The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1907-01-17
TheGuardefth the
ChristmaSGemS
By James Raymond Perry
Copyright, ipE. BY James Raymond Perry

WV TT. after alt not forgetting ihe
A rocking horse charger. as gen.
"a he as be- was spirited. or the
belt and sWord--ihal gilt hilt-
ell. bright bladed affair or the fas-
ciGating air gun that would shoot
crimson tipped darts With marvellous
acruacy forgetting, indeed. any
OF the many delishiful presents the
fact remained that quite the most en-
chanting thing on the Christmas tree
Was the wonderful dancing fiddler.
He was barely foot high and propor.
,l0naiely slender, but for all that he
was very lfellke little manlkin.
And the way he could dance and fiddle
was cautioui His Kidding was pan
tomime; the little violin which he
held so lovingly against his neck and
which he scfaped SO industrlously with
bis bow made no sound. but his dane
Ing was quite the real thing. even II It
was kind OF shuttle Instead OF the
light fantastic" kind All you had
10 do 10 make him fiddle aud dance
was 10 wind up spring tucked away
somewhere under his little coat and
off he would 20 as Lively as you please.
Robbie ut once named the dancing
fiddler Sambo, because Snmbo was the
reputed name OF dusky liddler who in
summer often came up Oh his street
with addle and song and a shniiiy
dance to catch the pennies OF the pc
cunlous youngsters dwelling there. This
little Christmas Sambo was not nearly
as dark as the big summer Sambo, but
he was quite dark nevertheless after
the style OF u sun Drowned Italian His
garments, too, were gaudy and IN keep
ing with the character. He had quite
speaking dark eyes-this little manikin
and SO well had his maker done his
work that when Sambo got 20 scrapins
and dancing you had droll sense that
beneath his crimson waistcoat tiny
human heart must beat. He was that
lifelike, you see,
Though Robbie belted his sword on
al once he let II hang unnoticed at his
side, and though he kept the air gun
close by him he gave it but scant at
tention, so busy was he winding up the
spring and watching Sambo fiddle and
dance. Whether the little heart under
the crimson vest finally rebelled at hay
ing 10 work so hard on Christmas eve
OF all nights or whether for other and
more mechanical reasons, IL is a fact
that AT last, after being freshly wound,
the tired little fiddler refused to bulge
Shake him as you would, not a scrape
would he give to his bow or a shuifling
push 10 his feet Robbie viewed him
with reproachful eyes.
"You probably wound him up too
tisirt, pu,,,,,-,'' t-ni,ioined. Ar. yr.iias %.
"Just leave him till morning. Perhaps
he'll be rested then and ready to dance
some more It's time little tots were
abed now"
Reluctantly Robbie accepted the sit
uatlon. He wished that among other
presents might be one that carried with
II permission on. Christmas eve to sit
up all night. When you have n Christ
mas tree only once year you ought |
TO have 1t for the whole of one night.
1t was pure waste OF time and money
70. 20 20 bed aud leave 1t, still all
a-shlmmer, with candles not yet half
burned out, before the clock even
struck 10! But that was one OF the |
ways OF the world. Grownup folks, |
like papa and mamma, were very nice
very nice, indeed-because they made |
the Christmas tree for you and loaded /
II with dancing fiddlers and speckled |
chargers and guns and swords and all
the rest, but for all that they didn't |
understand economy In such matters,
and when he grew up and made Christ
mas trees for his children II should be |