Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 13, Number 26, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 23 December 1882 — Page 9

9

THE MAIL

A PAPER FOR THE PEOPLE.

CHSJSMAS DAY.

What"* this harry, what's this flurry, Ail through toot the bouse to-dayf /EvwywIin** merry scurry,

Everywhere a sound of play. Bomethinct. too,"* the matter, matter, Out-of-doors a* well as ID, For the bell goes clatter, clatter,

I

Every minute-each a din! f- "Everybody winking, blinking, In a queer, mysterious way

Wtiat on eartb can they be ttilnking, Wnat on earth can be to pay? /Bobby peeping o'er the stairway, if Burnt* into a little shoot

Kitty, too, is in a fair way. Where ibe bides, to giggle oat.

A* the bell goes cilng-a-lingdng Every minute more and more, And swift feet go springing, springing, \$f Through the hallway to the door,

Where a gllmpe of box and packet, And litt rustle, ro*tle, Make* *uch sight and sound and racket-

Hueh a jolly bustle, bustle— That the youngsters in the placet, Biding *1* ly oat of right. All at once

iIkjw

shining face*.

Ail at once srream with delight.

and &sk them what's the matter, Wnat the fun outside and in— Wnat the meaning of the chatter,

What the btwtle and the din. Hear them, hear them laugh and shout then, AII together hear them way, "Why, what have yon about, then.

Not to know It** Christinas dayr' Nora l'«-rry, in the Christmas 81. Nicholas.

Liah's First Christmas.

"There's yer punkin —And be sat down on the kitcbra table a small irregular abated pumpkin not a big smooth golden Nbere loch lay helped on the barn floor in hundreds. "Ob, father said bis wife very gently, being a little wan, meok-faoed creature, with scarce the pungency of mouse or the spirit of a weakly lamb. "Well! what now?" snapped Eliab Hoskins, turning on the aoor-sill to look ac her under bis shaggy eyebrows. "Why, ha'n't ye got no Letter than that it's real slim lookin', seems an though we'd ought to kinder put the be*' loot foremost seein' Abner's comln' to Tbanksgivln' and Netty's oomin' to stay." "It's good 'nougb, Sary Ann. I got a first- rste offer for the rest on 'em to Hickory Farm, and they won't take no tell ye. It's good runts there, now, I 'nougb. 1 dono why folks baa got to

flizzie

and stuff just because it's a banksgivin' Iay. Its bad enough to have ye «et to that the bronze turkey bad to be slattered for't. I never see bis ekel for a fowl, ana I begrutch him to tie uw*J to bum,when he's worth $3 good money to the city, most anywhere."

Sary Ann held her peace, and the tvront of the family took himself off. In his remarks about that bronze turkey be said nothing of the fact that bis wife had given her black silk apron to a neighbor's wife in exchange for six eggs of this mighty breed, three of winch batched out into two cocks and a hen a pair were kept for breeding, and this one, foreordained to le the chief figure at Thanksgiving, Mr*. Hoskins had itetted, pampered, waited on, watched over and run after with au anxious care Its real parent never could haveequalod. Hhe bad put pepper-corns on lis unwilling tongue for the good of it* digestion she hud rubbed sulphur and lard, kerosene oil, wormwood tea and nobody known wbst else into its infant feathers and chopped onion-tops and scalded meal aud "pussley" for it, till the kitchen wan odorous snd now it was plump and glossy as a ripe chestnut, and all read to lie" killed for the feast Yet 'Liah grudged it. There are "more than four" people like Kllsh Hoskins in the world be ban been born in a state of sin and misery, as the catechism says, ground iulotnedunt bv penurios and narrow pareuta, and the awful poverty that Is the lot of some New Englaud farmors, who drag out a life on Its lonely hillHides more frugal in its fare than a hermit's, and far'more dreadful to endure, since it* privations and distress are not to in* endured alone. 'Uah had inherited, however, the fruit of all this lAborous poverty in the shape of a farm more extrusive than profitable but I roe from mortgage or debt of any kind. Principally woodland, it had been unproductive enough, and when he married Surah Ann Parks he I ducted the gentle, shy young girl Into a lite of hard work and of seif repression which bad almost worn her out but for her children she would have been very glad to take the place ready for her In,'the lonely graveyard at the foot of Saitash Mountain, where her father and mother slept this long time but she had that uu tberlv heart that is faithful to the very end, and she resolved not only to live* but to b® as cheerful as her life would allow for the sake of Abner and Nettv, her boy-and girl,

