The Glenwood post., 1923-08-23
Total ...... ...............S6 cent

It was wonderful evening. The
three young Penfields went through 1t
as in happy dream. They could no
more believe in its reality than the
Gagged bird can believe in sudden free
dom. Here was not merely a good
time, hut the climax of bliss, the es
sence of things long hoped for. The
air was full of the pungency of fir
boughs. And there was the tree itself
in corner of the livinc-room, its
branches hung with tinsel. Lettie's
three yards of this ethereal trimming
| had been separated into cunning
| lengths and disposed with an appear
ance of abundance And candles!
| They could not be denied. Six of
them! There were four strings of pop
corn In graduated terrace; walnut
shells, decorated with whatever paint
had offered: eggshells also, with bright
pictures affixed And what matter If
the contents of these latter had gone
TO the nourishment Of other tenants in
The Custard Cup? The decorative pos
sibilities had been saved for the Pen
field tree,
And then the presents. For every
child: a pictorial eggshell, picture
puzzle, net bag of popcorn and can
dy; for every adult, an appropriate
blot and verse, and picture puzzle!
The hardest thing was to wait till
hulf-past seven, the hour at which the
guests were bidden. At twenty-five
minutes past, the candles We're light
ed, schedule which precluded the
waste of wax without justiflable
number of observers. It was the
touch. A long-drawn "Oh-h-h!" ex
pressed the complete qualification Of
all the Penfields. From that time on,
fairyland was an open book. Thad's
blue eyes were unbelieyably wide, and
he tiptoed about in an awed and silent
ecstasy. Crink was full of important
errands, having gratuitously assumed
responsibilities for salient features of
the evening.
AS for Lettie, she was not the same
child that had struggled into Mrs.
Penfield's kitchen three months before,
undernourished, bllndly resentful
against the harshness Of an unthink-
Ing world, ready to fight anything and
anyone to keep her starved soul In her
starved body-a creature forced by the
indifference of society into reversion
to elemental instincts, 10 primitive
pugnacity. Without vollton she had
been shot into scheme of things that
had no place for her, that frowned up
on her with heavy dlsapproval. She
had been saved from the attitude that
might have followed-the attitude of
n society that later holds up its hands
In shock of horror and repudiates
the menace that Its own carelessness
has nurtured. 1t will always be Sc
until that society ceases to segregnte
It's human strays, to be housed In cor.
rect stone buildings and fed from long.
handled spoons, and rouses to the In
alienable right of the Individual to in.
dividual care.
Tonight Lettie was radiant. She
might later know Joy TINT would be
broader and deeper, but It could never
more fully inundate her capacity
Her thin cheeks were beginning to take
on the curve Of health; her black curls
were neat and glossy; and she was
wearing the new serge dress presented
by Mrs. Sanders. AS she flew busily
through the rooms, she stopped nov
md then for look Of Indifferent dis
dnin at the temper gong. Could It be
possible that she had needed that-ol
ever would agaln7 In her present state
Of bentitude, certainly not The hourl