Holbrook argus., 1905-12-23
CHRISTMAS OF THE SORROWFUL
Even Those Who Mourn Have Sources
 of Comfort at Yu1e-Tide.

of Comfort at Yule-Tide.
 Twenty express wagons, backed up against the curb, waited the arrival of the Limited-twenty express wagons and a hearse. It was Christmas day and Sunday, and the drivers were adding a Sabbath days hard labor to week the daily tasks of which had extended far into the night There were none too many wagons as the wire had assured the office, for a vast bulk of delayed Christmas matter was coming on the Limited.
 On the Limited too, was to arrive the body of good man, who had gone away in search of health, and had found it in the land where pain is no more. His son waited the arrival of the belated train, and choked down unhappy thoughts which seemed the sadder because all the world was happy, while he and his household were in grief. He arranged the preliminaries with the express com pany, and waited in it's freight room with the undertaken, expecting every minute that the train would arrive. But the train was late, and it seemed impos- sible to get word of it. So there was nothing to do but wait and think sad thoughts.
 Forty expressmen and drivers waited also, exchanging as they waited their tales of hard service and late hours and grumbling a little at the work before them.
 Still the train delayed. An hour, a half-hour more passed, and the time dragged slowly. The hard-luck stories had all been told. The temporary sense of relief in an hour of rest gave place to restless desire on the part of the eXpressmen to get at their work and fin ish it. A period of silence succeeded the noisy chatter. Then one of the men be- gan to sing:
 "Joy to the world! The Lord is come!
 Let earth receive her King!
 Let every heart prepare Him room,
 And heaven and nature sing!'
 Several voices joined, and all the oth- CTS listened. The tune was Antioch" with it's adaptat tion of the opening strains of the Messiah" and the bass voices came in full and strong in their re- sponse, "And heaven and nature sing"
 "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" followed, and then a number of other gospel hymns. The sad-hearted man felt himself strangely moved, and drew im- perceptibly nearer to the group of sing ers At last they sang, "Shall We Gath CT at the RiverT and he looked through swimming eyes and saw that the under taker, too, was wiping away the tears.
 q lost three little ones just a year ago." said the undertaken. "Diphtheria. They all went at once; all l had. I've been thinking a good deal when 1 saw other men going home with Christmas things"
 He choked and moved away, but near CT to the singers, and when they sang the last verse he was singing with them.
 Then the mourner forgot his own grief. He, too, had voice, and in the next hymn he joined the steadily growing chorus. Half an hour they sang togeth- CT, and when the train came In they all felt that they had been joining in a Christmas service, and that some of the Christmas spirit had come to them.
 Death keeps no holidays. No season Is exempt from his dread visits. The homes to which he comes are often the sadder because of their pathetic contrast with the joy of the world. But even to the sorrowful there are sources of comfort. Happy are those who find them. even through their tears.-Youth's Companion.
 He who guesses at things usually has another guess coming.