A liner had long since left home and the stern ruler of his father, and worked his way up from the youngest clerk in a count rv store to be cashier in Hsverforvi Bank, and now lie was married, and bad a little girl of three years old, but he bad not seen his home for ten year be was coming home to this Thanksgiving for the sewud time only sin if be left the farm twenty year* ago. boy of fifteen. Perbsj* ifhcTbad staved with his father and spent his life In that band-to-hana tattle with the elemental forces of nature that farming means on the highlands of New England, Abner would have related him in character bat what was the greed iu the eider man developed only Into carts economy and ihrift in tbe'vounger and to hi* work he vwrried the same energy, persistence and shrewdness that distinguished KUab. living among other people be learned hi* own pow-ers ana failing* soon enough to balance and correct Ikm, and marrying a woman of geoeroos temper, high spirit. Intelligence and warm heart, all that was beat within him grew and prospered. Netty was much rounger than Abner and **hen she was fourteen years old her father suddenly discovered that hla acres of wild woodland had become valuable a railroad was laid out through the valley just below the Hoakins Farm, and wood for tie* aad sleeper* came in demanu. Every cent Eltah lloskins received be laid out in buying more wild land, till be owned foraoa far up on the Canadian border, sold for nominal price* by owner* who did not see"*# he did that the railroad meant an outlet and a sale for the lata* iwr hitherto va)uel«w for want of tran»portattcm.

IT MIK

!!oakin« had asked her haa-

cand when she by chance dtscovemi he waa selling timber to the Nortbesrn Hailroad Company, for new drown,or forniture, or hottsehold convenience*, she would have received i«l one answer brief and hard enm^fh.and «le knew it I but when *he took wr life in bf hand, a,* It were, and aaked him to lei S«tty c«i to £iav«Hbrd to reboot, he did nut reFuse to consider tbe matter. JtistJhe glory and the strength of New thate

.-

necessity the Gospel is a matter of choice as to its support and furtherance highly respectable and not to be set aside if it can be supported cheaply enough,but even a New England infidel —if there be such an anomaly on its lonely bills (an infidel in open opinion I mean, practical infidelity is another matter)—would be unwilling enough to let hi* son or daughter grow up without a certain amount of "book learning So it was at last decided that aetty should go to* Haverford, as Abner would give ber her board and there she staid for three years, brief to her gay girlhood, suddenly emancipated from home solitude and thrift, but oh! how lonely to the weary mother who toils on in solitude without ber. They were all coming borne now, and Netty schooling was over if she had learned other lessons than Haverford Academy included in its scholastic year she did not report them nor dared she confess cer tain strayings from the church of her fathers, induced as much by the grave young rector as by the beauti'ul liturgy of his church. She was half glad and half sad to come back to her mountain farm, but her tender heart leaped when she saw bow her mother's wan face glowed to see bei again, and at first, when Abner and Lizzy and tiny Kuth were all there, she did not feel regret sharply but wbep mother bad toiled through the festival made bard work by her devices to spread a generous feast for out of home products, only grudged st that, she wrought the dinner of the day when Abner and his family had just endured the solitude and bare cleanliness of the farmhouse for three days andgonesway, then life shut down on Netty like blank cloud: there was nothing to do but strain milk, peel potatoes, churn, mend, bake, sweep and dust, except the early week's change of work in washing and ironing. Netty had to question of what use washer education, to what end her narrow life? Suddenly she bethought herself of another holiday approaching, one she had kept in Haverford so joyfully, and yet her memory never recalled the least observance of the day at home. "Mammy," she said abruptly one afternoon ten days after Thanksgiving, as they sat togesber at the week's mending, ''what shall we do for Christmas this vear?" "What said the astonished woman "wbst be you talkin' about, Netty?" "Why, Christmas, dear! We used to keep it at Abner's, have a real time hanging up stockings and giving things, you itnow^and greens all over the bouse. Don't you ever do it here

A smile sadder than tears stole over Mrs. Hoskms' tired face. "Why, Netty we don't keep Thanksgivin' most years. Father am oue of them that b'lieves in play-spells, ye know. Come to think I've read about it Momewberes, mebbe, 'twas in tbe paper Amarinthy Snow sent over one time for me to see about that medicine that's good for rbeumatiz. I guess I did some folks tbink tbe Savior! was born that day,

Bho'

I b'iieve. I done how they know." "Well, but Mammy, supposing they don't know just the very time, isn't it good to take a day to be glad in. for that And I don't feel sure they don't know folks that know more than I do have thought He was, for years untold and it seems as if we ought to do something to tell what day it is thought to be, anyway."

Mrs. Hoskins' face fell. "1 don't b'iieve I'd try, dear. Father ain't one to give in to now fangled ways a mite. I don't b'iieve he'd like it."

Netty laughed so far she has not come into opposition with her father, and she bad most abundant faith in her powers of pleasing. "We'll see!" she said confidently. *'I could trim up the house beautifully there's lots or young hemlocks up the hill, and it's such mild weather tbe ground hasn't froxen yet, and I remember that old lot full of sumachs where there are three kinds of ground pine and I'll coax father to give aie some monev and we'll have your first Christmas l)ay kept in good fashion, Mammy."

