The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-12-25

Here was a chance for the Boss to
exert his physical superiority. He
felt that the discourse had gone
against him in spite of his triumph at
the end.
Il tole you my Pa said there want
no Santa Claus" he growled. You
mean my pas a lie do you?"
The Boss grimy fist was
COUPLED up and he edged in to the Boy
with his left shoulder. The Boy gave
ground slightly and spoke in low
voice to controlthe 1uaver of fear and
excitement. He tried. however, to
dodge the issue
My Pepper told me there was "a
Santa Claus
The Boss shifted: Your Peppers
as big a lie as you
And then the boy realized that he
had done an awful thing. He had
sinitten the Boss in the nose and it
vas bleeding. In an instant the heat
of battle was ON him. The demoraliz-
ed Boss fought bhndly. the Boy with
the calculating fever of success. Blow
followed blow, while the Boss tried
Vaanly to come to a 'Wrassle." The
crowd stood by ut first to see the de-
molition of the Boy, then shaken with
doubt, finally with rising hope. Sud-
denly the Boy hit the nose again.
bringing more blood. The Boss burst
into a flood of tears and the Boy,
trembling but eXquis. tely happy, stood
Ly gloating over his enemy and secret
~ wondering at his own prowess, while
the tickle company of his friends
danced around and around with point
ed fingers:
Hi. Hi! Yah. Yah. Jimmy licked
you'll Jimmy licked you. Hi! Hi!'
And as the dethroned boss walked
painfully sobbing towards his home
the new ruler of the clan stood
among his admiring friends and re-
peated over and over.
He ant no good. Talking about
no Santa Claus. Didn't 1 see him,
huh ?"
But as the Boy proudly explained
that he had licked the Boss. the quilt
of the beautiful lie that had come
so confidently from his lips was heavy
upon his soul. Not that he cared for
the lie, so that in it's essence it spoke
the truth. 1t was the doubt that bit
into his heart, that came at night to
to people the darkness of his room
with SIT footed hyDocritical parents
with lying gifts in their hands. AS
Christmas came on the doubt grew
and Swelled in Importance. The Boss
slowly working up his courage for
another test at arms, fostered it In
duStriOuSly, not personally, but
through drops of poison in the minds
of smaller satellites who faithfully re-
ported in the, hopes of another fight.
The larger boys caught on to the sit
uation. They named him SANITY
and the appellation stuck. They
jeered him on the streets, and talked
constantly of reindeer, followed by
hoarse and uproarious laughter. They
followed the joke with the cruel
avidity known only to the small boy.
The subject never seemed to pail.
Finally the Boy threw down his guard.
He knew all the time, he said, and was
just fooling the kids. The Boss got
gay and he licked him. Jimmy dis
missed the matter with a wave
of the hand. The jeers With
which the explanation was re-
ceived bent more than those which
had followed, while he was sticking to
his faith. There yet remained the
satisfying knowledge that he had
licked the Boss. Even that he felt
had been accidental and he avoided a
conflict. But the Boss was not TO be
put off. The latter grew holder day
by day. Finally he forced the issue
and the Boy was whipped to the
almost a pariah. His tickle follow
ing left him in day. The Santa
Claus story was the best thing of the
year. With the rehabilitation of the
Boss. less because unbearable to the
Boy He retired from the society of
his kind. He made strange acquaint-
ances in distant parts of town-boys
who went with girls and wore shoes
in the summer time,
And always he thought of the lie
that he had told and of the doubt that
grew by day and took tangible form
in his dreams at night.
And at last the night came when
he put it to the tcSt. For Il long
time he laid and listened. listened
with a strange sense of guilt at his
heart. not for Santa Claus. but for his
parents. Several times he went toI
sleep only to be awakened by tense
drawn nerves. Occasionally in somel
distant room he heard voices and the
rustling of paper in the hall. Thel
town clock struck twelve. Usually
his parents went early to bed. Even
tonight he had been sent early to his
room because everybody must be
asleep when Santa Claus comes Asi
he thought. of these things the faint
hope that the boy had left f1ickered
and went out. He tucked his head in
the pillow and wept quietly in the
night.
Suddenly he walked. AS he moved
he saw that there was a dim light in
sah." AND lay Sill. As he looked
from beneath half c,osed lids he saw
his parents standing motionless at thel
mantel. His mother mad a finger on
her lips; his father was frozen like a
statue with stocking in his hand. |
The Boy lay quiet-"counting five be-
tween breath The whole opera
ton proceeded beneath his eyes. He
watched the pair arrange the gifts on
the chair He saw his mother were
writing on slips of paper which she
pinned here and there. Finally, while
the father stood and smiled, he saw
his mother slip to his bed: and he
felt the light brush of her lips against
his hair.
The Boy knew the wrost. He felt
suddenly that he was a man. And
he remembered with II shame that he |
had not felt before his Christmas lie. |
And his parents We're responsible. It'll
was they who had done this thing.
The Boy groaned as he thought of
their deception. So got ont y: bed
angrily and approached his gifts.
Santa Claus indeed, What d fool and
blind he had beeni He had seen
several of these things in the stores,
the identical things. He had told his
father what he wanted. And that
was how Santa Claus always knew.