' reception, and
witching little lasses who were chosen
again and again, until they were toe
tired TO make the work OF winning a
kiss long or wearisome. How old Aunt
Hannah rolled her huge corporosity out
OF tho ''front room" and through the
crowd again and again 10 see II her Genie
were being chosen enough times. Pooi
Genie, who never was chosen at all, and
whom boy wouldn't kiss for the world
though she was most dutiful daughter
, Now one little merry, daring nader
comes up to the teacher, who Is tryinE
, 10 be dignified, and bids him catch
, her, and another naughty, witchinG
! little lassie with hair so yellow tina
1t would make Ada Rehan's imported
, tresses look tarnished, waylays th'
deacon himself, and then keeps thos'
, tossing curls OF gold just out Of hi
reach for such a forever while all th'
other deacons slap their knees ant
, poke each others sides with delight
! and then they all join hands in rim
. a.d play "Going to Boston, with
I girl in the center blindfolded and al
= the boys changing places continual
until she catches one and feels of hi
! head and face with her little brow
!, hands for a clew to his identity. Hav
= you forgotten that game, too, and ho'
q those little cool. fiuttering hands fee
: against your hot face, and how yo
!, tried TO keep your very heart frot
1 beating lest 1t betray you, and ho'
4 you kissed her when she said you
v name; and don't you remember whe
! 1t was your turn to be blindfolded, an
4 yon caught her, how you could see he
a all the time, but still you lifted TIA
4 long brown braids, and smoothed thei
: shiny surface; you touched the warn
i white neck and dimpled cheek, an
|. felt for the little ring on her han
: that you put there yourself before yo
= would tell her name, and how har
a 1t was TO say that name anyway befoI
: all the people. and your changin
n voice began in the lower register an
a ran the gamut to high G on the la
d syllable?
And through all the uproar children
l. voices in merry music rang out from III
n minister's study, rising and falling
o tAe tune of
a "The needles eye doth desery
"A The thread that runs 80 true
= There's many u lass that I've let pass
~ Because I wanted you
ii Tnly-truly-truly-"
Ie sang the low, sweet refrain, until In tt
IL ring of little lads in roundabouts an
X lasses in short skirts, winding slowly y
" meath an arcn made by a boy and gi
h with clasped hands held high above tha
!. heads, little maiden in a scarlet froF
n was chosen, whose wealth OF brown eur
Id fell over the lads face as he kissed ha
er And then the supper OF baked met
I'd and beans" and pumpkin pies in squAl
n tins OF which we all wanted the coru'
n piece, cake with candy hearts embeddf
40 in the frosting and cookies with raisiI
Is in the center; and how the minisl
80 lifted up his voice at the table in eli
y quent thanksgiving for being th'
er "blessed in basket and store" while y
ae wife went down cellar after the butte
'n which they had forgotten, and made u
T. tea out OF the package the grocer's WI
ir brought, and put in some more d
a of her own tea-caddy 20 mako
n strong enough. And what quantiti
nt of beans and pickles and frosted cal
- there was left-enough 10 save the mi
Id ister's wife from baking up any thl !
re for a couple Of weeks. At ten o'cl4S
We we all went home with the moonbean
re dripping splendor over US and the n
he pulling of our oyershoes at every ste
K How each boy Rallantiy escorts five