Mr*. Hoskins turned her head awsy and pretended to see something out of the window she hated to nip Netty's hopes in the bud Mhe knew tbo girl might as well hope to move that dismal old gray barn she was staring at with its littered vard and rickety fences telling the story of neglect and penuriousness, as to move her father and yet— poor mother! it was perhaps possible that those clear sweet gray eyes, that rippled wealth of balr, those tirm red lips and warm Mushing cheeks she found so Irresistible lovely, might touch 'Liah's heart as she herMlf had never touched it. Yet so small was her faith thnt when after supper was over and the dishes washed, and Netty drew up her own low chair to 'Liah's side as he sat in the chimney corner warming^his feet. Mrs. lloskins went away upstairs on some poor pretext, and shivered In Netty's cold bedroom rather than see her darlhurt. «ttt of all this Netty was unaware she had never vet. since she camo home from Haverford asked her father to do anvthiug for ber, and ber courage

v*

i--y

bo

WM

like all untried courage, very strong. "Fathor,"she began, "Didn't you ever keep Christmas when you were a boy r* "What?" growled 'Clah. "Didn't you bang up your stocking and give people things Christmas?" "I don know what you're talkin' alxut. girl I put my st««klns' on my feet since I was big enough to do't. I wa'n't fetched up to no nonsense." "Well!" said S'etty, a little leas cheerily, "I suppose, come to tbink of it, there weren't any Episcopalians round here then any more than there are now, but we always kept it at Abner's, and everybody gave presents all around, and we went*to church, and I thought if

Jfteengive

ou'd me some money, dear ten or dollars, why I should make Christmas here and have It so nice for mother sad—" "Stop eech talk right off. I wont bear to't! Ten dollars! why be ye out ofyonr bead, girl? 'Piscopals indeed! meetiu' boose is good enough for me, *n I've been a purfessor this forty odd year. I guess not! It's darned nonsense the hull on*L I ha'n't got no money to throw away on sech stuff, nor Sary Ann don't want no sech notions

Son't

ut into ber bead, now I tell ye nor ye go to doin' ou*U Ten dollars! I wonder ye dont want a hundred! 1 aint ao man to throw away dollars. I've spent a heap too much on yer edicatlon a ready, partickler If this notion cornea on f, oevin* food an' raiment you iuid ought therewith to be content, as Scripter says. Moreover an' wherewithal I dont mean to bev yea idlin' ronnd all ver dav* there's a school dcestrict over to Pour Corners where they're a jroin' to want a teacher next

Eng.

I school committee and 1*11 ye your time ao to you can take school t- M? April, and Vmi yoori livin*. Com. tbat I gnesa yota wont hanker after no Christmas

BOUBDM, 1

Well—it** bed«»'H-«, norrry near. Ill go'n shake do a lit* fodder for' (Item cows, sod you'd better go long dp, chamber,*" qui bio

Xelty dkl not *n«w«r. •till in Iwwr r, like one after

»y and tbe strength of New England whkh bad strutted, *Uah got up, lit at -silt, .u.J "tanl education to

TERRE HAUTE SATURDAY EVENING MAIL

door, but she never moved. She had been away from home three years, and the halo of tbe separation had softened her remembrance of ber father much, she herself bad changed too, and whatever was painful in that memory she had learned to tbink might have been causdd by her own childish waywardness. In tbe few days Abner and his wife and child had been with ber at home, her father who had a certain respect for Abner's success in life, had been as agreeable as he know how and since then he bad been so busy that Netty had scarcely seen him except at meals, and never before bad she had occasion to ask of him a favor. Now all her delusions were gone she saw him as he was, a hard cold

She sat there when 'Liah came back he had left his boots at tbe shed door and came to hang up his lantern and cap so softly Netty never moved. Something in her dejected attitude stirred a throb deep down in his rugged natire, there is sap even iu the gnarled boughs of an apple tree that bent and broken by tbe stormy wind of year on year looks dead to tbe core ^and even in ^Liah Hoskins there was a nature, though he had over-ridden and starved it.

But he did not speak, and as he crept back into the shea and clattered about with his boots, dropping one of them in the dark, Netty jumped up from her chair ana fled when he came back she was gone and he went into his own room, where Sary Ann lay, having retreated there from Netty's chamber when she beard the girl come upstairs, by a back way, ana slipped into her place speedily while 'Ltah raked up the lire. Mrs. Hoskins was naturally a frank woman, if a coward ever can be frank, but she was so afraid of her husband that she had learned all those domestic deceits which are the shield of weak women nobody could lie more deaf than she when she prefered not to hear, or more forgetful wheH she did not care to remember. She made cream-cookiesjfor Netty when 'Liah went to mill, and told her fatber never ate such things, they did notagroe wlth him! which was true—in a sense. She was asleep now so fast asleep that slie heard every breath her husband drew and every movement be made so fast asleep that sbo did not close her eyes till near dawn, her tender motherly heart aching for Netty and shrinking from hearing 'Liah's hard sneering story of the girl's presumption.

