Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 46, Number 301, Decatur, Adams County, 22 December 1948 — Page 14

SINCERE - _ . Si |(^llM SIIH4IV ( I 'if fll ll(p fii Ii Two of the best joys of Christ- Ofllil i mas are having good friends w A and wishing them a great deal y ■ "Wl BZf ' of happiness. j*& niblick , ■ & ca . y T JAW*, 2 t i , 1 / f ’i Z ® fl jzj 1 few Unit ■ ■ vllP 7 »>xl b—- ! A ; K»y a A ! . BOB'S wi I- r '-1 ’ .... for a joyous YuletiJe . I j/. 1 I x ’z Isl /* /f* %!✓ celebration and a New Year '•' ■' overflowing with all good K things for you and yours. . Sheets Bros. CLEANERS ' O CHRISTMAS flk greetings thi 3 tew? tin* '' T yeaT ‘ 5 ° Ur & Teat Pl easure '* t 0 exten d t 0 one an< i sincere wishes for a joyous jSSgr LANE'S SHOE SIORE TRADE IN DECATUR

IsoMsnmrai I IT WAS enough tq put a fellow in * a morbid state of mind. Last Christmas he’d thought, when he gave Sally the inexpensive little china dinner set, next Christmas I’ll give her something really nice. Something she can wear and enjoy. Something expensive. It’ll not be practical to fit our Christmas budget, because by then I’U be making more. The tide was bound to turn by next Christmas. Well, it had turned all right. Fate ! could have been less callous in the direction to which it had turned the tide. It was even worse this Christmas than it was last. At least Sally ■ I I 9 ■/. ik wdrrr i Bbaw ' W W * Bill looked up from his over- I coat collar. "Hey, be careful!" | he shouted. I wasn’t out making the living and | he, a big hulk of a man, staying « home. The doctor had said he’d over- $ come the heart condition with pro- * longed rest. People were talking. Bill knew. * He’d been standing near the living j, room door the other day when he’d | | heard Kate Tyler, their neighbor, j | talking to Sally in the kitchen. "Well, it just looks a shame that * I you, such a frail little thing, must 1 work. Bill looks the picture of j health. He weighs something near S one hundred eighty pounds, doesn’t * he, Sally?” Kate said, and Bill had I visioned with burning resentment » her sharp, in-everybody’s-business s nose twitch with inquisitiveness. Bill visioned too, Sally’s pretty t proud head lift when her voice had § come in quick sensitive rebellion, "I i believe it’s my affair about work- ■ ing. I really don’t need to work, j We have plenty saved up to take us ' through until Bill is able to go back < on his job. I’m working because I ■ want to." j He’d felt like a cad. There wasn’t j another guy in the whole universe s had a wife like Sally, who through ! her loyalty would even tell a false- j hood. Sally didn’t deserve the hard- 1 ship he was giving her. And now j with Christmas upon them and no I 1 money of his own, unless he sold his ; best suit to the re-sale shop down I j the street, he felt it would be even j I better for his old heart to quit tick- i ing than to face it and have Sally j say, "Oh, you didn’t need to give j anything, Bill. All I want is you! ■ We’ll have a real Christmas when i you get well." Bill put on his overcoat, hat and i galoshes. It was about time to meet • Sally coming home from work. Cold rain interspersed the snow ■ and already the highway in front i of their place was getting coated ! with ice. Cars moved along cau- i tlously. Their neighbor’s boy, Pike, eleven, i slid by him on a sled. "Whee-e-e, ' watch me, Mister Bill!” Bill looked up from his overcoat I collar. "Hey, be-careful!” he shout- ; ed and went into action with a leap when he saw the sled carrying the boy from the sidewalk into the direction of an approaching car up the highway. It all happened in a flash. If Bill hadn’t been gigantic in size, muscular and agile with youth, he couldn’t have saved the boy. "Man, Pike," he panted, standing over him on the sidewalk, "don't play along the , street!” "Aw, I could’ve made it, Mister Bill,” Pike said, and dashed back up the street with his sled. A large man emerged hurriedly from the big car qn the side of the : pavement and came up to Bill. "Thanks, fellow! Say," he said, mopping his forehead, “that was a close call! You certainly used your head." “I snatched him in time,” Bill said. The man pulled out his wallet. "Here,” he said, holding a crisp bill toward Bill “Take this, fellow." "But I don't want money for what I did," Bill protested, starting to ' back away. The man pushed the money into I Bill's hand. *Td pay a thousand or I J more to escape what might have happened just now. Think what | I Christmas would have been for me I : if it had happened, to say nothing ! of the kid's parents. Thanks again, I fellow—and Merry Christmas!" He was gone before Bill could do anything. Bill looked down at the money in I his hand. Well, .it he felt that way ; about it But one hundred dollan.. • • He looked up then and saw Sally trudging toward him through the snow and a happy, secretive smile curved his lips suddenly. He slipped ' the money into his billfold and went ’ * to meet her.

