Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 92, Number 311, 30 December 1922 — Page 16

PAGE TWO

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM, SATURDAY, DECEMBER SO, 1922.

Johnnie Mouse Misses Christmas

Little Johnnie Mouse had never

Been a Christmas, He had been

Dorn in January, so he was now looking forward to his first Christinas. He hardly knew what it

would be like. But Johnnie bad his Ideas on the subject. When the

old cat pat outside the hola-ln-the

wall ana Johnnie had to stay In,

Old Mother Mouse often enter

tained him with stories of Christ

mas.

At Christmas-time all the cats were so busy eating turkey bones

that they had no time to scare little mice. Then there were always the best things imaginable, to eat, and they were left right out In plain sight for the little mice. But best of all there were the good smells. Johnnie loved nice smells. There were nice sweet smells, and greasy smells, and cheesy smells, and chocolate smells. That was how you first knew it was Christmas, Mother Mouse said, by the lovely Christmas smells. One morning Johnnie Mouse woke up and sniffed the air as he always did. Somehow everything was different this morning, and it was all due to a wonderful cheesy smell In the air. Johnnie loved heese above everything else. i

"It's Christmas!" he cried in excitement. "I smell it. It's Christmas! It's Christmas." I Mother Mouse stuck a cautious eye outside the hole. The cat was

pered along the walLjsnlffing the air. The nice cheesy smell got better and better. Suddenly rigln in front of him Johnnie discovered a little round box and inside enticingly dangled a number of pieces of cheese. Even Johnnie had never imagined anything half so Christmasy. With a little squeal of delight, Johnnie thrust bis head in one of the holes after the largest piece of cheese. "Bang!" Johnnie never

knew what hit him when the trap sprang shut. But when Little Johnnie never returned home, Mother Mouse's Christmas was entirely spoiled. So was Johnnie's, for that matter.

Boyhood Stories ,

Joe Collins Changes His Mind

General Gordon

One day the cadets of Woolwich

Academy, England, had been . for

bidden to leave the dining room, and a senior cadet was guarding

the front of it with outstretched

arms.

George Gordon, goat-like, put his head down and butted the officer in the stomach. Headlong clown a pair of stairs and through a glass

door went the officer. Charles Gordon became a general in the English army. lie met a tragic death in the defense of Khartum two days before a relief party under Lord Wolseley could reach him.

OTHER WORLDS THAN OURS

What Are the Stars?

still there. "No," she said, "when Christmas comes, the cat will go." Johnnie was disappointed, but he did not give up hope. All day long he sniffed the air. It was coming, anyway. He could smell it. Towards evening when he looked out the cat was gone. Then Johnnie was just sure that Christmas had come at last. Without even waiting to ask his mother he tore out the hole-in-the-wall, and was off ifter the good smells. Me scam-

(Tlila is one of a series of stories about tiie mysteries of the ekies by Dr. II. W. Hurt. National Field

Commissioner of the Boy Scouts,

and writer of two of their three handbooks. Dr. Hurt lias studied the stars for many years, and at on

time was in charge or the lerKes Observatory In Williams Ua.y, Wisconsin, where the largest telescope in the world Is located.)

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star; how I wonder what you are," is a verse every one knows, for every one has wondered at some time about the stars. Thousands of years ago people used to worship these mysteries in the sky. They tried to study them, and the Egyptians and Arabs even kept records of what they saw, but it was Galileo's invention of the telescope in 1609 that made it possible for us to find out that these "stars" are in

reality great suns giving out light

and heat just like our own, sun does. ' Our sun is one of the smallest of the stars. Many of these big suns are so far away that it takes their light (which travels 186,000 miles per second) thousands of years to reach us. When you look up at a big star tonight remember that it is so far away that the light that come3 to your eyes has been

on the way thousands of years.

Perhaps the star you "see" isnt there any longer at all, but its light

waveSj started toward us years ago and requiring thousands of years

to reach us, are still coming, just as when you still hear the sound of the whistle of a train after your eyes watching the steam tell you the whistle has stopped. Move In Order These stars are so far away that looking at them through the largest telescope shows them only as specks of light. Some are younger and hotter than our sun and some are older and colder. Most of them are the centers of big systems like our own sun, with dark earths and planets moving all about them. The wonderful thing found in

studying the stars is the way law

and order are everywhere. They move and are related in a very exact way, though they are spread out so far that you can't' even

Imagine the size of the universe

they move In. Ether Lies Beyond Air The air beyond thefomwmwmm The air air about the earth extends out only some fifty miles, and beyond that, through the billions and trillions of miles" of airless space lie these millions of suns. Between them in space is what we call the ether, across which light waves, heat waves, electrical or radio waves travel. So, you see, stars aren't just pretty decorations in the sky, but belong to a great system in which our own sun is just a tiny part.