When they all met at the early breakfast neither of be three looked at each other 'Liah ate like a bear at its meal of throttled game it is true he bad a knife, and a symbolic fork which helped him to hold fast the thick sliced pork and spear tbe potato floating in hot fat that he boltea ravenously, but he none the less ate and drank like a beast of tbe forest, and neither knew nor cared that Netty nibbled only a crust of bread and sipped the decoction they called coffee with a pallid face and heavy eyes, and his wife did not eat or drink at all.

At last be pushed his chair away, and wiping his mouth with the back of his rough hand made for the door, turning back to suy—"Sary Ann! fetch them old «»uldle-bags dowu from up tbechamber will ye, aud put in a change o' things, I'm a goin' up to them lots on toe Canady line, this afternoon it's nothiu' more'n a trail after ye get to the Forks, so't I might as well go a horse-back all the way, and I expect it'11 take me a full week and like enough I shall get soaked afore I get through and want red flannels the w'ust way. Iarn rbeumatiz!"

Netty's heart gave a leap of joy, and IIRSin

at

to it* people an itifonijfate lantern, and tramped off by tbe abed men who worked lor him tre«

to think bow undutiful

then sank again she waa. "Honor fatber and thy

tby

mother"—what does it mean in a case like this? Netty's conscientious New England soul Jwgan to torment itself, but ber n&turaf heart did feel lightened and glad for all this and by and by opening ber Bible for tbe daily reading another text flashed upon,, ber with th*t aptness texts of

have—"fathers

Scripture

provoke not your chil­

dren to anger," and seemed to restore bar balance people who occupy themselves with ethics sometimes forget that dutvls individual, not natural.

But Sary Ann had no scruples of this kind her conscience toward her busband had long been dulled she had enough to do to evade hia exactions and cruellies when and how she con Id love for him she had never known, marrying him because he bad asked her to. and she was afraid to refuse him, and exchanging one bondage for another. She waa heartily glad 'Liah waa going away, and packed nfai saddle-bags with tbe tannel be grudged carrying, with alight in her eyes not at all flattering to a hnsband. But 'Liah did not can- neitner had be loved hen it was needful to have a woman on the place when his mother died, and old Park's daughter waa a good worker and not a talker or gad-about ao he mounted the old sorrel norse, adjoated hia saddle-bags, and rode off with only a nod he did look through tbe open door as If be missed something, to be sure, bat Sary Ann did not notice it, nor did she or Netty, who was in no mood to be tender now, know bow the thought of bis child's best bead and dropping tears would recnr to

TLiahnow

and again on hia cold ride, till be angrily fought tbe un pleasing vision away and besan to cipher oot in bis besd tbe probable feet of lumber his saw-mill on that mountain-brook in tbe forest would run oot tbia year or tbe prospect of •nows heavy enough for bis loggers to draw tbeir squared logs down to tbe near eat slide from which it would pay to haul them to tbe railway station, ft waa two dajf before Eliab reached tbe endcfhiatlrBaom* *oam«v twonigbts be r- in log cat in *nti«a by tbe and

:'.ur! ty foundr

i-sill,

barib-

hia

coming, and bestirred themselves while be staid with an activity put on for the occasion he went from one camp to another, found fault, rated them in terms more forcible than kindly, planned for transportation, estimated time and costs, and pared down expenses with a shrewd thrift that made him unpopular enough with the

loggers,

he

BUD,

penurious

and incenidtive even to the only child left him and a man so intrenched in his profession of religion that be could not see himself to be in the wrong. That be was honest, thrifty and a constant attendant at meeting, thongh it was a live mile ride to the church in the valley went for nothing in Netty's mind, for her heart was hurt and she was a woman. She bent ber bead on ber hands and cried bitterly and silently, lest mother should bear it was not the mere disapint of 'he day that she could have me but it was tbe blank chill outlook on a denied and repressed life lying before ber a life of exacted labor and loveless thrift. Netty had a generous soul, ready to lavish itself and all its ^possessions on those she loved as freely as the odorous ointment was poured out by Mary on tbe feet of Him whom she adored, but she had also sense and courage if it bad been her lot to marry the aforesaid young rector in Haverford she would have spared and pinched and twisted and turned his small salary till every cent was put to good purpose, hurt her fingers ironing his bands and cooking his savory dinners, spoiled her eyes making his shirts, and broken down ner health taking care of him and that clearical blessing that never fails his children but she would have dispensed wealth had it fallen to her share with the liberalith of a born queen. Now she was not thinking of ten dollars or the Christmas gifts, bnt of ber father's hard heart and niggard nature.

