The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-12-20

lHPN CeieDTdtt Ills DliiIt'ldN ny udNlfiE
christmas. This is where we got our
Christmas
JAMES SHAW, JR
! 9o5 w. Clay. street.
OUR CHRISTMAS.
/ Susie jamie and myself were sitting
in the sitting room with our mother
planning what and where we should
go and do during the Christmas holi-
days. We girls had saved up a nice
little sum of money and were antici-
pating grand time. Mother said
Girls. why not go and spend your
Christmas in the city this year with
your aunt and cousinsP You have al
ways spent it in the country, and |
think you Will have a delightful time
with Brother Wits family" W hat
delightful idea chorused the girls.
How lovely it is to have a mother to
plan for us. Just at that time father
came in and said: Mr.. jenkins Is
dead and the family is in great need.
You know he had consumption and
the doctors bills have consumed most
of their funds. although the doctor
was very lenient with them. Mr..
Brown will order the coffin, and, of
course. the town viii pay the funeral
expenses Mrs. jenkins has four small
children who have never known what
a real Christmas was / have given
and given until my funds are pearly
exhausted. You know We have to have
la Christmas ourselves "Oh, john,
said mother Il know what We will
do. will give them some of our
| Christmas dinner for tomorrow, and
will tell Dinah To make them 4 nice
fruit cake, and they will be happy"
"A fine idea, Fanny. That VIII he all
right" / had an idea, too, so | called
Susie and jamie as left the room and
they followed Immediately into the
Idining-room. 30, girls. said, Il
have something to tell YOU. a nice
plan. Listen. instead of going 10 the
city to spend Christmas let's give the
Jenkins q real Christmas. What
splendid idea" they said. we are
perfectly willing. You know We never
have given amy of our Christmas
money away" So upstairs we hurried
+ to our own rooms to enumerate the
things we were tn get and to see how
our money would hold out. We fount
that we had plenty. There were four
! little children. two boys and two girls.
Now all this occurred on the 23d or
! December. We went the next day to
get the presents. We had decided not
10 give any toys, but something t1at
they could eat and wear. This was
secret hat we had and did not eXpec
anyone else to know it. However, our
eldest brother, Tom, happened to
come upon us and heard us talking
about ii, and said that he wanted to
help too. 81 we got him to get the
Christmas tsee and put it where we
could get it. So off We started to get
the presents. We had a lovely time
picking out the presents and thinking
OF how they would be appreciated.
soon all was over and we started for
home laden with the presents We
lgreed that We would start to Mrs.
tcnkins about 1890 We wanted IT
he an entire surprise to them. We
allied Tom and told him we were
ready to start. It took us about ten
minutes to walk TO the house. We
peeped into the house and did not
see soul nor hear a sound, ana thae
lust suited us. Tom brought the tree
and we pulled the latch and walked
into the kitchen. We put the tree in
an empty corner and brought the
things from the porch. All of the
family We're sleeping upstairs which
was benefit to our work, for they
could not hear us Now our fun was
coming We were so glad that we
could hardly keep from laughing out
loud and we certainly did not want to
wake them. Every now and then on
would say Hush. you viii wake
Ithem," There was q nice pair OF
X
stockings for each We put four
four pretty caps on next, then came
two suits of clothes for the little boys
and pretty blue and red coat for the
girls. Then came a nice long black
coat for their mother. Now next
comes the candy, NUS, raisins, oranges
and ga kes-=We- pat the -eandy in little
cheese cloth bags and hung them on
the tree. We put paper all under the
I tree to represent snow. And we made
a pyramid of oranges under the tree.
ALSO all of the other things with nice
pair of shoes were put under there,
also. | guess you can imagine now
pretty the tree looked with the cam
dies all burning, We then pnt large
card on the top of the tree, with "A
Merry Christmas to All on II. Then
we left, after putting the candles out.
with merry hearts for hime. 1t was
about IL o'clock and we went straight
1 to bed not once stopping 10 look lnto
the big dinirg-room. My! how sound
lily we slept that night. We got up
next morning about O'clock, had an
excellent breakfast. and ran TO see IL
Santa had forgotten us Were we sur
prised? / guess we were. There were
things that we had been longing for
all our lives. AS soon as We had
finished looking and admirng the
/ things we took some hot coffee and
bread, a slice OF turkey and piece
iof some of everything that we had
tfor Christmas and took il over to
Mrs. Jenkins. You should have heard
! their shouts and ordinations OF
"How beautiful and How dear
! Old Santa is" You bet we were not
sorry one particle that we had spent
our money in tslat way instead Of
going to the city 1t was the grandest
Christmas we had ever had. and we
will long remember Il.
NELLIE 6. BABER.