The holiday season was nearly

over. "Say, we've got to do some

thing exciting before we go back

to school, announced Joe Collins,

the leader of the gang. "We have

had no fun at all.v Of course ,if the girls hadn't discovered that "weak spot In the ice, that would have been a circus. Gee, wouldn't you have liked to have seen Clementine Saunders break through and get her Christmas furs all wet!" "If Uncle Tom hadn't told her," complained the other fellows. "Say, lot's do something to Uncle Tom. lie's such a funny old duck and thinks we're all so crazy about him, it would be no end of fun." "Say, that Is an idea. Let's fix up a box with a lot of trash in it and make him think it's something swell we are giving him. Joe can moke the presentation speech and we'll go and see the fun when the old man get's fooled." "All right," agreed Joe. I'll tell him we're even crazier about him than he thinks we are. lie's kind of cracked, isn't he? Tells at the Post Office how all the boys just

worship him. Say, we'll have some fun with him."

The boys soon filled a small box with stones and started up the hill to Uncle. Tom's. "Gee, what are you going to say?" asked Boyd aa he trudged along beside Joe. "Oh, I've got a good line to hand him," Joe replied, confident of him

self. And indeed he had. He told poor old Uncle Tom how much the fellows all thought of him and

how proud they all were to have him for their friend. All the time

sympathetic old eyes.- Why, there were actually tears in them! He had done hia work too welL He talked on, repeating what he had already eaid. He could not bring himself to hand the box of stonea to the chillish old man. Suddenly Joo stopped talking. He transferred the box of stones to his left hand and his right hand went deep In hi3 pocket "We couldn't think of anything good enough to get you, so we are just going to give the money and let you buy what you want." He extended a crisp new five dollar bill, one of his Christmas presents. As the boys walked slowly down the hill, Joe still carried the box of stones. "I couldn't do it," he said. "He's just like a baby. I was glad to spend my Christmas money that way." "Well, you needn't think we're going to let, you give it all," said Boyd. "I guess not," chorused the others, their hands all in their pocket3.

JOURNEY ENJOYED

he held the little box of stones be

hind his back. Then he told how they wanted to give their old friend a little token of their love and re

spect. Joe's father was an after

dinner speaker and he had often

heard him make such speeches.

At this he heard the fellows

giggle, but the old man's eyes were fixed on Joe's face. Joe thought he had never seen such kind and

DAYS OF REAL SPORT

By Briggs

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oh -5 KIN-nay! Yoo-Hoo! HAP "PAY NEW Year."

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(Continued From, Pasre One) they had drawn designs on red and yellow and all kinds of paper. They had cut the designs out and pasted them on the black boxes. They looked very pretty. One morning I saw the second gradeteacher come out with a kettle of candy. She set it In the snow. She stirred it all thetlme. This was the candy for the boxes.

We Saw Christmas Trees When we marched into the third grade room and the special room, we saw they had had Christmas trees. They were trimmed with silver looking strings. There were strings of little balls of every different color. Every ball had a way to be fastened to the next ball. Thespecial room had a silver star on top. One tree was in a bucket. One was on cross pieces of wood to make It stand up. The trees made the rooms they were in seem brighter. The children liked to look at them. Calendars and Lamp Shades The fourth grade room which has 4AB and 5B people had a big display of calendars and lamp shades. So did the special room have calendars. Some were of green heavy

paper with red poinsettas for decoration. The lamp shades were of different colors. Each child might choose the color Its mother liked best or it liked best or what was on hand. When we marched around 'hp cnlfndars were on the blackboard ledge and the lamp shades were on the window sills. We dfdn't stop. We walked slotfly by. The lamp shades had designs painted on them. Little Poetry Books The sixth grade boys and girls are the biggest in school. They made some tiny decorated covers with designs of Christmas on them. The designs were candles, or trees, or balls, or star, or what ever one decided. There were other designs that were not at all about Christmas but very pretty. Then poetry

was copied in them. It was all Christmas poetry. This was for the fathers and mothers or friends or anybody. Looking at these in our own room was the end of the trip through the schoolhouse. j The Noiseless Building I think the school building Is noiseless now. The presents have been taken away. The children have gone. The teachers have also gone. The janitor has cleaned up and quit making noises with the windows and in the furnace room. The organ is shut up. The victrola 13 shut up too. It does not play. The piano has not been played. The big bell for the boys has not been rung. The little bell for the girls is also still. They were rung to call the children in before school in the morning and at recess time. Now they are on the newel posts. When next Tuesday comes it will be 1923. The bell boys will ring the bells. The organ will be carried by some more boys to some room where they need to sing. The piano will be busy some of the . time. We can march in by the victrola. The orchestra will play after school on next Wednesday. Then all the quiet will '"be done till next summer. It Is never dreary in school. Francis Doan Hole, reporter for Joseph Moore school.

Girl, 14, Licensed Preacher The Rev. Orietta Stoddard, a H-year-old girl, of Miami, Okla., is a regularly licensed preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church.