Soskin

who swore at him be­

hind his back with alacrity and energy The fifth day be set out for the farthest camp he had already outstaid tbe time he allowed himself, axyl was impatient to have his business over, for he had more than once been wet through with cold rain, and the rheumatism he so dreaded twinged ominously in his bones but he was not a man to mind an endurable ache, so be set out on his long ride over a mountain trail, not on the old sorrel, which had given out entirely, but on a little rough Canadian pony, lie had not gone ten miles when the longdelayed snow set in the small flakes filled the darkening air, beat in his face, gathered thickly on his shaggy brows and chilled him to the heart be went on, however, trusting to his pony's sagacity some ten miles further, when it seemed to him. from the thicK bushes and crowdea trees through which tbe little beast scrambled, that it bad lott the trail. He dismounted to brush away the snow and see if an track could be discovered, stepped on a slippery stone, and, tryingto recover bis footing,slipped again, for the rocks were covered with ice, fell headlongand lost bis consciousness entirely. When it returned be was lying alone in tbe dark forest, the snow still whirling and whispering in the air all about him with the ominous hiss and ruste of a heavy storm, his

»ny gone, and night coming on. 'Liah was a man of courage, bis heart did not fail, he was strong in constitution, and used to tbe shifts of a woodman's life enoagh to feel no dread of being lost, but when he tried to rise to his feet he could not his right leg was broken.

Then despair set in. Never before had he been helpless, and here be was, in a lonely forest, with a broken leg, neither food, fire nor shelter to be baa, and no prospect of help at hand, while his nerves, of which be hsd never before been conscious, at last rebelled. It seemed to him that through the dark pine vistas, for all the whirling storm, he saw his home lire, the clean bare kitchen, the low flicker of the dying blaze, and before it—not Sary Ann as she waa at that moment, busy in cooking a savory sup er of cream toast and fried beef with gravy—but Netty, her bright face hidden in ner hands and tears dropping down and glittering against the flashes of the fire.

Persistently the vision haunted him much as he longed to be in his own bedroom, to be fed and tended by his wife's patient hands, hungry as he was, cold, weary and almost desperate, be could not get that sorrowful little figure from bis thoughts and the wind sighing bitterly in the pine bougbB, the hissing rush of that relentless snow the stealing and increasing gloom about Mm only intensified bis anguish, which began to be pain of mind as well as body. He must die there in tbe storm there was no doubt of that would anybody ever find him? They would not even know where be died, there at home. There would be no funeral pleasing and solemn prospect as a funeral always is to the genuine New Englander—be must forego it. With the curious perversity of that intangible and wayward comrade we call the soul, he figured to himself how it all should have been tbe decent coffin, and this old body, instead of lying a shriveled wreck for the wild creature to prey on, and the stormy wind to rob of all it* proper covering, dressed in his Sunday suit—a shocking wsste of good clothes, to be sure, but then Abner wouldn't wear them, and the women couldn't—neighbors nocking in from far off homesteads, tip-toeing into the cold parlor and eyeing the corpse with that ghoulish delight characteristic of country funeral-goers. He knew how Granny Griggs would peer at him and sav to Mis' Mather—"Looks very nateral, don't he?" And how Priest Dyer would make a long prayer including the heathen and tbe lies of tbe sea then now they would sing China—that was what the wind was walling now—rising and falliug in funeral shrieks and sobs frozen in a despairing calm by harmony of parts and rhythm of verse then "friends will view the remains and tlien_he started, for the dream bad been too real! He was alone in the forest, and the storm singing his funeral hymn, while still be could hear it. And Netty? she would lift up her head when lie did not come home and stop crying! What had bo ever done to make her cry for hiin? Educated ber? Well, that was what he must do. and he bad looked to making it nay ho meant to have ber take herself out of his care, and be even looked forward to repayment of her school expenses. And Sary Ann? What on earth could she cry for. She never had ber own way, or wbat she wanted now she would have it all! He meant to make a will and leave something handsome to Foreign Missions, and Blank College it would sound well but be hadn't done it Sary Ann and tbe children would have it all, and the New York Deserver never would print an obituary notice of him, saying bow much he had left to deserving institutions and what a good man he was and how he was now reaping the reward of— He started again going to die and where after that? It was the very blackness «f darkness, that outlook! Nobody to mourn him here, was there anybody to welcome him there What could be^do where there was no farm, no lumbering tracts, no banks to keep bis gold in, no gold to keep? Another of those plaguing texts that he bad beard in tbe meetinghouse as if he beard them not, and laid np in the dark chambers of bis brain all unkuowingly, rung now in his ear: "Lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and roatdo not corrupt."

