Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-03

ana molly sprays tlldl lido Soiiio hioiAt
the home woods-on tables and man
tells. and before a shrine. and beside
the picture of one who will walk the
earth no more-and had lighted big
red candle in honor of the Coming OF
the Child. when-it came to her
with shock like suddenness that there
was no cream for her breakfast toast
And that she must go for fright
now.
OF course, she wasn't going out in
the cold blackness for such foolish
reason as that, Wouldn't butter do?
And didn't she have fresh eggs just
from the farmland the best coffee,
ever? All the same, she knew she
had to go-What was Christmas toast
without cream?
SO she went out, per "whim and
found the night so eNhilarat1ng with
it's gay, scurrying crowds, radio music
from every corner. and children laugh
ing out expectations OF gifts that were
coming to them, that the cream was
forgotten, and the woman. charged
with a sense of the beauty of the
night, and all it stood for. turned into
a side street and walked and walked
and walked-until she came to long
and deserted car trackEeXcept Tor
woman and a little child.
The woman seemed to be ransacking
her entire outfit of bag and pockets,
and by the time the cream woman
reached her, was crying out in an
anguish that no mere physical hurt
could cause She had lost her car
token; her money was spent: she lived
in Georgetown and this was Capitol
Hill, And she didn't know the way.
Any average being, rich. poor.
white or colored. stands ready to re
lieve so small a loss, but 1t just hap
pened that no one was there to help
Christmas eve belongs to home
and love and laughter-and this was
a quiet. way-off street. So. of course,
the plain woman stood by until the
car came, and added TO her tiny help
with a small dollar bill for the baby
you never can tell what may hap
pen before n nervous bit OF young
mother gets her baby homeland
that was all there was to II, except
that:
When the woman got back to the
radiance Of her small world-entirely
regardless of the forgotten cream
she said to herself, having no one to
say 1t to, and women must talk or
die:
IT wonder II I was sent out to
help that woman? wonder who
sent me?"
NEW YEAR eve was in his blood.
You could tell: He was of the
dubious age when a mans friends
chaff him about getting younger
every day. And the thickness of his
neck made you know that he had
doctor who warned him not to get
excited and bring on old Apply, but
his pigeon wing was fine!
He cut it with boyish abandon as
he skipped the curb from asphalt to
bricks In tho old year twilight-and
as 1t isn't the usual thing to be ex-
pected from an oldish and potty gen.
tleman, he felt called upon to chuckle
a short -breathed explanation to his
companion, whose dignity matched
his gray hairs. Likewise, man
like-you remember Father Adam
he blamed the woman. shriveled
leaf of something that may once
have had its blooming in the poets
garden of girls, who was scraping
out a tune on her fiddle.
1t was a squeaky fiddle and the
bow called for more rosin. but
memory helps a whole lot when the
tune happens to be Turkey in the
Straw" 1t helped such a big lot
that, as the fiddler sawed the strings.
lHe OIulHnc dlr SStlIleu " GARRY Will
1t the unstudied melody Of a voice
that will call no more: Swing yo'
partnahs, All sash-shay 'roun'-'
"Old reels like that go to my toes
hold on, III have to stake the little
old dame to a dime for reminding
me of my dancing days. Here's
where you don't have to shell out.
you old stick you. Don't believe you
ever had a dancing day in your
life,'
"Oh, might as we'll chip in. The
poor little old soul doesn't look as If
she ever had a dancing day, either"
And the old stick slipped some
thing into the fiddler woman's open
mouthed bag. But it wasn't coin.
Bill
x !;
TWO young mothers were confab-