The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1907-12-21


mother and placed the lamp upon II.
Then she sp- out her precious. dimin-
ishins store of letter paper that had to
be brousht 10 her from 6 miles away,
like the rest ni the supplies. and the
clumsy sh,als aad began to make
paper dol
Cnp, CID vent the big shears That
and the i-stle Of the paper were the
only souits TO be heard. Gradually she
realized laat the bowling OF the wind
had ceaS"I and the blizzard had gone
down.
Lille words kept repeating them
selves s'erIi,y in her tired brain A
light lo@a Surely this Christmas
gift wou.a be light enough for Santa
Claus 10 -ake anywhere. Clip, clip,
went IN shears, and wonderful crea-
lons lei l1m ltattie's hands. There
was father with a miniature news
paper sp1d ont before him. There
was m"Luer with baby in her arms
and anciter in a tiny paper cradle at
her fee There were brothers and
sisters.
Snip-s14H-lIer hands went slower
and SLOW until the last of the paper
family 'rHlei of into aimless cut
ting. Then Hattie's weary head sank
down o. rhr table and Hattie was
asleep Asleep and dreaming of Mark
In tn" .a' lne she could keep the
thought h.m away from her with
fierce .uiuation In the night 1t
would t.Ar She was dreaming and
she kne it, She had dreamed Of
him to" often not to know And In
her dream the door burst open and
Mark stood before her. or course It
could no. be real. Or. rather, it was
dream ot Marks ghost all deathly
white. Hut even Marks ghost was
welcome. There could not be any
harm ii embracing a ghost in q
dream. She threw her arms around his
neck
But tlns 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 flash she came out OF her
dream. II was well for Mark that
she wa Just what she was and that
she kn,H what to do. She brought
the great tub of melting snow water
cut OFF III" frozen footwear and init.
tens an plunged his feet and hands
in it. She rubbed his face with snow
She mai hot coffee-blessing the
forethoushr that had kept the kettle
filled with boiling water for the sick
woman use-and forced him to drink
1t. Litt!e by little life and strength
came back to him and incoherent
words.
Stare Craver He wanted
to see-his wife. I wanted-to see
you. Hizzard 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 trozen-to go on. Will be
all right after awhile, but couldn't &c
on then. Wanted to like fury. Smith
had III hold him back. Good thing
| He couldn't have come on his frozer
| feet I-came on-alone Got lost
| again Been lost all day. Pretty near
gave out. Thought I'd have-tc
your light when wind went down
| Came to-you."
The words might be jerky and dis
| jointed, but Hattie understood it and
never words sounded sweeter.
Santa Claus did come in the night. :
| chirruped Lille. Il saw him He was
all white. And he brought me this. ;
She held up the precious paper dol
| family.
Aren't they luhSly. l fought he
| could get froo with a light load.
| Then another thought came to her.
"Bu. he didn't bring anything tc
| you Hattie. That's too bad"
NO, no, it's as good as it could be- >
Hattie laughed out in pure joy He
brought me the one thing | wanted
most in the world. And | shall be
/ thankful to him every day | live: for
if | had not kept my lamp burning In
the window while | was working
| mean waiting for him-Mark would
not have found the way"