The Monmouth inquirer., 1923-12-06

| about always having wanted such a
foolish folderol He did hear them, all
right. You saw to thatl But he mag
ined, too. He knew what that kind Of
wanting means"
"And believe me, your old dad, when
he has walked on all these dozens of
Christmas mornings Of his life, has
hoped that he himself would find just
such a long-wanted folderol in his
sock. And instead of it, what has he
found? Say, what has he?"
l hung my head "Neckties, socks,
handkerchiefs, calendars and writing
paper"
"Huhl And what has he hoped he'd
fnd?"
"a phonograrh, a genuine meer-
schaum, tiye-pound box of chocolates,
house slippers (Mother never would
let him go shutting round in slippers,
though), a seal ring for his little fin
ger Imagine y, full set of Dickens.
Oh, lots of things that he really didn't
need, you know, and some that would
have been ridiculous !"
Finishing, looked up at my loving
husband. SpeechlessIy, he was point
ing one long finger at me. When our
eyes met, he burst forth:
"And you knew all this, and never
took the pains to imagine how he felt
A fine daughter! All of you, fine, I'M
selfish people Well, his son-in-law
can't give him all those long-wanted
folderols-not this year-but you bet
he's going to give him the lounging
jacket, a blue velvet one with gilt
braid, and cord with tassels. His
loving daughter may give him tie
if she's absolutely sure he needs one
and she can find one suitable for an
aged man of seventy"
But Harry's sarcasm, by now, was
being wasted. I had caught his point
some seconds before. For the first
time I saw Dad in new light. Why,
he had never had a proper Christmas,
poor dear; never in his whole life.
And we, all of his children, had been
brought up on perfect Christmases; all
our hearts desires bullying out Of our
stockings and shining from the treel
And he had done it for us-simply be-
cause he knew the hidden, childish
disappointment Of almost seventy
Christmas stockings filed with prac-
teal, sensible gifts His parents had
been really poor. Christmas on their
barren little farm in Canada had been
/ of necessity a slim affair. And his
early married years had been a
hearted youth making his way against
odds, selling insurance in a stiff-necked
old town.
But these later years-things might
have been different. He had made
! good. There was comfortable home
all paid for to the last mortgage, and
a sufficient income from renewals
now that all of us children had flown
to nests of our own Yes, things might
have been different now.
"And they shall be different this
/ Christmas" cried out of my sudden
waking. Wen give Dad real Christ
mas, the kind-sly, dear old fox-he's
always dreamed of"
"Where are you off to, ElizabethY'
shouted my husband, for had jumped
from the chair-aTm and was out in
the hall, talking to myself as I went.
'Pm going to get my writing paper"
/ sang back from the landing at the
first turn of the stairs.
/ And when / had fumbled for it
through the desk in our dark room
j q was too impatient to find the switch)
I and returned to the sitting room, I
explained
1--WE can't do it alone Hal. Not a
regular, bang-up Christmas like he de-
servesi I'm going to write to my
Z brothers and sisters; all six of 'em, and
say they must come in. Well just not
: give presents to one another at all this
year. Wen concentrate on Dad. And
Mother, too, of course. Only we al
ways did give her nice things any
way"
"Bully for you'll I'll say you are
/ quick, in getting an idea, Elizabeth
You know you" But I'd best leave
/ out all that. Harry is an old dear, and
entirely sverrates his perfectly ordi-
nary little wifel
So that is how Dads first Christmas
came about.
Harry and l and the children got
home for it. The others, unfortu-
nately, live too far away to come But
they had>all fallen in with our scheme,
and we found their exciting-looking
bundles for Dad there, hidden by
Mother safely in the attic. Their bold
Don't open till Christmas inscrip-
tons glared out at US from the attic
twilight
But it didn't seem fair that all of us
shouldn't have had the fun of seeing
Dad the next morning in his bewil-
dered delight!
On Christmas Eve, after we had
stuffed the children's stockings, and
/ then hung up our own, and put our
bundles for each other around Them or
| in them. Dad eyed his curious and