The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1896-01-10

| There's babe sleeps in the stall,
! >5 Sing, sweet Robin!s -%5= ~ -
/ With the grass for blanket warm,
/ Sweet Robin, sing! y =. ~
/ Him the beasts have given their all,
i - Sweet Robin, sing! = u: - ,-.rsy.
Sheltering him from winter storm,
/ Sweet Robih sing! t5
Ope the door and Gull them In,
Sing, sweet Robin!
Newborn babe and starving birds. J.
Sweet Robin sing!
| And all children cold and thin,
Sweet Robin, sling: .
To the best. our house: affords,
l. --tdndon Sketch
ROMANCE Of CHRISTMAS.
No matter where men may be; h6 that
ter how far away from h6ine they inlay
go or how long they mag stay AWAY,
when Christmas comes their nihds revert
to the loved ones of their childhood
tender memories Of Il il6ther; Il SISTER
perhaps il sweetheart; are revived, lind Il
longing scizes. them to be bhck again
amid the old familiar seelies: 49,, =,
With each recurrence Ut the slad sea-
son which heralds peace on earth to men
ard Jennings heart, Sitting all interest
in the fluctuations of wool On 'Chaiiee,
and making positively distastefhl to him
all talk about the prospects OF next
years cotton crop or the rumored wan
street combine to effect u corner in
wheat. IT,! !.
| Whenever Christmas approached ne
began to realize his loneliness, and he
regarded with envy. the people hurrylng
along the street carrying bundles of tops
and candles and costlier presents t"
! their homes.
Home! That sacred place is not to be
| violated at such season by the presents
of Il stranger, and Richard Jennings
| Christmases were spent alone. He was
always glad when they were over. and he
could again become absorbed Ill business
! cares.
For the past ten years he had been :; q
exchange, and was rated at 100000.
He had no taste for societty;. anu al
though he belonged to several OF the best
clubs in that charming old town, ne
could not be called clubnlan: HIS
tastes. his cravings, We're domestic; but
| they remained unsatisied: Little was
known of his previous history. he was
not communicative and his business ac-
| Quaintances were not inqulsltlVe.
One evening, just four days before
| Christmas, Mr. Jennings returned to his
handsomely furnished residence and as
tonished his housekeeper by telling her
he was "gong home for Christmas"
She had been in his service for more
than five years and believed that all MS
relatives were dead, as she had never
heard him speak of theii1'
"Here's something for YOU fur Chilst-
mas he said, handing her Y!O qill,
and | hope you'll enjoy Yourself I'm
Sarah. in her rich, honest brogue,
| thanked him.
There was a new light in his face.
! Sarah, who was shrewd. noticed it: For
seventeen years this man had been away
from home, and during his absence his
| parents had died, while he was riding
wild ponies in Texas or digging gold in
Colorado, or gambling it away iii kan-
sas City faster than he had gathered it.
As the train sped eastward oyer }',a';. the tn
| through the rich farm lands of Ohio,
and then amid the wooded hills of his
! own native ania-fairer thhn
| them all-his mind Travelled backward
| from the present Richard Jennings, sue
| cessful broker and respectable member
of the ST.. Louis Merchants exchange,
to the dissipated days of his fresh young
manhood, when his wild life had sep
arated him forever from one he could
never forget.
AS the train approached Philadelphia
and he looked out Of the window at
the numerous domes and spires and
cupolas, he reflected how time, which
appearance of the city, must have
changed the sweet girl of Is, from whom
his own misdeeds had suntlered him:
They had been sweethearts from child
hood But old Ezra Kent, her father.
was a stern man and when stories got
abroad about the dissipated set of which
Richard soon became the leader. and
when one day he. came home from his
counting-house and found Richard
''Dick" everybody called him then.in-
toxcated he said it was the last time
Eleanor should receive him. She was
a dutiful girl. 1t wounded her life, but
she obeyed. The Kents came of stern
stuff. and beneath Eleanor's gentle wom-
anliness lay heroic strength.
After that Richard Jennings intoxicat-
ed habits became a PUBLIC scandal, and
when his sister married Will McCray, a
promising young lawyer Eleanor was
maid of honor), he disappeared from
home.
Now he was returning very different
man and regretful that he had staid
away so long 1t was such a short jour
| ney from the Mississippi to the Schuylkill
he wondered that he had not before sum-
| moned enough courage to return. Sew
cntcen years!
For the twentieth time he drew forth
ii letter and read it with the same all
sorbed interest as if for the first time
Dear Dick: Will met Mr.. Coles last
| week He had just come from st. Louis,
| and said he met you there. You naughty
Why have never VENT yon to or spe
Christmas with us. All the children are
crazy to see you: There are five now; The
ba5y fti gF dS is DO Sftan o of
about Uncle Dick. Eleanor has told them
so many, Tom Brown at Rugby sort OF
stories about You when fn,s you were at aae
mother still live in the old house; They are
| very poor: Eleanor teaches music and sings
at st. Brides. Mrs. Kent looks very old
but she sews beautifully and makes the
| pretticst things for the baby; DO come and
spend Christmas with us. The children are
dying to see you and so am anu WILL
D'e' ''"' ''''7 ~ MARY McCRAY.
P. S.-The chiIdren's names are Mary,
Alex-he's named after father. OF course
Sam, Dick-after you-a,n1d Eleanor the
baby. She's little angel!
s. :: -
The street where Richard Jennings
| home was where he was born, and where
| his married sister lived, had once. been
fashionable. You could tell that from
| the houses-big, broad, roomy, old-fash-
| ioned brick residences of bygone day,
| with quaint colonial doorways, elaborate
! " carved, the lintels in many cases sup
ported by the classic Ionic or Doric col
umns affected by the builders of cent
| ury ago.
but their glory had departed. The
spirit of decay had fallen upon them.
and the children of those who built them
had moved to finer and more modern
| homes.
But the Jennings and the Kents were
an exception. They had withstood the
general exodus and continued to live in
| the house which had been their family
rooftree~ for nigh 100 years. They were
plain, quiet, conservative ,: people, and
| fashionable families who had all moved
| away.
"Here's Uncle Dick!' shouted the boys
| as they grabbed his big travelling bag