Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1893-12-22

)kZB.N.2SA had organized al Sun
doy-school, and all
lM@ the little children
from Pretty lake to the huckleberry
marshes had gathered there in iuve-
nile effort at worship.
OF course the prospect Of Christ
mas tree, with distinct pledge that it
would be loaded with presents in the
evening, may have stimulated the half
grown pietv Of the children, but I
don't know as their elders, who are
good because heaven Will reward such
a course, have any advantage of them.
Nora Ellis was managing the festivi-
ties. She had been busy for days and
days with trips to town and journeys
to the school-house. She had burd-
cned her own plump hands, and the
arms of half the pupils with packages
of candles, candies, popcorn strung on
thread, and festooned cranberries that
should depend at last from the rising
green branches of the Christmas tree.
She had called commands in a strong.
sweet voice to men who drove to mar
ket, and laughed her greeting 20 as
sistants while they were yet a great
way off.
In the midst of it all Nora had
thought now and then what Christmas
meant, and her heart was gentle, as
hearts should be, when her fancy con.
iured up the star i'll the east when that
finer ear which never bends to less than
heavenly music caught the rhythm of
that anthem which filled the sky one
distant night in distant land.
Yet one thorn troubled her. She
tried to forget Ed Morrow and their
quarrel, but the thought would come
back and confront her. She remcm-
berod how happy she was in the sum
mer time, when she walked with him
along this same plain road and thrilled
as good girl will when the angel of
true love troubles the waters Of her
waiting soul.
He had wandered away with the sun,
as the summer ended, and she heard of
him now and then from friends who
drove to Hendricks County. Once or
twice he had drifted up the borders of
her neighborhood, but she never saw
him. Rumor, that agile assassin, de-
clared he was going with Eliza
Raines. and honest Nora could Won
der, in the midst of her pain, what he
found in the girl to admire He would
come to the Christmas tree, no doubt,
and she must suffer in silence while
that brazen creature stated her eyes
with looking upon her.
Everything was as ready as it could .
be at schoolhousc. The day had filled F.
the eye Of Christmas lovers. Snow
lay deep upon the ground, and through F.
it the sleigh tracks had been beaten /
like n sort of canal between high banks 4
OF white. The sky was as gorgeous I.
and still as any bestowed on rich mid /
summer nights, and the MINDLESS air /.
was charged to tingling with exuber-
ant life and swift vitality. Underneath .
the steel sled runners struck clear /.
Morse music from the firm white an
yil Sleighbells rung greeting to /
laughing parties on cOnverging roads. /
And all the strong, still air was bur
dened with the songs of youth and /
maiden, rich with life and hungry for
enjoyment
Tonight, besides the distribution of /
presents, there we're songs in which
Nora had trained the children; recits-
tions in which the children had mostly
trained themselves a tableau or two
and a jubilani chorus.
Nora, looking out through peep
hole in the curtain, saw Ed Morrow
sitting close up to the front, but far
away from the women. II he came
with that girl he had done the very
thing of leaving her to
shift fof herself in a stranger company
and pushed his way to the point most