The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1909-12-23


Il DIES rs NOT DOT cannot make q
NuFflN' Christmas then
nobody can. Why. Baby Deb alone fs
material enough Of which to make a
Christmas. and very rollicking. jolly
sort of Christmas. too, but when to
her you add Tom and Sue and Ann
and Ike and Sam-well, the grim old
lighthouse fairly overt1ows with Christ
mas every 18th Of December.
If it is lonely, old. one eyed light
house, has 1t not chimney? And do
not children there have Stockings
good, long stockings? Indeed, they
have. And does not Christmas eve
see them all temptingly hung, so In
ritingly limp and empty. under the
mantelsheIf? And does not Christians
morning-very early. mind you-see six
graduated. white robed ghosts per-
forming mysterious ceremonies around
SIX bullying stockings?
All. then. if you suppose that that
cunning old gentleman Santa Claus
does not know how to find chimney.
even when the cold waves are pelttng
1t with frozen spray drops ten miles
from land. you little know what a re-
markable gift he has that way.
And the Christmas dinners they have
there-the goose. the brown. crisp.
Juicy, melting roast goose! What
would that dinner be without that
goose? What, indeed.
But once-they turn pale at that
lighthouse now when they think OF IT.
they came very near having no goose
Tltr{oRraaS dnvf
It came about In this way. Papa-ah.
II you could only hear Baby Deb tell
about 1t. 1t would be worth the jour
ney. but you cannot. Of course. so
never mind Papa Stoughton. the light
house keeper. you know. had lost all
his money in savings bank that had
failed early In that December.
A goose Is really not very e1pen-
siye fowl, but II one has not the
money OF course one cannot buy even
a cheap thing. Papa Stoughton could
not afford goose. He said so-said
so before all the family.
Ike says that the silence that fell
upon that family then was painful to
hear. They looked at one another with
ewes so wide that it's mercy they
could ever shut them again.
$40 sooser' at last cried Tom, who
was the oldest.
mo goose!" cried the others in
chorus, all except Baby Deb. who was
busy at the time gently admonishing
sculpin, her most troublesome child,
for being so dirty. Baby Deb said
"No doosev after all the Others were
quiet.
That made them all laugh. No doubt
they thought that. after all. so long as
Baby Deb was there 1t would be
Christmas anyhow. goose or no goose.
So they were happy for moment until
the thought came that roast goose was
good on Christmas even with Baby
Deb, and then they locked dismayed
again.
However. when Papa stouEhton e1-
planned how It was they saw II as
plainly ms he did, and so they made
no more complaint. Only Tom fell
a-thinking, and when the Others saw
what lie was doing they did the same.
the difference being that Tom was
trying to think what he could do to
get the goose anyhow and they were
trying to think what he was thinking
about so that they could think the
same-all except Baby Deb, OF course,
who, being only four years old, gave
herself very! little concern about the
thoughts OF others. Her own thoughts
took all her time. ~ ~
Tom finally said t1AhF' under his
breath and mesteriously vanished into
another room after beciEoning his
IL ,ts PnIIntUs him