El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-12-16
Copyright 1911 By L ]. Robinson.

copyright 1871 BY J. Robinson
7 NE by one the crimson Gran
~ berries slipped along The
waxed black thread upon
which old man Harper's
knoty fingers were stringing
y them. Presently he held up
proudly the end Of the polished
strand Of berries, that curled in bright
circles about his chair in its snug har-
Dor there behind the kitchen stove.
Reckon they's purity nigh enough to
make a right smart shown on the lit
tie scalawag's uee-what say, Lett
tiary'
Wei, Pa, declare I b'lieve you're
gettin' lazy" snapped the thin, brisk
woman VINO was standing before the
bury mirror above the sink, though
scorning to look into as she tied
brown fascinator beneath her chin, in
an emphatic Gordian-knot. You just
90 ahead and string every last cram
berry in that there dish-pan- I'm goin'
TO run over to Mis- Walaca's for her
spice cake receipt If Tommy comes /
in tel him he's got to shovel the front
walk in before dark. They's quite
a furry outside. An see if you can
remember to throw on a handful Of
coal after awhile Pa. You're that for
getful you're li'ble to set here an let
the IRE 60 plumb out"
"I'II Try not to fergit, Letitiar. An.
an you know I'd just as lief as not
string the berries for" The gust
Of wind from the quickly opened and
closed door quite extinguished the
quavering voice Of the old man.
Patiently he continued to pierce the
eranberries with the great darning nee
die, first holding it close to the frosty
window to re-thread it by the waning
Light. 1t might have been a rosary,
that scarlet srand,-each berry
Christmas time Of the years that had
passed o, those other Christmas times
when the old house had been filed with
the toddling little ones and the merry
young ones and their smiling eldersi
Every year had thinned the Christmas
homing numbers. Fred's folks had
gone out west; Clara and her family d
we're in Florida; poor George was dead a
md the children and their mother too I
poor to make the annual trip; An
ireWs-who knew what had become OF t
Andrew, q runaway at eighteen, a ne'er-
lowell always, a convict they had
leard, at twenty.
There would be only the three Of
hem to sit down this year to Letitia's
'erfect turkey, crisply brown and burst
ng, as though by the prodigious bulge
4 its stufng to equal the great girth
I the birds Of former days. Had it
lot been for Tommy. one Of Georges
oys, whom Letitia, as a matter OF
tern duty, was raising, for the first
ime in a quarter Of a century there
7ould have been no Christmas tree in
be plant-hIled bay-window in the par
II. But it should never be said that
child Of Georges had not received
Il the benefits Of a Christian home.
rom the catechism to Christmas trees.
o there it stood in state with its bat
sred trinkets and its furnished tinsel
aubles. lacking only the gay festoons
berries that the old man was fash
ming in the deepening dusk Of the
net kitchen.
As he held up his needle again to the
GIT, eyes squinted nearly shut, it
'emed to him suddenly that a face was
eering into the room through a square
the kitchen window. But the room
Id been so peopled with the memories
at had crowded upon him, he thought
must be one Of the dream faces that
. had conjured up.
In a moment he heard the crunch Of
Otsteps on the snow in the yard. Le-
ia back so soon! And he had for hu
.tten to put the coal on the fre-the ~ p,
md with which he reached for the "a
oEel On its nail fell back again to ha