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ay . 2 » . THE OSHAWA DAILY TIMES, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1928 . By Marjorie Howe Dixon Walden had been standing at the window for fully five minutes watch- ing the drops slide down: the win- dow pane. Horrid old rain! Why did it have to rain? The snow was so lovely the day before and now it} was rapidly turning to slush, under the steady downpour, ristmas was over. His heart's desire, a new sled and hockey skates, had been fulfilled. But, shucks, what good were they in the rain! It just spoiled everything. Mother saw, as she always did, just what a state he was in, Drops were going to slide down his cheeks instead of the glass in another moment. if something . weren't done immediately. "Walden, dear--please come over by the firel It's been such a happy week, hasn't it? We aren't going to spoil it with gloom now, are we? You and Lum-dum draw up your little chairs and I'll read a little fur- ther. I think it will suggest a game le kote ek i long as she lives. Dominion Bank Chambers, | | ; : ] | fe Is it to be a hopeless dawn for your widow at Christmas? An Ideal Christmas Gift for Your Widow . and Children A Small Annual Deposit Made Now Will el Provide An © ANNUAL Christmas Gif To Your Widow of $500 and upward, guarantee for as ; For further particulars write or phone M., E. HARTLEY LOCAL MANAGER ' Sun Life Insurance Co. of Canada Phones 1834, 738F BBB BB BRS BI ] Oshawa, Ont. ] : : : : to you. You listen hard and see if it doesn't?" jected to Baby 'Name Lum Dum having arrived at the age of six, sometimes objected to her baby name, and insisted on her own "Ruth Ann" with dignity. T! s time she didn't care. She had dr. ed her favorite doll at least fourteen times that morning and undressed her and jp her to bed as many times. She It quite willing that Vivian Rose Violet Lily 'shotild sleep awhile in peace, now that other amusement was offered. Mother had read them a bit about Maggie and Tom in "The Mill on the Floss," before. The morning of the snow she had read to them the beginning of the chapter "The Christ- mas Holidays" because it was just that kind of a day she said. "Fine old Christmas with snowy hair and ruddy we." She began again and went on: "Snow lay on the croft and river nk in undulations softer than the nbs of infancy,~OIld Christmas riled--for he meant to light up yme with new brightness, to deepen | the riches of indoor color and ive a keener edge of delight to the arm fragrance of food." Passes Box of Candy. Walden began to brighten up when dother read this last part, and glanced around at the firelight and the pleasant room as if seeing them for the first time. He went over very | quietly, so as not to disturb the reading to get his box of candy and pass it around. The two children nibbled in silence as Mother read on. It was Ruth Ann who interrupted suddenly, * are them,--He'll be Tom and I'll be Maggie. And we'll trim my doll house with holly like it says they did. What does it say,~Windows and mantle pieces and picture frames? Tom, you drag out the Doll heuse. And I'll cut some little holly from some of the Christmas wrappings. And we'll have the dolls be Aunt and Uncle Moss and the seven children. And they can all go to church and everything." Walden had been studying the next paragraph at his mother's shoulder. "Tom and Maggie must have been in bed when they heard 'Singing un- der the windows at midnight' so we'll be the singers and you pick out some more dolls to be Tom and Maggie." Wants to Be Mag Lum Dum bustled over es oH doll's bed in her most important manner. "Well, I declare! Vivian Rose Violet Lily has just waked up and she wants to be Maggie, she says." "She's much too big,' 'said Walden, absently, trying to decide which doll would be Tom, and reconcile in his somewhat practical mind the fact that the toy village was much smaller than the doll's house; and how were the: miscellaneous assortment of dolls ever to get in the church which was about two inches high? Mother had gone ovgr to her desk to write thank you letters J | friends and New Year cards to the people she had forgotten to send Christmas cards to. She listened to see how this difficulty would be straightened out. ere's just two boy dolls to choose from, for Tom, and they both are crazy,' said Walden, "Tom was a big boy." Walden was holding out a fat smiling infant in rompers and a doll made of gum drops and tooth picks. Poor Gum Drop! Lum Dum looked over, "You've eaten one arm and one foot off the gum drop boy, so he won't do," she said. "My darling Patrick Henry-- give-me-liberty-or-death will have to be Tom. Come here, Patrick, if you are going to church you must put your hood on. And shame on. you for 2 big boy wearing a hood!" She gi en laughed too and Mother returned to her letters knowing that things were starting did Tom get home from school?" him come on my railroad train. Did they have trains those days?" Mother opened