New-York tribune., 1905-12-17
Mr.. PUFFER'S =CHRISTMAS
TOMTOOLERY -~@a~~
By Jefferson Lee Harbour

laughed joyously. Then she said to me:
q" Well now, / want to tell you that one
dav about a week before Christmas
happened to try the top drawer of the
bureau in our bedroom. The top
drawer is Puffer's and he's awfu11y fuSsy
about havin' it all to hisselfs It's big
drawer, and he amt thing to keep
in it but his change o underthings, a
clean shirt and a pair o. socks and his
Sunday neClltie; but let me put so much
as a Handkerchief o. mine in that drawer
and Ill find it flung to the fartherest
corner o the room as a perlite and gentle
reminder that it's been where it amt
no bushes to be. He got so upset
because / slipped a collar O. mine into
the drawer a few weeks ago that he got a
key and has kept the drawer locked since.
Il don't know what made me do it,
but few days before Christmas | Just
happened to try his drawer, and if it
didn't pull right out, and what in time
do you reckon there was in it? You'd
never guess, so | may as well tell you that
there was the greatest mess o toys and
things! Yes'm, there was a doll more
than a foot long and toy trains O. cars
and tops and marbles and blocks and
about two pounds o candy and bag
o nuts and lot o other stuff. You
could of knocked me down with a
feather. | wondered what under the
sun the. man had got that stuff for and |
who it was for, and him all the time |
jawin' about this Christmas tomfoolery.' |
He'd NO grandchildren 'ceptin' one away |
out West, and | knowed the stuff want |
goin' out there or it would be on the way. |
9 was foxy enough to keep my mouth /
shut, but | was bent on seem where all /
that stuff was goin'. Some women might |
of got mad and had all sorts O. ugly
s 'Picions, but l amt that sort. Still, |
| had enough o. the female curiosity O. /
Lots salty companion to want to know
who and what them things was for; but
l made up my mind that l wouldn't
even let Puffer know that I'd found 'em.
even scurried around and got a kew
and locked the drawer so that Puffer
wouldn't know that he had left it Lan.
Them things was still in that dral er
Christmas Eve, for | used my priv.te
key a--d saw 'em there, and l was awfully
Jefuddlcd to know what Puffer was
going to do with EN-"
She prodded the clothes in the wash
boiler vigorously before adding:
Nov I'm a real s1eepy-head. / a11us
90 to bed real early, and Puffer he's a
dnd OF an owl, for he sets up half the
night and is apt as not to go prow11n'
-ound with lamp three or four times
she other half. l sometimes tell him
1e must have something on his con-
science or he'd sleep more and better
I've walked up more than. once at two
n the morJ,in' and seen that man settin'
before the refrigerator eatin' anything
le could lay his hands on. He's queer in
more ways than one. / go to sleep
Utmost the instant my head touches my
oiller and | hardly ever know anything
lntil daylight. But Christmas Eve / III
trunk a good strong cup o. coffee !
before l went to bed, and then it was
Iood-by sleep for me. You see wanted
o keep awake to watch that bureau
Irawer, but possuned a lot even to the
Xtent o snorin to make Puffer think 1
vas sound asleep. l left him settin'
" the nice hot kitchen range readin' +.