Christmas

sible thing to do, and they all knew it. Oh, every way they looked at it, it was sensible, and they admitted it. Yet, besides Mary Chavah and Eb

ws' Christmas dinner, but such had become Tab's intimacy with and fondness for the turk

xplaining patiently; "he knows me-and he knows his name. He don't exp

hristmas in this sensible strain at the town meeting that night, before Sim

if there would be much of any Christmas down to the station to meet them." On which Mis' Mortimer Bates had spoken out, philosophical to the point of

red, "not a living, breathing thing. I can't, and folks might just as well know it, flat foot. What's the use of buying tinsel a

a draught, sat down carefully in her fourth chair, her face twit

," she said. "We'll get up and eat our three meals and sit down and look a

is' Winslow always sat limp in chairs as if they were reaching out to rest her and,

t talk that way. We can't have no real Christmas, of course. But I'd planned some little things made ou

Bates swept

o without things. Bennet and Gussie ain't expectin

unexpectedl

the outside or not," she sa

rom popping corn and cracking nuts all Fall so's they could do both

Happening as it does to most every one of us not to have no Christmas, they won't be no distinctions drawn. None of the children can brag-and childre

a doll," s

a dollar,"

to a tea part

give one,"

. "My papa goes to work ev

to," said Pep, and c

Winslow replied doggedly, "I can't seem t

if you don't have any Chri

nslow said. "Oh, yes, it w

er. The Old Trail Town Society was organized on a platform of "membership unlimited, dues nothing but taking turns with the entertaining, officers to consist of: President, the ho

t," he addres

ou ninny geese," correct

man," objected Mis' Moran; "she

, and go ahead," said the lady under discussion. "Onl

ed a memorandum of a sum of money. It was not a large sum. But when he quoted it, everybody looked at everybody else, stricken. For

which ain't very much for us all, these days,-this amount may be assumed to have been spent by the lot of us for Christmas. Of course there was those," continued Mr. Buck, looking intelligently about him, "who bought most of their Christmas stuff

t of the extremity

"for a merchant to make. Why not

significantly, and stood silent and smiling until t

t to open that Winter at all. Hardly a family represented in the rooms was not also representative of a factory emp

stmas this year, and roust the town up to it, like a town, and not go it blind and either get in up to our necks in debt, same as City folks, or else quit off Christmas, indiv

no established etiquette of revolutions. But something of the unconsciousness

t give something either and be disappointed too," she

as this year by doing away with it themselves," observe

the grocers and the family providers. We're the ones most concerned. Us providers have got to scratch gravel to get together any Christmas at all, if any. And

this year, and then had somebody send something embroidered by hand, with a solid month's work on it. But if we all

said Mis' Abby Wi

es. "We can't afford one. Why not let the children share in the family priv

me by the last, some by shortening the name, some by a name not their own. Perhaps there is a name for each of us, if only we knew where to look, and folk intuitively select the one most like that. Perhaps some of us, by the sort of miracle that is growing every day, got the name that is meant for

de," she said, "can't we gi

own; "it can't matter to you, Ellen, with no children, so ..." She caug

I ain't any childre

we've hit on the only way we could have hit

what he called "an open Christmas," and there were those near him at the meeting to whom he had confi

ard Simeon Buck

s from its calendar this year. And that we circulate a petition through the town to this effect, headed by our names. And that we all own up that it's for the si

ed; then he spoke voluntarily

said he, slowly, and without looking at an

ourne said "No," but she said it so faintly that nobody heard save those nearest her, and they fe

and slipped out in the ki

he course of the evening, did not make or reply

'd been to the meeting. S

glad of this plan they've got?

vah's way of thinking, don't we? You know

ream, sugar, or spoon,-they are always overlooking somebody's essentials in this way, and such is Old Trail Town's shy cour

hey put it through. We won't have no Christmas creditors this yea

-she was a little woman who carried her head back and

relieved, ain't you,

bel, without expr

he news home in

ted not to have any Christmas this year. That is,

atthew, sharpening his

ks not to have the muss and the

ling a stick, "I ain't done no more'n look on at a Chri

d Ellen Bourn

eeted by Mortimer Bates

Christmas in the world a good sight more'n w

Gussie Bates bu

ly. "You ain't the only ones, remem

ld have one an' we could go ov

stmas in other houses even if

d woman," admonished

Emily Moran made an

ed all day Christm

' Moran. "Why on this ear

s Christmas and you can't sto

and other gradual approach, and a Socratic questioning cleverly winning da

hday this year, is it a lie tha

And when they thought that he might not, because this would be considered Christmas celebration and would only make the absence of present-giving the more conspicuous, as in the case of the Sunday schools th

w would they get word to him, and would it be Christmas in the City, and why couldn't they move there, and other matters denoting the reversal of this t

"you're the only one in this town that's goin