to the previous thapter, "Oh, here it is, 'The happi- ness of seeing the bright light in the parlor at home, as the gig passed noiselessly over the snow covered bridge.' " "What is a gig?" "It's a carriage, dear." Must Go Around Switch "Well, we'll play it is short for engine. I haven't any bridge, so it will have to go around by the switch." Mother watched them with interest as the chubby doll, larger than the car itself, was trundled about the tracks and received with many kisses and much enthusiasm by Ruth Ann, Mo > was Mrs, Tulliver for the time ein, "Oh Mush!" said Walden, "Tom wad twelve or thirteen years old, Ruth Ann. He'd hate being kissed like that!" "Him's my darling boy, home to his dear mother," Ruth Ann who wanted to see justice was done to a scene, in which she could properly shine. * come cooed "I was glad I had remembered that chapter on Christmas in 'The Mill on the Floss, because it gave them something new to think about. [I'll have to write and tell grandmother all about it. I must go and do it right away, too, before I forget that remarkable sermon. Dear, if you only could have seen him,-looking so solemn and (mischievously glancing at her husband) so exactly like his 'Mother! We can play we | Dad At this point Mother fled and turn- ing at the doorway wrinkled her nose at him. Then she went on: upstairs to write Grandmother. THE CAROL SINGERS OF CHRISTMASTIDE The year has waned and nearly gone, And just before it dies away One tiny spark into a bright glow swells And lo! Day. 'tis 'once more Christmas That one day of the year when all | rejoice ; It comes, "tis gone, thought remains, We cannot help but {cel the spirit near And life. from that Day some joy re- tains. but still the The crisp snow glistens on the frosty earth; The merry sleigh-bells and the church bells ring; The little children waking early rise And carol after carol do they sing. As did the shepherds in the silent fields On that first Christmas angel throng; hear the to her} We, too, in memory, though 'tis long ago Repeat the same glad echoes in our song. --J. Wotton, we She looked up again. "Mother, how [§ Walden was asking. "I'd like to have | 3 that, peacefully | 20% Motor Accessories This Christmas and the Choicest Gift ofall isa Seiberlirg Tire!! Hz2ad yuarters for -Qils, Greases and Gasoline-- arage 4 Reliable and Service Station Corner Park Road and King St., W. sm for service | phone 1568 Seiberling Taxi Service Operated Day and Nignt -- Phone 1568 F.J. McDonnell "I ean't understand it!" said a farmer, after watching with undis guised envy a series of tricks per- formed by a pedlar's dog. "Here is this mongrel of yours doing all these clever things, and there is my dog, with a pedigree a yard long, can't be taught a single thing! I've ham: mered at it till I'm tired of him! He won't learn even the simplest trick!" "Well, sir, 'tint so much the dog," the pedlar replied confidenti- ally. "You have to know more'n he does, or you can't learn him any- thing!" An official report states that 500 kinds of material are used for men's shoes." Is leather one of them? Settlers in Kenya, when they eatch a baboon in the act of destroying their crops, paint it blue and release it. The animal seldom comes back for a second coat. When he returns home vulgar little'baboons make his life a burden to him by singing { "Song-bird, why .are you blue?" whenever they meet him. "Give me the writing of a nation's songs," said a man in the snugness of his club smoking-room, "and I care not who makes the laws." "I won't go quite so far as that," said a politician who was among his hear- ers; "but let me write the amend- ments, and I care not who draws up the Bills!" My deeds would make Napoleon pale; Poor Shakespeare's words divine Would sound nonsensical and stale Compared with verse of mine; No hero since the world began, No sage could equal me, If IT were only half the man My mother thought I'd be. The dullest dolt that breathes, I fear, Beside me would seem wise: A sloth by. contrast would appear A thing of enterprise; No failure ever was so great, No coward more suspect, If my wife's mother's estimate Of me is half corrupt! --*"Life." "Was the car crowded, dear?" "Crowded? Why, even the men had to stand!" "Which arm of the bridegroom should the bride take as she walks out of the church?" asks a writer. She does not care a hoot which arm she takes; what she is after is the upper hand. "It suits you just down to the ground." But the sales girl's remark failed to please. The frock I require," said 'the lady with ire, "Must suit me just down to the knees." F tewitt--Gruet is not a broadmind- ed man. Jewett--Pretty small; I should say; he thinks the holes in doughnuts are the great open spaces, Give A Portrait for Christ INAS y | | w LLY A 7] b II St ! di YOUR mother will express keen delight over | such a gift; so will the remainder of the family or relatives---and if there is a sweet heart to be considered, she, too, will goice approval.