The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-12-12

shabby figure outside relaxed,
|shivering bit, against the wall of
the station. He was thinking fast,
but his listening now was less
CAREFUL he knew the rest; his
|data was collected.
There was a whistle down the
track, and wave of humanity
drew together; the train pulled in,
and the mail lowering in the back
ground waited to see Mr.. Max
well and Maxwell Field, in a fur
lined ulster with it's collar and
cuffs of sable, and the thin
clergyman in his overcoat little
gray at the seams, enter car to-
lgether, before he sprang unno-
ticed into the car behind them.
The two big children and their
small mother sat ON the rug be-
fore the fire, the fire being an
especial luxury for Christmas Eve.
The nursery was pleasant room;
the spendthrift fierlight washed
brightness over gay colors of coarse
|stuffs, over cheap prints of fine
pictures, over the whitewashed
walls and the peace of the two
white beds folded back for the
might. There was a homelike at
|mosphere, full of the alert leisure
of a house where much is done.
The children leaned close against
the woman between them; the
girls hair was spread on her
mothers shoulders, and the boys
arm was around her and his head
pressed her arm.
"Say The Night Before Christ
mas again, mother" he begged.
"You promised you'd say it next. Z"
"No, she didn't, Benny" OBJ
jected the girl. "She only prom
Used she's say 1t again; she hasn't
said While Shepherds Watched at
all yet, or told us the story of the
beasts on Christmas Eve. Have
you, mother?"
MY knee, Benny-you weigh
a ton, dear" demonstrated the
mother, pushing a heavy foot.
well do this, Alice. Benny
knows While Shepherds Watched
as we'll as I, and if he'll say it,
then I'll do The Night Before
Christmas, and the story, and just
anything you want"
81 like your saying of it, moth
Ter, better than I do Benny's. He
always makes the angels talk like
people," Alice demurred.
But the boy, undisturbed by
Icriticism, began at once. His
large brown eyes fixed on the fire,
he recited, slowly and conscien-
Itiously, the two-hundred-year-
Christmas carol:
while Shepherds watched their
flocks by night
All seated on the ground,
The angel of the Lord came down
And glory sheen around"
the reedy voice repeated, and a
listener might have understood
what Alice meant. 1t was much
as If John Jones had met William
Smith and mentioned to him a
matter of news about mutual
friend, an angel. But to the
woman who listened with the
boys head against her shoulder,
the homogeneous infections were
sweet; the audacity of it seemed
to bring so near, that 1t thrilled
her, a night when, for another
Child's sake, the skies had rung
with a song that has echoed al
ways. Benny's fresh tones dis
closed, with careful conversational
emphasis, more and more facts
|about angels, to him a shade less
real, shade more holy than his
mother.
"To you in David's town this day
Is born of David's line
A Savior, who Is Christ the Lord,
And this shall be the sign"
was elucidated in a realistic man
ner, and the child proceeded to ex-
plain.
Thus spoke the seraph and
forthwith appeared shining
throng of angels-praising God
who thus addressed their joyful
song"
An atheist would have got an
hearing him tell 1t,
that the boy had seen with his
eyes and heard with his ears
what he related. There was
silence as the sturdy tones ended
and Benny's eyes gazed on into the
heart of the fire, as If they saw in
"a vision the still eastern night, the
on the hills, the white
flight of angels.
"You repeated it very nicely"
Mrs. Harding said softly, and put
her mouth against his head again.
"Now you shall have yours"
The big eleven-year-old girl
caught her mothers hand-a hand
worn with housework and sewing
and held it against her cheek.
Twas the night before Christ
mas, when all through the house."
the woman began, and went on, as
many women have begun and gone
on with the charming old poem, to
children on Christmas Eve. The
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