The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1914-12-15

bring her the grotesque terror hardly
lessened, and she woke to sense Of
oppression and coming calamity such
as not even her night Of decision to
take the child had brought to her, a
weight as Of physical faintness and
sickness.
II feel as If something was going to
happen" she said over and over.
She was wholly ignorant that in that
week just passed the word had been
liberated and had run round Old Trail
Town in the happiest open secrecy:
Coming way from Idaho with a
tag on Christmas eve. We thought
If everybody could call that night
Just run into Mary's, you know, like it
was any other night and take in a lit
tie something to eat-no presents, you
know-oh, of course no presents-just
supper in basket. We'd all have to
eat somewhere. It won't be any
Christmas celebration, Of course-oh,
no, not with the paper signed and all!
but, just for us to kind Of meet and
be there when he gets OF the train
from Idaho"
"Just like it was any other night"
That was the part that abated suspi-
cion. Indeed, that had been the very
theory on which the nonobservance Of
Christmas had been based-the day
was to be treated like any other day.
And, obviously, on any other day such
a simple plan as this for the welcom-
ing Of a little stranger from Idaho
would have gone forward as a matter
Of course. Why deny him this merely
because the night Of his arrival CHANGED
to be Christmas eve? When Christ
mas was to be treated exactly as any
other day?
If in the heart of Mis- Abby Wins
low, where the plan had originated, it
had originated side by side with the
thought that the point of the plan was
the incidence Of Christmas eve she
kept her belief secret. The open argu-
ment was unassailable, and she con-
tented herself with that. Even Sim
con Buck, confronted with it, was ST.
lent.
"Goin' back on the paper, are you"
he had at first said, "and hev a cele-
brationr'
Celebration of what?" Mis- Wins
low demanded; celebration Of that
little boy getting here all alone, way
from Idaho. And we'd celebrate that
any other night, wouldn't we? OF
course we would. Our paper signing
don't call for us to give everybody
the cold shoulder as I know of, just
because it's Christmas or Christmas
eve, either"
mo-" Simeon owned, "of course 1t
don't. OF course it don't"
As for Abel Ames, he accepted the
proposal with an alacrity which he
was put to it to conceal.
$50 do" he said heartily, so do.
I guess we can go ahead Just like It
was plain day o. the week, can't
wer'
"Hetty," he said to his wife, whom
that noon he went through the house
to the kitchen expressly to tell, "can
you bake up a basket Of STUFF to take
over to Mary Chavah's next Tuesday
night?'
She looked up from the loaf she was
cutting, the habitual wonder of her
childish curved lashes accented by her
sudden curving Of eyebrows.
Next TuesdayT she said, "Why,
that's Christmas ever
Abel explained, saying, What Of
thatT and trying to speak indiffer-
emily but, in spite Of himself, shining
through. =.
"Well, that's kind of nice to do, amt
it?" she answered.
my. yes" Abel said emphatically.
Its a thing to do-that's the thing
to do
1t was Mis- Mortimer Bates, the non
conformist by nature, in whom doubts
came nearest to expression.
II don't know" she said; 1T kind of
does seem like hedging"
They amt anybody for it to seem
to-" Mis- Winslow contended reason
any, O0G uos Anu We uuucTSLduu.
I'VE was going to do entirely with
out a Christmas this year. Entirely
without" Mis- Bates rehearsed.
"Was we going to do entirely with
out every day, week day, year in and
year out milk of human kindness?'
Mis- Winslow demanded. "Well, then.
let's use little Of it, same as we
would on Monday wash day"
No voice was raised in real protest.
None who had signed the paper and
none who had not done SO could take
exception to this simple way Of hos
pitality to the little stranger with a
tag on. And 1t was the glory Of the
little town being a little town that
they somehow let it be known that
every one was expected to look in at
Mary's that night. No one was I'M
invited. And this was like q part Of
the midwinter mystery expressing IT.
self unbidden.
Mary alone was not told. She had
consistently objected to the Christ
mas observances for so long that they
feared the tyranny of her custom.
"She might not let us do it." they
said, "but II we all get there she can't
help liking 1t. She would on any 9TH
er day."
60 che oIono &, O,s u,-.,, r.-,