St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1907-12-21

TO the window fartnent from the sick
mother and placed the lamp upon it.
Then she got out her precious, dimin-
ishiug store of letter paper that had to
be brought to her from miIea away,
like the rest of the supplies, and the
clumsy shears, and began to make
paper dolls.
Clip, clip, went the big shears. That
and the rustic of the paper were the
only sounds to be heard Gradually she
realized that the bowling of the wind
had ceased and the blizzard had gone
down
Lilies words kept repeating them
selves sleepily in her tired brain. "A
light load" Surely this Christmas
gift would be light enough for Santa
Claus to take anywhere. Clip, clip,
went the shears, and wonderful crea,
tfons fell from Hattie's hands. There
was father with q miniature news
paper spread out before him. There
was mother with q baby in her arms
and another in a tiny paper cradle ait
her feet. There were brothers and
sisters.
Snip-snip-Her hands went slower
and slower until the last of the paper
family trailed off into aimless cut.
ting. Then Hattie,s weary head sank
down on the table and Hattie was
asleep. Asleep and dreaming of Mark
In the daytime she could keep The
thought of him away from her with
fierce determination In the night it
would come She was dreaming and
she knew it, She had dreamed of
him too often not to know. AND in
her dream the door burst open and
Mark stood before her. Of course it
could not be real Or, rather, it was
dream of Marks ghost all deaShly
white. But even Marks ghost was
welcome. There could not be any
harm in embracing a ghost in q
dream. She threw her arms around his
neck
But this was no dream. 1t was too
solid and it was too cold. 1t was a
real man who stood before her be-
numbed with cold, and covered with
snow from head to foot
In fash she came out Of her
dream. It was well for Mark that
she was just what she was, and that
she knew what to do. She brought
| the great tub of melting snow-Water
cut off the frozen footwear and nit,
tens and plunged his feet and hands
in it. She rubbed his face with snow
She made hot coffee blessing the
forethought that had kept the kettle
filled with boiling water for the sick
woman's use-and forced him to drink
1t. Little by little life and strength
came back to him and incoherent
words
"started-with Crayer. He wanted
ITO see--his wife III wanted TO see
| you. Blizzard came up. Lost our
way. Dug hole in the snow and
stayed two night. Went long. while
and came to Smiths farm. Craver-
too badly froZen-to go on. VIII be
all right after awhile, but couldn't &c
on then. Wanted to like fury. Smith
had to hold him back. Good thing
He couldn't have come on his fr0zer
feet. I-came on-alone. Got lost
again. Been lost all day. Pretty neal
gave out Thought I'd have.-tC
give up. So dark and cold. Saw
your light when wind went down
Came to-you."
The words might be jerky and dis
! jointed, but Hattie understood it anC
never words sounded sweeter.
Santa Claus did come in the night,
chirruped Lille. 81 saw him. He wa.
all white. And he brought me this
She held up the precious paper dol
family.
Aren't they lubbly. / fought he
could get froo with light load
Then another thought came to her.
"But he didn't bring anything Il
you. Hattie. That's too bad"
mo, no, it's as good as it could be.
Hattie laughed out in pure joy. "Ht
brought me the one thing I wanted
most in the world. And ! shall b.
thankful to him every day live; fo
If / had not kept my lamp burning IL
the window while l was working
mean waiting for tim--Mark woul;
| not have found the Way."