Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-21
Christmas
Gift
ByFannie Hurst.
A New Story by One of
Americas Famous
Writers.


pecable ethics in his dealings with
men had finally succeeded in grinding
into Thomas Mares consciousness
one bitter, outstanding conclusion.
The alleged law of compensation was no law
at all.
Men who practiced ruthless tactics with
their fellow men seemed to be the ones who
succeeded. Women who def1ed the cardinal
virtues, which in the recesses of his old
fashioned heart Thomas still held sacred,
seemed to be the ones who reaped. More
usually than not the wages Of sin seemed to
be not death, but more of life.
AS he grew older and more bitter and more
resigned to the establishment of the 20 years
since he had been on his own in the struggle
for& existence, Thomas found himself more and
more frequently airing some of his bitterness
in the presence of Adalia his wife who was
part Of the reason for the sullen resentment
that tugged at his heart like tide.
No more than in his own case did there
seem any reason for the sullen kind of fate
that logged at the life of Adalia. She was q
good wife. More than that, she was a good
mother, and If ever a woman played her game
Of life fairly and squarely, with due regard for
others, with fidelity toward her husband and
alteration toward her children, that woman was
Ada1ia.
AND yet here was the fifteenth Christmas
:. since Thomas had married her, and only
the annual heartbreak Of inadequate holiday
spirit, inadequate funds and fear of facing her
children on Christmas morning to confront her
IN the way Of holiday anticipation.
The slow anger that had been lying in embers
In the heart Of Thomas throughout the years
Of their marriage seemed to catch fire this
time. What had Adalia done except be sweet,
sacrificing, tolerant and cody to deserve the
tnSistently drab fate that tugged at her foot
steps since her marriage to Thomas?
What had Thomas himself done except try
as consciously as q man knows how to fuldn
his obligations to employer, family, children
and his God and why was he at As unable to
get footing on the ladder of success beyond his
wretched role Of assistant gardener In the
household Of q Wall Street magnate who lived
on Long Island?
Deep within the rebeIling heart of Thomas
Mare rancor against his employer, against
the little girl daughter Of his employer, against
the whole scheme Of society that made his
state Of oppression possible began to burn and
rage and finally sweep through his being.
Another Christmas ct hand, another period
Of Schooling Adalia scraping and pinching to
afford her children the minimum Joy Of this
season; another Christmas day, dreaded be-
cause 1t would expose the disappointment and
yeGTning concealed by the valiant little faces Of
his youngsters; another Christmas Of being
obliged TO face the denied face Of his wife
across the lean dinner table, and Of trying to
ignore the fact that life was persistently,
cruelty passing them by.
The plan to improve upon the scheme Of his
universe and somehow obtain for his brood
some Of the conpensations which had all Of
their lifetime been denied them began to grow
in the heart Of Thomac Mare the third month
after he had obtained his position as assistant
gardener on the LOngman' estate in Long
Island.
For a man to reconcile himself TO society
that was built on foul undergrowth was folly
Months of that secret mental fodder succeeded
In rousing within Thomas Mare the impulse
and the courage to carry out an act that two
or three years before would have seemed TO
him to be the act Of q mailman