He had not, no, he had not even shared his money with goo*l works on earth, nor even by will bow should be show hia face in that glorious country where loving and giving are tbe breath of life? Perhaps this waa not bis conscious thought it was rather an instinct of untitneas that made him shrink from the transference to a nobler sphere: but another word pierced bis soul again and made him oower in spirit as if under a laah. "Friend! bow earnest tbon in hither not having a wedding garment?"

Wbat grave calm voice having in it an awful authority spoke thus to him? At that moment a soft rush came through tbe snow, something oold and wet touched hiscbeek, and a bound threw up hia bead and bayed lood and long, Wbat a thrill ran through Hugh Hoskins at tbe aonnd! H»old hard practical natare slipped back to him '.ike a coat ofarmohbedidar^tbhttk tWvtf Netty, or dying, or beav any mow? not net Here waa a hanc life, desr tile! sweet life! so bU^raa astelessand wear to live as we all f": 1 it yet bard se and ive!

He ii h5m«^ a little on bis elbow and ap* c- to -tdog.itbajredajprin,ai»«J

tbe dog boon Ito meet his master and

£**&% "^Y

another man. They were two French Canadians burning charcoal on the next tract to Hoskin's lumbering lots tbe pony had, it seemed, once belonged to Jacques Dupont. and had taken the track to its old home on the coaling instead of that of tbe lumber camp. It had gone on after losing its rider, and when Jacques came home from the pita at night be found it at bis shed and gathered from its saddle, aud bags, that something had happened on tbe track. Fbrtunately be bad a helper boardine with him, and the two t»et out with tbeir dogs to help or rescue, as the case might be.

It was with much difficult that they managed to get Liah to Dupont's shanty, though the distance was not great. Once there, Dupont's wife made up a dean bed on the floor and laid the weary man on it, cutoff parta of his clothes, and laid warm cloths on the broken leg, which was beginning to swell ana be painful then they fed him with tea and crackeis. tbeir best and carefully boarded luxuries, and the two men sat down to supper, leaving the wayfarer to meditate and plan on the next step. That, no doubt, was to get a doctor be would not trust his leg to the rude surgery of a charcoal burner. Dupont being promised I reward for his services, left early the next day for a Canadian village, where be said lived a surgeon of repute in tbe wild country, where he had enough of such practice to keep his skill from rusting. The slow davs went by wearily. Mrs. Dupont was &ind, neat and voluble she did her utmost for her guest., and now and then, by her broken speech, brought a grim smile to 'Liah's face but the food she had for him was not to bis liking, and the fexer and rheumatism that set it to enhance the pangs of his broken leg, made bim loathe tbe dark bread, tbe slap-jacks drowned in molasses, the constant pot of beans the potato seup, and and herb tea that were the daily fair of coal-burners. When the doctor oame at last, be had to stay three days to reduoe the swelling of tbe leg so that the bone could be set, and tbe only promise he could bold out to the patient was that in six weeks he might be able to be set on a pony and led down to the village on the lave below, thence sledded to the nearest town where there was a

railway

station, and so home. Eliab groaned this was a prospect of bondage! Six weeks to lie here and tbink—be did not «njoy thinking, he had tried that in the forest.

Tbe doctor read his face. "It is a long time, I know," he said kindly. "But you are no more young, my friend it is tbe young bones to knit themselves quickly you must wait yee, Jt is necessary.'-"0-h!" groaned Elian he knew it was truth, but what a prospect lay before kim! He had asked the surgeon to write to his wife she could not come up there, nor could Netty women could not endure the peril ana fatigue of such a journey, nor was there a place for them. Saeques and the doctor together bad contrived a sort of cot for him, which was st least better than tbe floor, and Jeanue did all a tender heart and womanly instincts could do with her poor means and appliances—but he heard his sentence with disgust and revolt. Six weeks of helplessness at home would have been wretched, Lere it was unendurable Yet he had to endure it. The five rosy children who danced and clamored about the sbimty were a great nuisance, too, though they were banished out of doors whenever the weather allowed, and set to such helpful tasks as they could fulfill when storms prevented them from playing outside. But after a time, for want of any other interest. 'Liah grew to watch them from his cot as a (Aversion to the cruel and weary thoughts which harassed him. How they loved their'mother naughty, miscbievious. provoking as they were, she bad a divine patience with them that almost exasperated this spectator. Her mild, sweet dark eyes never flashed with anger, her hand never lit in wrath or round cheek or curly head she was grieved and hurt sometimes at their waywardness, but never impatient or angry. And tbey loved their father as well, though they feared him more, for Jacques bad the despotic element in bim, and ruled with stern justice his small kingdom but the children always ran to meet him, bung round him, waited for him with eager expectation. 'Liah was forced to reflect that neither of bis own children had ever greeted him so, but rather shrunk from his presence and kept ont of bis way.

