The Topeka state journal., 1922-12-25
EUening Story
What Happened to Santa Claus.
RY IA. Louis RAYBOLD,

BY H LOUIS RAYBOLD.
sI can't back out at this late day"
declared Marcia firmly. Il accepted
the chairmanship and will have to
stick by my bargain
''And We can be married any old
time," broke in her disgruntled fiance
bitterly. "Of course, it's thousand
times more important for you to work
yourself to death getting up a com
munity Christmas tree for Higgins
vile than it is for you to fulfill your
destiny as a woman and
"Bosh!X said Marcia rudely. Then,
penitently. Pm sorry, Dick, but long
before you suggested our being mar
ried during the holidays I had taken
on this thing and now~I can't get out
of it 1 should think you'd pitch in
and help me-"
Nothing doing" retorted Dick. and
his tone was short. ''It has come be-
tween you and me and spoiled what
might have been the most wonderful
Christmas of our lives. In fact, it
makes me wonder if you really do care
for me after ALI"
Marcia regarded him, startled. Was
this plain 'little-boy peevishness,' or
was he really in earnest? And be-
cause she was tired and, altho not
ready to admit 1t, a bit regrekful that
she had not yielded to his solicitations,
she assumed an air of dignity she did
not really feel.
remarked coldly. And ten minutes
later Dick was leaving the house with
n sparkling little diamond making an
anonymously heavy load in his left
hand overcoat pocket.
For the next few weeks Marcia
worked madly to drown remorse.
There was no limit to her activities.
She superfntended the cutting of the
mammoth evergreen to be placed on
the town green; she interviewed cleo
tT-i1 nh
1nation; she rehearsed the school chill
dren who were to sing hymns and
the young girls who were to sing
carols; she obtained speakers for the
occasion and Boy Scouts to assist
Santa Claus in his distribution of
candy boxes to the youngsters. She
even secured the services of Harry
Taylor as the jolly old saint and pre-
vailed upon him to appear in the
proper custom of red flannel and
Only at night when, mentally and
physically worn out, she flung herself
into bed, did she let herself think of
Dick. And her thoughts were tortur
ingly poignant. How could he have
taken her SO casually at her word-a
hastily spoken word, at that? Surely,
it was a proof that he himself did not
care. AS for her. well, it had taken
just this sort of thing to convince her
that her heart was irrevocably Dick s
Furthermore, she could not refrain
from blaming him for failin her now
when the assistance of an able young
man whom she could have ordered
about at will would have meant SO
much. As it was, she had seen moth
ing of him since the night of their
petty quarrel.
The day of the celebration dawned
inauspiciously. A bitter northeast
wind. flinging about occasional savage
gusts of sleety snow, threatened to
raise havoc with the decorations of the
huge tree, which had been placed in
the very center of the green and brave
ly. Ndecked with shining ornaments,
which were to catch and throw back
the colorful CLEANS of light from nu-
merous red and green electric bulbs in
terspersed in the branches.
Flying about in the final hustle of
Marcia kept one eye on
the weather. ready at a~moment's no.
tice If necessary to call a haSty tele-
phone consultation of the members of
her committee regarding a postpone
ment of the festivities-ani emergency
only to be considered as a last resort
and altogether deplorable.
Somehow the hours dragged on and
at sunset came a lul1ing of the wind
and a few streaks of wintry color in
the west pressaging possible clearing.
Due to Marcia's meticulous plan
ming, events began to run as if by
had begun to gather on the Green she
was able to check off one item after
another as in absolute readiness. Then
of a sudden she missed the important
parsonage of the evening. None other
than Santa Claus. who with an ac-
of sleighbells and an
escort of Brownie boy scouts, was to
have driven up to the platform about
the tree in a gayly trimmed truck.
Anxious inquiry did not produce
him. NO one had seen Harry Taylor or
was cognizant of his whereabout