The Twin City star., 1915-01-09


"Well," Tab said. tomorrow morn
ing. right after breakfast. I'm going
to bring Theophills Thistledown down
and lend him to him." .......-. H..
"Ain't we going to bury Sandy Claus
right after breakfast?" demanded Gus
sic. -....
And all the children, even little EN-
lily, answered:
mo; let's not"
They all went on together and enter
ed Mary's gate. Those within. bearing
the singing. had opened the door. and
they brought them through that deep
arch Of warmth and light. Afterward
no one could remember whether or not
the greeting had been Merry Christ
mas" but there could have been no
mistaking what everybody meant
At his gate in the street wall lined
with snow bowed lilacs and mulber-
ries Ebenezer Rule waited in the dark
for his two friends to come back. He
had found Kate Kerr In his kitchen
methodically making a jar of Christ
mas cookies. C"You've got to eat. If
it is Christmas" she had defended
herself in a whisper.) And to her
stupefaction he had dispatched her to
Mary Chavah's with her entire Christ
mas baking in basket
IL don't believe they've got near
enough for all the folks l see going"
he explained 1t.
While he went within doors he had
left the hobbyhOrse in the snow close
to the wall. and he came back there
to wait. The street had emptied. BY
now every one had gone to Mary
Chavah's. Once he caught the CLEAN
of lanterns down the road and heard
children's voices singing. For some
time he heard the singing. and after
it had stopped he fancied that he
heard it. Startled, he looked up into
the wide night lying serene above the
town and not yet become vexed by
the towns shadows and interrupted by
their lights. 1t was as If the singing
came from up there. But the night
kept its way Of looking steadily be-
yond him.
1t came to Ebenezer that the night
had not always been so unconscious
of his presence. The one long ago. for
example, when he had slept beneath
this wall and dreamed that he had
kingdom: those other nights when he
had wandered abroad with his star
glass. Then the night used to be
something else. 1t had seemed to meet
him, to admit him. Now he knew,
and for a long time had known that
when he was abroad in the night he
was there. so to say, without his per-
mission. As for men. he could not
tell when relation with them had
changed, when he had begun to think
of them as among the externals, but he
knew that now he ran along the sur
face Of them and let them go. He
never met them as "others." as be-
longing to countless equations Of which
he was one term. and they playing
that wonderful, near role Of ''other."
Thus he had got along. as If his own
| individuation were the only one that
udu ever OCCuEIcu anu do az rshS
mass of mankind-and the night and
the day-were undifferentiated from
some substance all inimical.
Then this vast egoism had heard it.
self expressed in the mention OF
Bruce's baby-the third generation.
But by the great sorcery wherewith
nature has protected herself. this NAM
moth sense Of self. when 1t extends
unto the next generations. becomes
keeper Of the race. Ebenezer had been
touched, relaxed, disintegrated. Here
was an interest outside himself which
was yet no external. Vast. level reach
es lay about that fact and all long
unexplored. But these were peopled
He saw them peopled. ..
AS in the cheer and stir within the
house where that night were gathered
his townsfOlk. his neighbors. his
\ hands" He had thought that their
way Of meeting him. If he chose to 60
among them, would matter nothing.
Abruptly now he saw that 1t would
matter more than he could bear. They
were in there at Mary's. the rooms full
of little families. getting along as best
they could. taking pride in their chill
dren. looking ahead. looking ahead
and they would not know that he un-
derstood. He could not have defined
offhand what 1t was that he under
stood. But it had. it seemed. some
thing to do with Lettys account book
and Bruce's baby.
Gradually he let himself face what
it was that he was wanting to do.
And when he faced that he left the
hobbyhorse where 1t was under the
wall and went into the street.
He took his place among the exter-
nails Of the winter night. himself un
conscious Of them. The night. with
all its content. thing of explicable
fellowships. lay waiting patiently for
those of its children who knew its face.
In the dark and under the snow the
very elements of earth and life were
obscured. as in some clear wash cor.
recting too strong values He moved
along the village. and now fiis domi-
nant consciousness was the same con,
scioushess in which that little village
lived. But he knew II only as the i'm