The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-12-09

berries slipped along the
waxed black thread upon
H7& which old man Harpers
TT knotty fingers were stringins
W 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 theys purity nigh enough to
make a right smart shown on the lit
tie scalawag's tree,-what say, Lett
tiarT'
well, Pa, declare 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 a
brown fascinator beneath her chin. In
an emphatic Gordian-knot. You just
70 ahead and string every last cram
berry In that there dish-pan. I'm goin'
to run over to Mis- Wallace's for her
spice cake recent. If Tommy comes
in tell him he's got to shovel the front
walk q in before dark. They's quite
q furry outside. An see II you can
remember to throw on handful Of
coal after awhile, Pa. You're that FOR
getful you're lrble to set here an let
the 6re 60 plumb out"
I'LL 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
uuavering voice Of the old man.
Patiently he continued to pierce the
eranberries with the great darning nee
die, first holding 1t close to the frosty
window to re-thread it by the waning
light. It might have been rosary,
hat scarlet strand.-each berry a
Christmas time Of the years that had
BASED. O, those other Christmas times
when the old house had been filed with
he toddling little ones and the merry
foung ones and their smiling elders I
Every year had thinned the Christmas
boming numbers. Fred's folks had
Zone out west; Clara and her family
we're In Florida; poor George was dead
Ind the children and their mother too
poor to make the annual trip; An
Drew.-who knew what had become Of
andrew, a runaway at eighteen, ne'er-
lowell always, convict, they had
heard, at twenty.
There would be only the three Of
them to sit down this year to Letitia's,
perfect turkey. crisply brown and burst,
ms. as though BY the prodigious bulge
bf its stufilng to equal the great gtrth
bf the birds Of former days. Had I'll
pot been for Tommy, one Of George's|
boys. whom Letitia, as a matter OIL
)tern duty. was raising, for the first'
lime in a quarter OF a century there
would have been no Christmas tree in
The plant-filled bay-window in the par
)or. But 1t should never b said that
b child Of Georges had not received
III the BENEFITS Of q Christian home.
erom the catechism 10 Christmas trees.
30 there 1t stood In STATE with its bat
kered trinkets and its taFnished tinsel
baubles. lacking only the gny festoons
pf berries that the old man was fash
Joining in the deepening dusk Of the
huiet kitchen.
As he held up his needle again to the
light, eyes squinted nearly shut, 1t
seemed to him suddenly that face was
peering into the room through n square
pf the kitchen window. But the room
had been so peopled with the memories
that had crowded upon him. he thought
It must be one Of the dream faces that
be had conjured up.
In a moment he heard the crunch Of
Footsteps on the snow in the yard L.
kitia back SO soon! And he had for.
Rotten to put the coal on the fire-the
hand with which he reached for the
shovel on Its nail fell back again to