The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-12-23
Mary Bells Christmas
Stratagein.

Christmas does somehow always re-
mind me of Mary Bell Allick. No
sooner do the windows begin to- bios
som out with holly and tinsel than |
see the face of Mary Bell, smiling
pleasantly at me out of the past. Per
haps it is because she was such a.
pleasant and wholesome sight to see,
with her red cheeks and her merry
smile merry was the word that best
described Mary Bell, and maybe that
is why her memory always comes back
to me at the merry season. But j
think it is the Christmas prank she
played on her lover that links her
forever with Christmas.
Mary Bell Allick Summers was her
whole name, but that was too long for
calling. She was the daughter of "old
man. Summers, who lived up in
Battle Harbor in Labrador To give
you the right clue to this story, I'd
best begin right where | began to
know Mary Bell when we were both
gay young girls together up Labra-
dor way.
My father had very prosperous
canning business in those days, and
he used to get great quantities of cod
fish, salmon, herring, trout, mackerel,
and capelin from his agents along the
Labrador coast. Once in a great
while he would journey up there to
see how old man Summers and his
other agents were getting on, and on
one of these journeys he asked mother
if she cared to accompany him and
take my sister Margaret and myself
Mother was always ready to pick UP
and go somewhere. getting ready
afterwards; SO we made that trip with
father.
After fathers business had been
transacted and mother began packing
for the homeward journey, Margaret
would not let mother pack any of her
things. When asked her reason she
quite took our breath away by an
nouncing her intention of marrying
Marc Silon, who, by the way, was
about the strongest, brawniest man it
had ever been my fortune to meet.
You might have told us slowly
said father, and his eyes tWinkled.
think he must have been expecting
some crisis in Margaret's affairs, and
could see that he was very well
pleased at her choice. He had known
Mr.. Silon for years, and besides being
well-to.do he was an honorable gentle
man.
Mother tried to dissuade Margaret.
do you know that it gets to be
about thirty degrees below zero UP
here?" asked mother.
1--WE looked over the list of what
ladies wear in winter up here" an.
severed Margaret, "and though I'll adj
nit that mackinaws don't look SO very
stylish, or mukluks either, after ALL.
il everybody wears about the same
style of garments, what's the differ
ence."
Margaret and / had always been in.
separable, and the thought of going
home without her seemed lige fune-
raj.
Let Alice stay with me for the
winter" pleaded Margaret. Joe and
Alec will be company for you down
homer'
So, after much wl1eedling and coax
ing, father and mother reluctantly
gave in, and / stayed on with Mar
garet after she had married that rein
carnated Samson.
After that it did not seem any time
before ice fields from BaA1n's Bay
were drifting in and blockading the
shores, and the snow began to fall in
regular avalanches. Sister Margaret's
house was quite large one, and very
substantially built. Mr.. Siion had an
addition built to it for hef, hauling
the timber all the way from the in
terror valleys. The Silonis house and
that of Harrison Mugford, who was
Mr.. Silon's partner in the trapping
business, we're the jolliest kind of
| places, some festivity going on in
either one or the other of the houses
most of the time, principally when the
two. men would come home from the
wilds, the dogs straining, and the,
ko1natfks loaded down with foxes,
Elynxes, beavers. offers and other poor
things that had been unwafy of the
traps. AT such times the GREATER part
Of the village was invited, he great
room would be decorated, and there
would be what the boys call quite a
blowout.
1t was at one OF these dfairs at
Mugford's that I met Mary Bell, who
was Mugford's sweetheart and we be-
came good friends. After he affair
at Mugford's, Mary Bell STAGED few
days at Margaret's at my ihyitation.
and came to know her terry wen
she was a regular dare-de,fl, and q
very beautiful one. ! have 70 use that
word, no other name would fit her.
IHer practical Jokes were sonething
/ unique in their way, and somehow they
| seldom left sting. She had a laugh
Ithat was musical and contagious, and