The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-12-24
Tom and the High Cost
of Christmas Gifts

va! Nav. this I wantcha for is some
| thing soft; safe and easy as falling OFT
| log. You know the big prices people are
willing to pay for real booze since the
! country went dry, don't sha? Well, right
near here | know a certain warehouse
| that's got 20 cases of whisky stored in
| the basement Real bonded stuff The
Waterman is an old pal o mine and Is
willing to let us Swipe it if well split on
the coin we get afterwards. I've got an
] other guy with a fiiyver that's ready to
meet Us about o'clock this morning to
haul away the stuff as fast as we pass 1t
up to him through the alley windows.
We've got it all framed for a fake cap
tuTe and tying up of our other pal, the
night Waterman. so that the bull can't
get wise to him. We're willing to split
four ways on the swag if y wanta go in
on it with US. Whatcha say now, bO.
huh? Safe and easy as falling off a log -
The sinister appearance of the rufhan,
repealed Tom. and the very thought Of
the crime they contemplated struck him
with fright, 1t meant Jail, disgrace, if
they were caught.
But II never have done anything
like that in my life he stammered
weakly. teeth chattering in the biting
wind. 1t would be criminal. The whisky
doesn't belong to us. It would be illegal
for us even to try to sell it afterwards"
snceringy. You look pretty, bird like
youse, talking that way about what's
lawful and all that Lots that these rich
guys have cared how you got along since
you came to town, from the looks of you
They've got fine. warm homes and coin
and everything. Volta they care whether
poor buns like us have to go hungry OF
freeze in the gutter on Christmas eveE
Why should you care about them when
they don't give a rap about you? You've
got to go on living, amt cha, hUh?'
Tom hunched his shuddering shoulders
against the wind, trembling as much be
cause of his own moral irresOlutiOn as
from the terrible cold.
well, DO. how about it? Are Y on or
are Y still 50 almighty particular about
how Y handle the stuff belonging to all
them rich guys"
Cod groancd poor Tom in the abyss
of his wretchedness. Yes, I'll do it! l
will. | will :"
The other clapped him roughly on the
shoulder with a saturnine leer and at
tempt at iocular fellowship.
We'll, thought cha would he rasped
hoarscly. We'll meet cha at the corner
by the lumber ward at 40. Don't you
fail to be there now :"
81 won't. I'll be there all right :"
Tom muttcred brokenly. Already in his
cringing soul he felt like the thief he had
pledged himself to become. Oh heaven.
if only
Involuntarily his dragging footsteps.
took him back into the more brilliantly
t'lightcd retail shopping district, where the
crowds already had thinncd, hurrying
home to their families and happy. expec-
tant kiddies with the holiday celebration
| in mind.
! The hours dragged slowly by. 1t came
] near the hour for the stores to close. But
still there was time if poor Tom had only
had money, to have rushed in, bought the
! presents he wanted for the old folks and
children, and caught the midnight train
back to the country. He easily could
reach there by morning and appear as
! joyous surprise to them
] And right then, suddenly, he espied it
lying there, almost at his very feet-a
big, fat wallet, with not a person nearer
| than hundred yards of him. Plainly
someone had lost it in their mad haste to
get home.
Tom stopped and scooped it up like
fash. Around the corner he surrep-
titiously examined it. Bills-both green
and yellow. of large denominations-they
fairly stuffed it. There were seven hun
drcd dollars or more "a small fortune to
the miserable boy who had not even eaten
for fourteen hours. Money! Money
Money Far more than he could possibly
need even in his most extravagant dreams
With a gurgling cry, Tom stuffed the wad
of bills into his trousers pocket, threw
away the fine leather purse and made a
mad dash for the nearest department
store.
No need now to keep his sinister, Grim
inal appointment-no more necessity
+
! But the most gladstone feature of young
Toms Homecoming that next day was his
bushing announcement to the old folks
that be had come home to stay, as they
had prayed he would.
p. &C.. 1920, Western Newspaper Union.)