The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1914-02-25
The Rewards OF UnseIilshncys.

The American Magazine has been
Offering prizes for the best letters
entitled MY Best Christmas" The
prize-winning letters are published in
the December number. The follow.
ing letter, which is a true account Of
the reward one woman gained from
her own unselfshness, won third
prize:
oh. how / dreaded that fret
Cristmas in western Kansas! We had
come to cur claim in August from
good town in northern Illinois, and as
the cold weather approached I won.
dersd whether I could ever stand the
dreary winter. for dreary it would
most certainly be. as my nearest
neighbor was three miles from me.
Our only little one was not q year
old, just beginning to walk around
and try to talk. and one day when
was particularly blue my husband
suggested that we have a Christmas
tree for baby and invite ali the
ranchsrs' families around us. That
seemed to me a great idea, and I i'm
mediately set to work. ] saw most
OF them tho next Sunday in the little
sod schoolhouse whore we held Sum
day school and meetings Of all kinds.
All were willing to come, but insist.
ed that they too should do something
toward making it q success, so we ap-
portionsd the baking. candymaking
and corR-popping.
Il had determined to make some
thing for every child that would be
there and 1t seemed to me the days,
which bad been 30 long before, fairly
new. but what pleasure 1t was when
had everything finished at least
week before Christmas! / told little
Donald about each one al i made it,
as he was the only one had to listen
to my plans. and I think he understood
more than the ordinary child at his
age for this very reason, at least
imagined that he did. My husband
had found q dead cottonwood tree
down on the river and had brought
1t homo and nailed 1t in Q box and
had 1t wrapped with green crepe
paper.
On the evening Of the twenty FIRST
noticed that Donald did not seem
we'll. and at dark when my husband
came home from the ranch where he
had been hauling oil cake. I asked
him to GO and bring over Mrs. Miller.
as she had raised q family and would
probably know what was the matter
with him, and as the nearest doctor
was twenty-five miles away. 1t was
nearly to hours before they came
and in the meantime Donald had been
growing worse and seemed unable to
get his breath. used every available
remedy. but could see that something
must be done quickly.
As soon a. Mrs.. Miller got ia, she
looked at the baby and said to her
husband. who had come with them,
Get on q horse at once and bring
Doctor Brown as soon as YOU cam My
heart sank. because / know that il
was only in an emergency that the
doctor was called. I looked appeal
ingly at her. and she said brio ".
'Membraneous Group. I t.
From that moment we never
stopped trying to do something that
would at least enable us to keep my
baby until the doctor came, but 20 no
avail. 1t was five o'clock in the morn
ing before he arrived. and our baby
had been dead three hours. We buried
him the next day, and to me the gay.
bright preparations we had made for
Christmas were a mockery; and after
our return frNm the little bleak grave
yard I told Mrs. Miller. who had
kindly accompanied us home. she
could take the stuff and do what she
liked with II. there would be no
Christmas for me-
Very WE'LL she said, but do you
realize how many will be disappoint-
ed? The children have looked for
ward to this, and ii you could go
through with it I believe you would
feel better than to drop Il. Try it
won't you, dearie? know just how
hard this Is for you. for I have been
through the same experience. Du. il
we can be big and unselfsh enough to
think OF others we will find more
comfort for the great loss than all
the grieving one can do
AT first I could not consent but at
last I did SO. From that time until
Christmas Eve some Of the neighbor
women stayed with me and we had
everything ready. We had planned to
have all come Christmas morning and