La Junta tribune., 1907-03-09

tie as he WAS spirited. or the
belt and swor.i-:hat gilt hilt-
ed. bright biad>d aHaT-or the fas-
cinatia; air gun that would shoot
crimson tipped darts w;-h marvellous
accuracy-not forgetting. indeed. any
Of th. E:s..y delightful presea;s-the
fact remained that quite the mast en-
chanting thing ol the Christmas tree
was the wonderful dsncin; fiddler.
He WIS barely foot high ami propJr-
lionaieiy slender. but for all that he
vas a very lifelike little manikin.
And the way he could dance and fiddle
was a caution. His adding was pan
tomilEr: the little violin which b.
held 50 lovingly against his neck AMI
which, he scriped SO insiu>trious!y with
bis bow mad. no sound. but his dane
lng was qIite the real thing. even II II
was a kind OF shuttle Instead OF IA.
slight fantastic" kind. All You hut
% do to make him fiddle aud dance
Mas 10 wind up spring tucked away
somewlier. under his little soat ami
On he would go ~ lively ~ you please.
Robbie at once named the dsncing
n.ldlrr Sambo. because Simbo WAS the
repufe name Of n dusky rtdier who In
summer of:., came a., o. his street
with Eddie and soag AMI shufiiy
dane to catch the pennies OF the Pc
cuniou. youngs gsiers dive. ling there. This
little Christmas Ssmi'o was not nearly
rs dark as The big summer Samlso. but
hr was quite dark ueyerthe'ess--aftcr
the sfy.e Of u sun Drowned Italian. His
garments. too. were gauily and Ia keep
ing with the character. He hal quite
spea king dark eyes-this little manikin
land =, well had his maker done his
work that when sanabo gut tn scrapinE
and dancing yon had n droii sense that
beneath his crimson waisteoat tiny
human heart must beat. He wac that
1ifelike, you sec.
Though Robbie beitcsi his sword OIL
at once he bet II hang unnotic~si ut bis
side. and though he kept. the air gun
Close by him he gave II but scant At
tention. 80 busy was he winding up the
spring aud watching saml'O hfdle and
dance. Whether the little heart under
tAe crimson vest finally rebels.i at hav-
ing to work 80 hard On Christmas eve
Of all nights-Or whether Tor other and
NOR. mechanical reasons. II 10 . fact
that at last. after being freshly wound.
the tired little nsitll~r refused to bulge.
ohske him ~ yoa would. not . scrape
would he give 10 his INV - . shutaing
push to his feet. Robbie Viewed him
With reproac achfui eyes.
IN "You probably wound htsn up tOO
'6nhe. Roblslr." explaised Mr.. Wallace
-Ssst leave him TIN msssing. Perhaps
hs'n b. rested tisea s,sd ready to dance
se0s more. It's time little tots were
absA Bow"
Reluctantly Robbie accepted the sit-
uattoa. lie wished that among other
psssents might be Que that carried with
IL permissIon on Christmas eve 10 sit
qs Ill night. when you have . Christ
mas tree ouiy once u year you ought
to have II for the whole of one night.
10 was pure waste of time and money
to gO 10 bed and leave II. still all
a-shImmcr. with candles not yet half
harmed out. before the clock even
strurk 10. But that was one OF the
ways Of the world. Grownup folks.
like papa and mamma. were very nice
very nice. in.ieed-because they made
the Christmas tree for you and ioade
IL with dancing iiddiers and specklel
chargers and guns and swords aud all
The rest. but for all that they didn't
uAicrsfand economy In such matters.
and when he grew mp and made Christ
mas trees for his children II should be