Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-12-25
|SOME ONES THOUGHTFUL ACT
LOST CHRISTMAS GIFT TRANS
MITTED BY THE FINDER.
Joy Brought to the Heart of the
Little Crippled Lady Who Had
Wrought the Remembrance.

There have always been Yuletide myths
| and legends and tales a-plenty, and there
always will be. but when something hap
pens that makes really, truly Christmas
story. something that is indicative of the
human, warm-hearted and ideal spirit of
the season. it is worth remembering and
repeating and printing.
There lives in this city of ours a little
lady who has been cripple from birth.
And she is poor. She is ill great part II
the time: she cannot walk, and We're it
not for those who have been good to
her the four W.Gis of her room would
measure her life from day to day.
But some years ago this little crippled
lady received the most useful kind of a
present. d rolling chair, from woman
who found happiness in doing things for
others. Never has the little crippled lady
forgotten 1t. She cannot walk and she Is
I'll and poor, but with her nimble. tireless
fingers she fashions beautiful things from
linen and ribbon and beads and other
things that lie within the limits of the
though the kind friend who gave the lit
tie crippled lady the rolling chair is dead
her memory fingers in the crippled lady S
mind like the purest perfume of old
fashioned lavender. And the things her
nimble fingers make during the long long
hours she is alone and that used to go,
with love and affection. to the kind friend
who gave her the rolling chair. now go
to the kind friends daughter. Gratitude,
the gratitude of constant thought and
patient effort. is real thing with the lit
tie crippled lady.
The Lost Gift.
Now this isn't long-time-ago story
Twas no later than yesterday morning
that letter came from the little Grip
pied lady to the daughter of the donor
Of the rolling chair. 1t told in simple,
old-fashioned phrases how the little GRIP
pied lady had fashioned for her friend a
Christmas present, and had wrapped it up
ever SO carefully and put inside a card
telling whom the gift was from and how
much love went with it-juSt as if that
were necessary. And then the little Grip
pied lady had asked a friend to take it to
the post office for her, for the weather
was very bad and she couldn't have gone
that far anyhow, not even in the summer
time, when it is SO warm and pleasant out
of doors
Well, there wasn't much else in the let
ter The friend had lost the Christmas
present before she reached the post Of
flee and the little cripple lady regretted
it-those dear, old-fashioned PHRASES
ever so much, indeed. And the daugh
ter of the woman who was SO good to
her would just have to take the word for
the deed. the greeting of merry Christ
mas and the love and affection of the
great big tender heart In the frail and
twisted body of the little crippled lady.
Only the letter didn't say anything about
big and tender heart The one who read
the letter just put that in herself. She
knew the hours, the long and willing
hours. that it had taken the little Grip
pied lady to fashion her Christmas gift,
and she read the letter through mist
Of tears when she thought of how sorry,
how pathetically, tragically sorry, the
little crippled lady must be.
And now comes the incest and sweetest
and most Christmasy part of the story.
The Gift Received.
This morning, in the first mall there
came to the daughter Of the donor of the
rolling chair, the kind friend who was al
ways remembered, the Christmas gift in
tended for her by the little crippled lady.
1t was neatly wrapped. and inside, just as
it had been put there, was the loving
message on the holly berry card. with
the little picture of Santa Claus in the
corner. And. although the package had
been lost on the street blocks and blocks
away from the post office, there it was.
with just exactly the right amount of
stampage up in the corner.
Wouldn't the man or woman. young or
Christmas gift of the little crippled lady
perhaps out of a snowpile; maybe from
the gutter where it had been kicked
and stamped it and mailed it, feel fine
and warm and satisfied way down deep
inside to know what he or she had done?
1t may not have meant SO much to the
one who did 1t. Maybe it just came
naturally. or perhaps twas the thought
Of Christmas and the recalled admoni-
ton to do as We would be done by. But
it meant so very, very much to the little
crippled lady.
So here merry Christmas to him or
her who did this gentle. kindly thing.
and, in all truth, if the scales of the
gods balance well today there is no doubt
of the merry part Of 1t at all. May he or
she read this little story and understand
that this is d happy day for the little
crippled lady and the friend who received
her gift, and that, if the belief of those
who have heard the little story comes
true, it will be placed as credit in the
open ledger of life among the entries that
count