Then there came one night belong remembered. Jacques had been down to the villiage below for supplies, which was a two days' journey, the children had brought in /rom tne shed long wreaths of ground-pine and wreaths of fir, with which tbey adorned the rude shanty till it was like a bower. Jeanue strung threads with soarlet cranberries, and festooned them here and there among tbe evergreens, and in one corner oftbe room, behind a screen of old quilts, gave every one of her brood such a thorough scrubbing that when tbey emerged in their Sunday clotbcs they shone and glowed like new dolls. A certain joyful decorum pervaded tbeir manners, astonishing to behold but when Jacques entered, loaded with bundles, tbe dfecorum vanished tbey threw themselves on him like a pack of busy wolves, as be laughingly called them •'Will you cease then?" called mother in laughing tones. "Leave the fatber for one time, be is tire, terrible children! be have hunger, I sav." "6et down, rascals!" thundered Jacques. Tnen exchanging a few voluble French sentence with his wife, be hurried up into the loft with tbe basket be carried, and Jeanne put bis other bandies into tbe old red cbest. "Come now!" be called to the children who were skylarking about tbe fire, not at all abasbed'by tbeir dispersion. "Come now: it is to sing the byma of Neel, here is the fatber again."

Tbe little crowd ranged themselves in line, folded their hands, and looking up like adoring cberabs voices that hymn of tbe ages in its stately Latin syllables, •deste fldek*! l*tl trtamphantes."

Not a word of its meaning did 'Liah understand, or tbe rapt look of Jeanne's face and tbe glistening eyes of Jacques as tbey listened, but tbe tones were sweet, tbe harmony pure, and bis heart •oftened unconsciously under its influence had be beard it pealing through tbe high arched ceiling of some vast cathedral, with all tbe splendor and color of religion's most gorgeous ritual to ^illustrate it, or from tbe lips of cloistered virgins in a dim convent chapel, it could not have impressed bim as it did inftbia bedecked shanty, from those red cbikliah lips. It was only: when tbe children gathered about tbe table for tbeir supper, to-night made a feast tor them bv certain augar-r*k«* Jeanne bad baked, and raisins in tbeir porridge, that 'Liah got a chance to speak.

Tain't Sunday, is itf be asked Jarfje*. N: ii i*

•imrm

*4~i r».

not

tbe

tbe—wbaSyoocall It—night

before Noel." I thought I'd lost my rec'nin' of t* Stutd y, but wbat tfa« dickens is Sfowesir*

9

"I forcet to say it to you right it is theFrench I tell you it is in your talk the Bhress-mass?" "H'm!" groaned 'Liah, moving uneasily in his cot.

Jacques shot a keen glance at him. whispered under his breath "Heretique!'' and moved away to the table for bis own share of cakes and porridge.

Strangely enough, Netty's bent bead and dropping tears rose up before hiai it was Christmas to-morrow, then, and she had wanted to celebrate it—if he would have let her.

Presently the children were dispatched to tbeir bea in the loft, and Jeanne began to tie small stocking of graded size» to tbe fir-boughs here and there till tlve dangled limply along the wall then Jacques fetcued down the basket be bad brought, and with happy faces and sparkling eyes the simple couple began to fill the stockings with tbeir gifts. W7bat poor little treasures tbey were! a stick of candy to each, a red pin-ball in one, a rough wooden top in another, a pair of gay mittens, a long blue comforter, a rattle-box made irom an old' sleigh-bell with a knit cover, all these homemade by Jeanne's tired fingers as she sat by the fire at night after the children's bedtime. There was a knife for Paul, the oldest a ribbon, cheap but scarlet, for each of the twin girls a pair of good stout shoes for four-year-old Jean, and a wooden doll for tho baby— these Jacques bad fetched from the village then a red apple atop in every woolen leg, and the father aud mother rubbed tbeir hands and congratulated each other iu rapid French. 'Uahwatched it all be had a question to ask, but not yet he, however, asked another of Jacques. "Say! why don't ye alius talk French, if'tis tbat you're atalkin' now seemsto come a sight easier to ye than Yankee "It is that the French is my born tongue, friend but for tbe children it is sometime we shall move down, when the forest burns away, when I do stop the coal job it is then the children must speak Ingleesh for to school you see?" 'Liah nodded he was a man keen enough to perceive issues and draw conclusions in hiB business he was not dull now but stared with a certain pained wonder at these poor, ignorant people, with their parental feeling—he aid not understand it. Pretty soon Jeanne sat down by the fire and surveyed her work Jacques went out to feed his goat and tie it for the night. 'Liah seicoa the opportunity. "Say, Mis' Dnpunt, what do ye make' all thfs fuss for about Chris'mas?"

