Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1910-12-27
CUPID MAKES A 1. CHRISTMAS CALL

coon, onite like old times to #S have you with us asaim ,n,,oh Christmas It seems niuen $ ,onger than four years since you were horo but I am sure things will appear as usual to you. we nn" eou %chance in our yearly program .o 1vhrisrn,as It is really the children 5 E day as if was when you and l nfs' s snent it together. q hesitated wnen & went to write how many years aso' \ IL p,.,st be eighteen) But l think 1a- z +hor and mother-and I-take quite us much interest in it as grown peopie uo in the circus-quite for the cniiui GU sake. of course. s. .I wo,,ld ask you to dinner 1mmeoi k atelv on your arrival Christmas eve' hut if I dared to suggest the presence Eof an outsider there would be a nup- E hub among the powers that rue tne ~ nursery and-at this season-the en- tire household. simply dare not say & anytbinc save that we should hAe 'o 4 have vou come at 9 precisely. so that M we may have little chat before the arrival of our other guests.
 E And indeed as he walked up the ave N me with his long prairie stride Chrlst- \ mas eye he was depressed to find & everything so little changed from the. N night four years since. when ne h"u \ Jeff New York for the west to make over his life in d new pattern of worb and usefulness.
 # Here was the familiar door and the N old bronze doorknob which had once N been on level with his eyes. And the E old butler, whom the Stantons had hau & for twenty years. opened the door to Q him and answered his greeting with d X respectful Good evening, Mir. Burn side" giving him his Christian name as if he had called only the evening
 before. But the hall was hidden in
 mass of evergreen and holly. and the
 electric bulbs glowed in their shades
 like huge berries in the greenery. And
 here he seemed suddenly a stranger
 Booming now on the old Christmas
 spirit to which his absence had made
 him an alien. 1t bewildered him; 1t hAiA'
 He entered the front drawing room
 and saw the hem of skirt disappear
 through the portieres which hung be
 tween that and the second drawing
 room behind it. Some one was placing
 Ia Christmas wreath in the middle win
 dow. woman's figure He did not
 Know her She turned to greet him with an eager. Why. Burnside. am
 so glad to see you" and grasped his
 brown fingers with a warm clasp of a
 white hand.
 She was not of that girlish fragillty
 which he had remembered. She was
 the elder sister of her old self. but in
 him her voice and manner were those
 of the girl whom he had loved-and lost
 four years before. He smiled at her
 sadly. How you have grown" he
 said
 She arched her eyebrows at him.
 "And you?" she laughed. "Why. you're
 as broad and brown as a soldier I
 shouldn't have known you. You have
 changed"
 Have I?' He caught at it eagerly
 She saw the trouble in his eyes.
 They'll all be delighted to see you
 looking so well'-she avoided it-"so
 big and strong
 He saw the picture of himself which she carried in her memory of him. and it pained him. He had thought that his letters would have told her. She held the wreath up to him. "l was pretending to hang 1t in the win dow." she confessed. ''so that should be the first to see you. And I didn't
 know you when you passed" He smiled again. and they sat down
 together How are they all?''
 "As we'll as ever." she said and be
 gan to tell him of them-how the chil
 dren had been growing: how hel
 mother was aging. And father" she
 whispered. 'is so deaf. You mustn'1 ?