Norwich bulletin., 1916-12-23
AUNT BETSY'S FIRST CHRISTMAS
BY DINAH ROCK

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 -.Yes. we are going to have a Christ mas, the first real Christmas there ever was in the old house; the first ever had My folks never made much of holidays and after married Amos Parker you know how it was. Amos thought he must spend Christmas eve at the saloons and when he came home there was not much Christmas spirit, but plenty of the other kind.
 I put a cookie or apple in the stock tngs when the children were small, but Daniel (named for father) ran away when he was 15 and I have not heard from him in ten years. Nellie went off with that city fellow who boarded at the hotel in the village be- fore she was IT, and two years ago run away with another woman and first wife had appeared and asked me to take baby Bessie so she could work.
 Amos would not have it and he was acting so I did not dare try to take her. so Nellie put her in a home.
 When Amos got hurt sltis fall and could not get out we got him sobered out and in his right mind and Nellie and the baby come to help take care of him. He will never walk again, but he doesn't suffer much and he sets his life by baby Bessie.
 Nellie and take care of the horse and COW and hens and she drives over to the village and helps a day when folks have extra work.
 I helped Mrs. Clark when her mother was sick and Dr. Burns says he can get me plenty of work where there is sickness and we are planning real Christmas with a tree and all. I don't often run on so but you have been a good friend to me, Mrs. Smith,
 Mrs. Smith looked around the yard in which she had stood while her neighbor was talking. It was raked clean of the rubbish that had been there for years and the clean. cheap curtains at the windows of the old farmhouse showed that a change of some kind had taken place.
 Aunt Betsy had always kept things as neat as her poverty and Amos habits would let her; but although lit tie had been added to the scanty fur nishings it seemed a new place.
 The kitchen that also served for a dining room was clean and bright; in the little bedroom at the back was a neat bed and bureau; the room that had been the spare room had been changed into a sitting room with the cane-seated chairs from the front room" The bureau and washstand re- mained, but the bed had been moved, into the front room" where the big rocker with cushioned back and seat; the little cane-seated and wooden rockers; a small full-1eaf table; a worn lounge with a cretonne cover ttIu tl10 lIlllS SiOke IAdu0 d cheerful place for the invalid.
 Bessie's toys were scanty-a cheap picturebook and a small cloth doll, few spools and the bright covers of some tin spice boxes, but she had never known better and was happy.
 Christmas eve found Amos Parker sober for the first time in at least twenty five years and the household bustling around in true Christmas style.
 Aunt Betsy moved out the little ta- ble in the front room and covered it with a white cloth. We will have supper in here together, Amos. Some how I have felt all day as if somebody was coming; but I don't know who could. I felt so sure I moved bed from the chamber into the spare room.'
 She talked on as she set the table and brought on the hot raised biscuits, preserve cookies and tea. The lamp light showed the wreaths and punches