Jeanne started. *Eh?" said she. •For why? and doer

not Sir also keep holiday at the bouse?" "I? no marm! 1 wa'n't fetched up to no sech goin's on what's it for, anyway?" "Ah! do you not know, poor friend Why, it is that tbe good God did come to-night, oh, many, very many long years ago. He was to the poor born, a leetel poor one it is in bay or tbe manger where beasts eat that they laid Him ob, the good, good God! to die He came for men He gave He did give, and is to-day child, so we give to tho chllds. see "Butyou hev to work real hard to getthem things, and Jack has to foot it a long stretch to fetch 'em of 'twas to give to missionaries, now, why 'twould look reasonable." "I know not those. I have my children ah? I should to them give heart's blood so not to forget the little Jesus! tbe good God's child. Him in the manger so poor as we, so troubled, and die onthe cross, that Son of God, so as Paul is my son ab, it is not much, but it isdear."

on that cross

gave—yes Himself -day lie was leetel You

And Jeanne's honent fnco glowel with sueh tender devotion, nuch earnest love, that •Liah fell bnck on his pillow uwed. 11«- slept little that night the message of Bethlehem had found bim literally a sheep lost In the wilderness yes, the Shepherd nad left the rsst and gone out upon the mountains seekInn bim.

There In the dull glow ®f the dying --'--od, his

T7

flfchelove­

recalled his heartless fatherhood, his less home, his sins of omission that mocked the outward cold uprightness of his life before him in this nook of the forest were nlety and affection, the like of which never blossomed ont of nis money and lauds, here were children who loved their parents: here a father owl mother ready to give up all things and do all things for the hnpplmv-s of their children what hsd he ever done lor bis7 Aimer had gone out from him as wxm as ho possibly could, and made his own home Netty had stayed, and hf had made her wretched. Poor Netty 1 Her first innocent request cruelly denied and scorned 1 It was

a merry Christmas Eve for 'Liah not

even the

Joyful shouts of the five children

next morning as they rilled their stockings, caused more than a transient smile on his rugged face but lie hud set that face in a new direction at lost, even toward liethlehem, and tbe new song was crecpmgjiote by note, fslntr

1

note,' faintly yet surely, Into his lu-nrt even as the herald angels sang It above that lowly manger, cradling their King: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, gfsxl will toward men.

us the hero I

Yes. Elian Hoskins was an old scholar, but he learned his lesson at lasl not In days or weeks or mouths noy, not In all his life did he learn It fully, or without Mruggle, but when at length he rose up from that eot bed add left the shanty to gohotne, he wondered at himself that It was so easy, even so pleasant for him to overpay Jacoues Inipont for his care and shelter: and still more he wondered to find how his Hps quivered when he tiled to say good-bye to Jeanne and th« children. Netty was uufelgnedly glad to see' him. and Sary. placid as usual, did not refuse a slow smile as he came to hlsown door. It Is true she confided to Netty month* after: "I thought Pa was struck with death, certain, when he come home he was real tlabbjr and meechln' for a spell, snd to my mind liehimself

"ineet"

ha'n't never been He never had the old things had away from 'Liah but he said nothing all his tribe he had no speech for the best

passed

nothing: like

and deepest feelings of his soul. He changed In all his ways, however, slowly and securely. Netty wan never permitted to teach tae school at liable

Four

Corners, and she and

h«r mother were both well suppled with food and raiment, even In their own opinion thereafter. The bare, nlugardiy a«pect iy degrees, of the bouse also softened by and at Netty's Instigation. Abner, to», was ssked to let his wife and child come home to n*nd the summer and sometimes when he drove

1IIV SUIU'UCi ••%S •w

over to see them that grave young rector oame too not altogether to 'Liah's wit!"faction, wbo did not like tbe prospeet, but, to his credit be It said, spoke no word of objection, and did bis best to be gracious.

And when Chrl*tmaa drew near again, Netty bad so releamed her father that without war or hesitation she said owe more: "Cant we keep Christmaa tills year, father?" and Xlah answered: "Ortln! Certln, child only 1 went ye to fix up a bo* of thing* for them folks up on tbe coaling wbo took sech care of roe last winter. Tnere's Ave ehlldnfn, they'll Ilk* most anything, and 111 fetch a gown from Haverford for Mis' Dupont,and 1 guoss Ilk

rNever

him an overcoat. The rest you must 11* suit ye, Netty, ill par the bills." In his life had Xiab received sncb a beartfe't hog and kiss be turned away without a word and stared out of tlw window old barn stood there still, bat he was rved.

I do wonder what made father change his mind so?" mid Netty To her mother, after Joyfully reporting her soooess but "iter of nirm ever knew nor that Ood had '-Ringed his heart, too, in that coed-burner* nut In the forest by the power of His life, krre and a, wbo came to us at the saered limittide.

A OOOO Baptist clergyman of Betven N. Y.. a strong temperance man, suffered with a kidney trouble, neuralgia, and disdneas almost to blindness, over two years after be was told that Hop Bittern ild cur- because he w»i afraid ol And ', 38d against "Bitters." mow hi* mure be say* none need fear but trust In Hop Bitters.