The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-12-04

work of meeting this last paroxysm of Christmas shopping. The querulous customer was gone and half dozen crowded into her place, grabbing, un- reasona ble, insistent-
 In the renewed rusn Tessie caught sight of Magic at the post card coun- ter The young fellow had edged 1p closer. They were laughing at some thing. It took no won1 ans fz=tI>i'z~'- to guess what sort of a card they were laughing at.
 See, here, Tessie, if you go to sleep over the goods I'll have you fred" Again it was the foorwaIker, not a bad fellow, but mindful of the store and it's customers. Tessie bit her lip and said nothing. Her feet felt heavier than ever. Her head swan. The customers were more insistent as the clock hands advanced. Was there no antitoxin for the poisoned Christ mas Eve? 7e
 At last the last hour of closing came Tessie had been invited to a Christmas dinner given by some phil anthropic people to working girls. The store had given Christmas bo- nus of two dollars and during the time when she should have been eating her supper she had run off to purchase $1.59 met waist to wear to the festa1 dinner But somehow the
 
 gladden. Tessie. She was too worn out.
 Tessie dragged herself rather than walked out on the side street from the employees entrance. At the curb a young man was standing. He lift ed his hat. Merry Christmas. kid," he said. It was not an unpleasant voice. Tessie did not look twice. She hugged her $1.59 waist closer to her thin coat and sped up the street which took her past dance hall. Couples were going in and coming out. In there was light and life and happiness.
 The crisp snow crunched beside her. Say, kid, yer needn't run away from me. Come on in and have a dance"
 Tessie looked up and drew back in surprise. The young man following her was the fellow to whom Mazie had been talking so gaily at the post card counter.
 Just then the music started-"Ev- erybody's doing it. Sheecould feel her feet, tired as they were. urged on by the strains On the waxed floor Mazie glided into her line of vision.
 'tHuh! She had 8 date wid dat guy and stood me off Said she had to go home" sneered the voice at her side. Come on in, kid. got mon- ey and I don't care how spend it for a good time. Come on."
 He took her arm, not roughly, but in a grasp that was new and strange to Tessie An instant later she had broken away from him and was ac- tually running down the street, slip ping, sliding, but keeping on dog gedIy. At last, breathless, exhausted she reached her home. She crawled upstairs to the narrow hall bedroom warmed only by the gas jet that even failed to light 1t. She paused a mo ment to look about the bare room with 8 growing resentment at her lot. There was the bIackened and battered coffee pot and couple of rolls for to-morrow's breakfast. Leisure was precious, weariness extreme. yet she kept her room neat and clean. Shf, was not very clever, nor very compe- tent, nor foresighted, perhaps. She knew nothing of scientific manage ment or of efficient salesnanship But she was human and somehow, down in her heart, she knew she did not deserve this.s
 She threw herself on the bed. What Christmas Eve this was for her too tired even for sleep. , There flashed through Tessie's mind the picture of the gay crowd in the dance hall, of Mazie in her furs. of the young fellow who had spoken to her. He was good looking, better looking than the fellow Maz1e had been dancing with. She sat up with a shudder at herself. A week ago she would have cried even to have harbored such thoughts 9 moment. But now it seemed different. What did it all amount to, this hopeless struggle to be decent?
 s1 don't know where I'll be next Christmas she moaned as she look ed at the ironing-board and little tub which she must use even before she could go to the pIilanthropic Christ mas dinner, almost as an almstaker, '1 don't know where I'll be next Christmas, but I just won't stand it. no, I won't, I won't!'
 This is the next Christmas, this coming Christmas. Who knows-i perhaps if we do our Christmas shop ping early, early in the month and early in the day, perhaps if we are a little more considerate of the girl be- hind the counter, well, perhaps we can make Tessie's Christmas more bearab1e. make it seem more worth while for Tessie to fight along and keep straight, make the toxin of Christmas fatigue not quite so poi sonous.
 Boston-Widows are barred from the