, 1901-12-19

work together. They all labored hard
enough. but independently, and each
Sith n view to inducing the minister
10 marry a different woman.
IT had been going on thus for some
months when Christmas approached.
Now of course there isn't much you
can give any man for Craftsmanship
pers and pipes and shot-guns and slip
pers. And in the case of a parson it's
still worse-you've got to drop off the
pipes and shotguns, leaving only Slip
pers-and slippers. OF course there are
book-marks n easy chairs. but the
first are trivial and the latter expen-
sive; besides, II he is unmarried ana
you 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, INT o can't make an
easy chair. So slippers 1t 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 t~hirty-six mar
lIdBtdDIt ldultS at AppltuuiB "'h W
work on slippers; and a few of the
flock who already had husbands also
began slippers, out of the goodness Of
their hearts. probably. or maybe think
ing that they might be widows some
| day and might as well have a pair to
their credit. The slaughter of plush
and embroidery materials was some-
thing c~yclonic, and the local shoe
maker had to sit up nights pegging on
soles. Even unfortunate little Jane
Wilkinson went at a pair hammer n
tongs, though everybody said she
hadn't a ghost of a show. In the first
place Jane was toe young-her older
sister Katharine was conceded to ave
a right to enter for the contest, but 1t
was universally held that Jane had no
right to compete at all. Besides be-
ing too young-she was really nineteen
or twenty-she was also plain. She
might nave a certain girlish prettiness.
but not the beauty which the wife of
SO handsome a shepherd as the Rev.
Mr.. Stanwix should have. Further
more, Jane was in no other way adapt
ed for the position-she had been a
good deal of n 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
him in the parlor in the most ap-
proved and circumspect manner. Jane
had blundereI in, and inside of five
minutes asked him why he didn't get
- ,.IoJ-a tho pirlc Caif III nnobt
to. Jane had explained to everybody
tha she meant it as a joke, but it haa
generally been pronounced ill-timed
and in bad taste.
Bit poor Jane kept working away on
her slippers regardless of the talk
Everybody said that James slippers
wouldn't fit, or that they would both
be for one foot. OF that she would get
he heels sewed IN the toe end. or
something. Jane finally put OF the
finishing touches and then packed them
in a pasteboard box and tied 1t with
pink ribbon
Then she got her other Christmas
presents ready. She had a lot of hand
kerchiefs for an aunt. and a shopping
bag for n married sister. and a 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
tin New Years. Each thing she care
fully put up in a box or bundle and
laid 1t away.
The day before Christmas was a
never-to-be-forgotten time for the
Rev. Mr.. Stanwix. Slippers just came
down on him like an Egyptian plague.
Along about four o'clock Stanwix
got crowded out of his room-slippers
piled half way to the ceiling-and had