The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-22
BY PAUL M'KENDRIck

much she helped me out nobody else
knows. She says: We have piles OF
folks here that can sing. Annie Cobt
and Jessie Black can hev a duet
whichever that waS-'an1 Name Wig
gins can have a part, and the Skinner
children can hev a song. Then if you
and some more'll join in and take
parts, 1 can get it up, and it will be
a success. If ii amt a success l won't
have thing to do with it
Il took another breath and let go OF
the one l had been squeezin'. felt like
a man that's been pulled out Of tho
water in January and laid up beside
the lire. / saw there was singin' in
it, and l felt at that moment that
was no SLOUGH at singin'. My opinion
was that ! hadn't gone 70 Buck Kel-
ler's singin' school two winters for
nuthin'. But if had been carryin' my
Monday, Tuesday and every other day
sense with me. I'd have remembered
that / never said a piece in school, and
that | always took a back seat al
singin' and hid behind a book-l was
so dIl-fired bashful.
We'll. it was fixed UP that l was to
be Santa Claus and Tidy give me a
book that had the words in. l was to
be dressed I'D In a buffalo robe with
whiskers made of cotton, and had to
sing about four OF five lines and then
pass around the candy and presents
That seemed easier than rollin' off a
log. By the way l felt when Tidy
was tallkin' about it, 1 b'lieve 1 could
hev sung a book full of songs.
Il camped at home for a week OF
more a-tryin' to learn the lines. ! said
them over and over, but there didn't
seem 10 be pitch enough on my brain
down on a slip of paper and / carried
that with me, and every time I'd forget
I'd pull that paper out to look at it
and get a fresh start.
"a week on the front side of Christ
mas, Tidy sent word for me to come
to rehearse, as she called it, That
meant that everybody was to sing and
do just like they'd do a-Christmas SOS
they'd get used to the harness.
THAT cantater was in the church
where the one is to be had this year
There was nobody there when we re-
hearsed but the ones that had parts,
and 1 plowed through 'thout hittin' a
root. I came last and 1 had the book
cause IL wasn't supposed to be the real
thing that night. Besides, Tidy stood
by the organ and see-sawed her hand
to me when to trOt out and start
around the ring; but I never looked at
one Twin soul after 1 cut loose-jest
kept my little peppers nailed TO that
book. We all agreed that the cantater
would be better'n a scircus and went
home feelin' important-like.
Il took Tidy in my sleigh, and she'd
talk about nuthin' but the cantater. ]
tried to switch her off onto matters
that TO my style of thinkin' had more
interest for US, but she didn't seem to
want to be switched that way. She
was soaked with that cantater. She
says:
Since I got this cantater up stacks
of folks is jealous-sCme cause their
children amt in it and some cause
they think I'm putin on style since
I've been to school in town. I ain't
slept much over it, and if it amt a
great success I don't know what I'll do
III feel so humilerated.'
Il didn't want her to feel that way,
so / said awful encouragin' words to
her and clinched the thing by tellin'
her that if she couldn't make the whole
business whistle nobody in seventeen
counties could.
"Since she had come home I was
dead sot on gittin' her TO say yes to
a little question ] had been winterin'
for a long spell, and that was the boss
reason I had for bein' hauled into the
cantater. l wanted to please her and
keep sloshin' around handy while l
Matched out a good chance to pop. So
on this night, when she came to the
hankerin' -fOr-sympathy point. I told
her that the cantater'd be dandy and
that it wouldn't hev an insect on It or
a kink in its name or tail. Then i fig
ured that I'd take her Christmas night,
and when We got on the road home
some place where the trees made a
nice comfortable shadow and she was
feelin' gay and gingery, I'd chirp my
little chirp.
christmas night everything was
ready and waitin'. Tidy and the
preacher bOssed the job. The front of
the church was fixed up like a dancin'
platform, with spruce all around it.
We had sheets tackled I'D on each side
of the platform for the cantater people
to hide behind. On one side was the
organ and on tother side on the floor
was big spruce tree Jest plastered
over with red, white and blue paper,
sticks OF candy, and all kinds of doll
rabies and candles. That tree wouldn't
hev been known by it's own rnother-it
was sight, I tell you.
Some Of the cantater folks would
hev made you almost Gle of laughin'-
they's dressed up so ridiculous. but
Tidy said they had to be that way.
As / said ! was to be Santer Claus.
and 1 had myself got up regardless
Jest kivered with that robe. and every
thing regular.
Back OF the sheets everyone was
hummin' the songs SOS they'd not for
git. and Tidy was a-prancin' here ana
there, tellin' them how to do. Mothers
that had children in it kept busy Ak
in their hair and tryin' to keep their
little darlings from eryin' or fightin'
each other.
when l squinted out 'twixt the
sheets and saw the church damned full