THE.DECA.TUR DAILY DEMOCRAT, DECATUR, INDIANA

3 BM’S MK Z/ Theshinin9s,ar ° fße,l,le,,e,niss i m|)on( of the joy in our heorts whith we wont 4 / ,0 share wit * lo,l our rieni * s when we / I 1/ Hl say “Merry Christmas". a ex I 11 lg r r Wl r II f I If 11 It Ii VV ' 1 i II t a Bair's Confectionery 5 i w. | jKt -AjE) St a j ? <■: I Iff “ » z i i i j > ilßW^ia. t WWB I V • JpBSaKMWTOKSwiMh ah JiTife’ £ * ; « aimW I ‘ W‘ * - w * 8 1 » 141 XMASSFEC’L*4I - Form 2 • S .. v | Spread the glad tidings all around Let every heart be gayl Let bells ring out with a merry sound... w It soon will be Christmas Dayl So trim the Christmas tree, my dear, Sing the gladsome lay It's the happiest time of all the year For Santa is on his wayl v | THE SUTTLES CO. 8 . . t * * < EL - ' O Ao ALL 11 S>OUR FRIENDS i fiiZ' A Ml- | BOWER S Jewelry Store ■

AT 41 By CARLE FREEMAN THE little gift shop was crowded when Nancy entered it, but almost Immediately she noticed Larry Bryant She sensed the usual disturbance at sight of him, and recalling the trend of her thoughts for the past several minutes brought a flush of warmth to her cheeks. She’d been thinking, somewhat resentfully, as she went along the busy streets of the little town, how unfair it was that Christmas had come before she could get acquainted with someone in Davenshire— Larry Bryant, for instance, departmental head at the electric plant where she worked. Christmas wasn’t Christmas unless it could be shared with someone. And now Larry was standing at the dish counter deciding about a pair of little green rabbit salt and pepper shakers. It didn’t matter particularly that he’d buy the shakers—aside from the significance of such an act—but she’d had her own heart set on them more or less for a week. Larry had been in the shop every afternoon that she’d been there, but this was his first time at the dish counter. The little shakers were as good as gone. The other day when she’d looked at them, the sales girl had said, “Better buy them. These are the last ones, and they are a bargain at eight dollars. They came all the way from Sweden.” "I know—” Nancy had said, but she had thought they’d be an extravagance and look out of place on the little table in her corner eZ V } ' [ - frPW \ (v I hKil y J' Xi?-' The other day when she’d looked at them, the sales girl had said, "Better buy them.” 9 kitchenette at Lil Ransom’s old rooming house. Then there’d be no one to admire them—only herself. “They might be gone the next time you come," the girl had said when Nancy left the counter. But they’d been there the next time Nancy went back to the little gift shop. Every afternoon for a week they’d been there, as if awaiting for her to make up her mind to buy them. Nancy held her breath as she watched Larry from a distance. For now she knew that if he didn't take the shakers, she’d buy them herself. But even as Nancy watched, she saw him band the shakers to a clerk. y She tried to push her disappointment aside and select an inexpensive little gift for one of her coworkers at the plant, Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, and the employees and officials of the plant had drawn names as part of a gift giving program they'd planned | to have about the huge, gayly dec- j orated tree in the arched entrance. Nancy dreaded the occasion, more so now than before. She regretted the day she'd left her home town to take a better Job in Davenshire. Why hadn't she waited until after Christmas to make the changel When the time came the next day tor the program, Nancy took the 1 gift that was handed to her and slipped from the crowd. She wouldn't be missed, she thought bitterly, as she hurried from the building. Snow fell softly about her in a gentle burst from the dark sky, and the ring of voices from the plant followed her in a kind of haunting, sad beauty. Inside her apartment she looked down at the gayly wrapped package in her hands through a blur of tears. : It was the only Christmas gift she’d received, and it had been given only because someone bad drawn her name. She unwrapped the package, and suddenly the blur cleared to reveal the little green rabbit salt and * pepper shakers with the long, saucy ears-one up and one limping down provocatively. Her heart thrummed in her ! throat. Larry had drawn her name. ' But the cost of the gifts they were .to exchange was not to go over I twenty-five cents! Lil Ransom called up the stairs. "You’re wanted on the phone, and *tis a man." Nancy placed the little shakers carefully on the table and turned to the door. The bum of "Silent Night" came from Lil Ransom's radio up the sweep of stairs, and Nancy found herself singing the ; words softly as she dashed down them, for she knew even before she heard his voice who was waiting for her on the telephone.

\ /O 5 p • y 7 \ cl* O' ,e«tS 1 U **’ ~I HO xu» \ I \ k f- Gass Store « TjpMKIdMCsX -KZVv Bl I Ks ■» no va ' WjWMay the Christmas Season and the Zj New Year bring you all the t good things of life in rich abundance. 7 /'L Knapp's Service < Station [ Htjlidau GreetinnS” I 1 * I r We wish you each-we wish you all- ww k the blessings and happiness of this ■ ■ , Yuletide season. Our best wishes for your happiness now and <1 \X / all through the New Year. \ ! 1 1 wT 1 A *?'/ GZ/Z I >!/■ ’• aa * in ‘’’tf P leasure t 0 \ Q thank you most sincerely tor your past patronage. We tried to serve you |( ’ well-we hope to serve you even better in 49. ib - ’ ■ I 19 Kaye’s Shoe Store OBhF Quality Footwear X Ray Fitted . sMei- * x 7 ! k _ /fl TRADE IN DECATUR

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22