The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-12-23
TIE MULJ-IGAN'S
CHRISTMAS.

.
The MulligaDs live in tenement
house and they live ON the floor near
est to the smoke which closures the
sky. Their windows command an irns
posing vista of chimneys and week 5
washings hung out to dry. The Muili-
gans are six In number There is Mrs.
Mulligan. who has very light gray
eyes. reddish brown hair and nose
which points ever upward and on
ward, and there are the four srnall
Muiligans, Evans eline, Gloriana, Try
phena, and their crippled brother,
small Patrick, called Saint Patrick,
because, to the alley constituency
which knows him best, he represents
all that IS pure and good in life The
sixth .Mulligan is a dog. The sixth
Mulligan and the first Mulligan, she
OF the upturned features, have very
little part in this story.
The Mullgans are SO poor that the
delights Of looking through shop win
dows, with white noses flattened
against the glass. at the incongruous
concomitants to Juvenile happiness
displayed within. The Mulligan girls
describe the assortment of staring
eyed dolls, ferocious aak-in-thelboxe
penny whistles and gaudily colored
candy as Heavenly. The Mulligan
boy simply looks at the varied collecs:
ton over the top Of his crutch and
wishes ae could buy it all for his Sis
tiers, until his little heart nearly bursts
with the force of his wishing.
That is the manner of most Christ,
masses with the Mulligans. Mrs. Null
hgan goes tos her tub on Christnlas
as on any other day of the year, as
soon as she has returned from early
a
the basket between them and call for
or deliver iirwashed clothing on that
day as on any other. Only they take
a longer route with a view to looking
into more shop windows. Tryphena,
the youngest Of the three girls manip-
ulates the starch bottle and the little
crippled Saint Patrick sits on the
floor, pathetic heap. and marks the
clothing with indellib1e ink on that
day as on any other and the sixth Null
ligan--well the sixth Mulligan fights
with the undertaker'S dog on that day
as on any other.
This, as has been said, is the manner
of most -Christanases with the Multi
gans. But there was one exception
That was the Christmas of a, year ago.
In some way CT other Mrs. Mulligan
had managed to save Il pennies with
the deliberate intention Of squander-
3.
She had purchased with the IL pennies
twelve sugar hearts, three pink ones,
three red ones, three yellow ones, and
three white ones. Twelve sugar hearts
at a penny apiece, to open four pairs
Of eyes wide with delight and aston
to cause Eyangeline to gasp,
Gloriana to laugh, Tryphena to dance,
and Saint" Patrick to whisper low
ingly in the ear of the sixth Mulligan
fresh from an encounter with the I'm
dertaker's dog:
Sure. me mother whit widout her
beer to do that"
There's three harruts fer livery wan
of yez," said Mrs. Muligan. 'Phine,
here's your three. Vangy. here's yours,
an here's yours. Gloriana. Here, Pat
sy, here's your three. Now all ay yez
get out of this"
three sugar hearts clasped tightly to
her dress front, rushed out Of the.
door. Patrick took his crutch and hob
bled over to his mother to thank her.
He appreciated the sacrifice of the beer
and he tried to tell the washerwoman,
with a hand on either hip, that she
was the dearest and best mother that
ever lived. But the words would not
come because the, tears arrived pre-
maturely. Mrs. Mulligan Understood.
She Rugged the little fellow. crutch
and ALL to her broad bosom and If the
sixth Alulhgan could have spoken he
would have them and there have sworn
never to fight with the undertalzer's
dog again. AS it was he whined SYM
all the things the Mulligan children
ii
played with them, they exhibited them
to admiring gaTnins; they traded a
pink sugar heart for a white sugar
heart and red sugar heart for a yell
ow sugar heart; they knelt down that
night with the sugar hearts and
banked overruling providence for send
ng them sugar hearts and they slept
with those very sticky sugar hearts
,lutched tightly in their grimy hands.
But alas, At the end Of the Christ
mas week the sugar hearts were eat
IN. Eaten with a deliberateness the oc-
,asion required, eaten with desire TO
extract from each sugar heart all It's
sweetness, eaten with a realizing sense
hat once eaten a sugar heart becomes
A thing of the past and that the fu-
-ure held out no. Definite promise OF
more sugar hearts.
For months "our shugar harruts'
we're the theme of conversation among
he MuIHgan children. They no longer
pleaded with Saint Patrick for fairy
.ales.
.sTeu us the wan about the shugar
aarruts' was now the appeal when the
candle was lighted and Mrs. Mull1gan
attacked her ironing-and her beer.
1T was a very hard year, and only
month before Christmas Mrs. Mullisan
suddenly became ill. 1t was not a ser1-
BUS sickness, but it necessitated the
service of a physician and the banlsh-
nent of the sixth lMulligan. Glor1ana
md Evangelina tried to do the EWashlng
At first; and then the patrons objected
md the revenues OF tine MulilSs'l Ae'lii-
Nv fell depressingly low.
IN the day before Christmas Mrs.
unlliean was able to sit up in a chair.
With her coarse red hands laid weakly
n her lap. One month in bed had
qad her more than three years at her
christmas day dawned over the Null
igan tenement, cherries. and cold. Mrs:
Mulligan again staggered from her PED
Ia a chair and sat looking across the
alley at the Hannigans display OF
weeks washings hung UP to dry. Most
IF those weeks washings she knew
1uite well. They had been her week.
washings before she was too i'll, and
her heart was bitter toward the usurp-
ing Hannigans.
The children sat about the room list
essly. The same thought was in the
mind of each; there would be no sugar
hearts this Christmas. Even the sixth
Mulligan looked dispirited, and only
yrowled softly when the undertaker's
log parked defiance in the alley below.
1t was then that Saint" Patrick
went up to the old clock on the shelf, |
and, standing on a chair, took from
behind the timepiece a dusty package.
n, en- hes Nuned I'm to his mother and