The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1935-12-27
JERRY'S FAIRY
GODMOTI4ER

iii -
Published by Special Arrangements with The
Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate.
Incorporated
Copyright: 1895: BY Elizabeth Jordan)
GIN TWO PARTS-PART ONE)
JERRY DEWAR made an suspicious
entrance into the world by being
born on Christmas morning. BY the
time he was seven he was sure this had
been very clever of him. No other boy
he knew had been a Christmas present
to his father and mother. Nc other
compartment of Christmas bells, or
had his cradle decorated with a Christ
mas wreath and red ribbon bows. His
jubilant father had done that, and
proudly admitted it. His mother, when
pressed for details by Jerry in later
at the time she might have forgotten
about the ribbon and the bows. But
there they had been, a lasting joke to
both parents and a sourc of vast sat-
isfaction to Jerry.
They were recalled regularly every
Christmas morning at the breakfast
table. Jerry had the recurrent pleas
ure of hearing how enchanting he had
looked, and how his little fists had
seemed to be reaching up toward the
bright red ribbon. It was his fairy god
mother who originally added this de-
tail, about which ever Jerry's father
had seemed a trifle vague at first. But
after a year or two he remembered it
perfectly, and the third year he went
secured the wreath, had hung it around
his neck and had swallowed half the
holly berries on it before his startled
father interrupted this first breakfast.
AS Christmas came and went other
exciting details were added to the cpl
sode by Jerry's father and his fairy
godmother. His father, for example,
distinctly remembered that when the
nurse first took him into the oom the
crib, singing Christmas carols. There
was always a great deal of laughter
and WiSecracking, which seemed to the
small boy pretty silly treatment of a
serious subject. The fairy godmother
was invariably present at these Christ
mas breakfasts. He had been taught to
call her Aunt Eve: She was also pretty
constantly in the house at other times.
That, Jerry understood, was because
she was his godmother, and his moth
erS lifelong and most intimate friend.
He knew all about Aunt Eve. She had
been his mothers playmate, and school,
mate, and bridesmaid when she mar
lleo. !lIell she lldu Solle 10 Europe LOT
a visit and had married Hector Jen-
nings, who was killed a year later in
an airplane accident. This, Jerry in
ferred from the serious faces of his
father and mother when they spoke
OF it., had been very sad. But by the
time he was old enough to observe Aunt
Eve i%ntelligently it was hard to think
had come back to America and to her
old home in Jerry's town. She was
young and lovely and gay. She wa ut
terly devoted to Jerry and knew exactly
how to entertain small boys and make
them laugh. She had one of his
mothers odd notions about how they
should act. They could do what they
liked and it was all right with Aunt
Eve. She was always giving Jerry treats
and wonderful gifts.
you're a fairy godmother to this
~youngster, Eve" he had once heard
his mother tell her. But, of course,
you're running him. His humble par
ents can live up to the pace
you're setting"
Jerry didn't know exactly what that
meant, but the title of fairy godmoth-
er stuck in his memory. He began to
call Eve Jennings his fairy godmother,
to her great pleasure. AS he grew old
enough to hear fairy tales and look at
the pictures Illustrating them, he saw
how we'll the title fit. Aunt Eve looked
exactly like a fairy godmother. She
hadn't a rown or a wand, but every
thing else was there-and she was al
ways beautifully dressed.
She had been in the Dewar house on
the memorable Christmas morning
when Jerry himself arrived. Naturally,
a fairy godmother had to be. Her later
presences added to the Importance
Christmas always held for the boy as
q combination of holiday and birthday.
She was the only friend who brought
him two presents on these occasions.
She alone realized the propriety Of do
ing this. All the others imagined that
in giving him a Christmas present they
were also giving him a birthday pres
ent. The injustice of this was begin
ming, very slightly, to dim Jerry's joy
in Christmas. On the whole, however,
he thought well of the day, and he sub
scribed fundamentally to the theory
entire ~joyousness in the household.
That was why it was SO disconcerting
to him, and to them, to have Christmas
morning on his seventh birthday open
under a cloud.
The cloud, Jerry realized at once, wa
the absence-the first absence on any
Christmas morning of his life-of his
fairy godmother. It was odd to have
the breakfast table set for only three.
Still more odd was the strange silence
of his parents. No laughter today, no
gay exchange of what his father called
"wisecracks." In short, no real Christ
mas spirit. But the table space at
Jerry's place was piled high with pack
ages, and still larger packages were
on the floor around his chair. He was