Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1901-12-26

work together. They all labored hard
enough, hut independently, and each
with a view to inducing the minister
to marry "A different woman.
1t had been going on thus for some
months when Christmas approached.
Now of course there isn't much you
can give any man for Christmas-slip-
pers and pipes and shot-guns and slip
pers. And in the case of a parsOn it's
still worsc-youve got to drop off the
pipes and shotgrns. leaving only slip
pers--and slippers. OF course there are
book marks and easy chairs, but the
first are trivial and the latter eEpen-
sive: besides, II he is unmarried ana
ycu are Of the opposite SEX and in the
same state, you will see that you ought
to give him something made with your
own fair hands. and you cant make an
easy chair. So slippers it had to be
for the Rev. NJ. StanwiX, especially
after his landlady had been sounded
on the subject and reported that the
poor man didn't have a slipper to his
name
Well, the result was, of course, that
The whole hundred and thirty-siX mar
riageable ladies at Appleburg went to
work on slippers; and few of tho
flock "ho already had husbands also
began slippers, out Of the goodness or
their hearts, probably. or maybe think
ing that they might be widows some
day and might as well have pair to
their credit. The slaughter of plush
and embroidery materials was some
thing cyclonic, and the local shoe
! maker lad to sit up nights pegg:ng on
solos. Even unfortunate little Jane
! Wilkinson went at a pair hammer and
tongs. though everybody said she
| hadn't a ghost OF a show. In the first
! place Jane was too young-her older
| sister Katharine was conceded to have
a right to enter for the contest, but 1t
was universally held that Jane had no
! tight TO compete at all, Besides be-
! ing too young-she vas really nineteen
| or twenty-she was also plain. She
might have 4 certain Girlish prettiness,
| but not the beauty which the wife of
/ so handsome shepherd as the Rev.
| Mr.. Stanwix should have. Further
! moro, Jane was in no other way adapt
| ed for the position-she had been 4
good deal of a tombOy, and was yet, for
| that matter; she was frivolous and
| careless, and was always putting her
| foot in it. The first time the pastor
| had called at the Wilkinson house
and while Katherine was entertaining
| lin in the parlor in the most APP
| proved ard yircumspcct manner, Jane
! had bldnderel in, and inside of five
minutes asked him why he didn't get
/ married-all the girls said he ought
| to. Jane had explained TO everybody
that she meant it as a joke, but it HAD
| generally been pronounced ill-timed
and in bad taste.
Bat poor Jane kept working away on
her slippers regardless of the talk
| Everybody said that James slppers
wouldn't fit, or that they would both
he for one foot. or that she would get
! the heels sewed on the toe end, or
something. Jane finally put on the
finishing touches and then packed them
in n pasteboard box and tied it with
pink ribbon.
Then size got her other Christmas
presents ready. She had lot of hand
kerchicfs for an aunt. and a shopping
Tag for married sister. and n little
knit shawl for her grandmother, and
a pair of skates for a boy cousin, and
various other things for divers other
persons, including a fine meerschaum
pipe and a pound Of his favorite smok-
ing tobacco for her brother who was
at college. and who wouldn't be home
till New Years. Each thing she care
fully put up in box or bundle and
laid il away.
The day before Christmas was
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS time for the
Rev. Mr., Stanwlx. Slippers just came
down on him like an Egyptian plague
Along about four o'clock StanwiX
got crowded out of his room-slippere
piled half way to the celling-and had