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Show coooooooooooooooc-o ft The if xj Christmas j$ j Goose j x x 9 By CELIA E. CHUTE jO The little face he wag looklDg at contracted suddenly and painfully. It was the Qrst time Johnnie had realized real-ized that Christmas meant eating' Solomon I Actually eating him I He was filled with the most passionate repulsion. "1 won't eat him ! Nobody's going to eat h!m ! 1 won't let anybody eat hlra!" The whirlwind of defiancl ended in a burst of tears. Mrs. Caruthers put her arm around her grieving son. "Nobody shall eat Solomon," she whispered. "Farvcr would." "Not when he knows how you feel about It. Don't cry nny more about It, dear." In her absorption In Johnnie Mrs. Caruthers did not hear Doctor Arnold say to Carrie Caruthers: "Wouldn't It be a kindness to the child to draw attention at-tention from hlra? Carrie give me leave, won't you?" "Oh, If It's necessary for Johnnie's peace of mind I suppose you may," said Carrie, blushing rosily. "Say, Johnnie," said Doctor Arnold, "did you know that I'm thinking of carrying Carrie off to my Jrouse so that there'll be plenty of room for Solomon here?" Johnnie noticed that this remark seemed to strike his mother dumb. To him, personally, It did not seem an altogether al-together objectionable arrangement, although he thought It very foolish for Doctor Arnold not to know that there was room enough for Solomon and Carrie, too, In that great house. "Carrie "Car-rie ain't going off to your house to live," he said sternly. "I won't let her." "Oh, Is that so?" said the doctor. "I hardly know what to do about It, then, for I've asked her and she said she was willing to go." Johnnie turned an unbelieving eye on his sister. It was a shock when OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOv (Copyright, 1M9, McClure Newtjpaper Syndicate.) Syn-dicate.) r75 OLOMON, Hie Caruthers' LiWJv K0ose na(J grown so ;x& lul"P 11,1,1 so pompous dX&Y&M tllat " S0(-'mPtI as lf ne lillfNii must be aware that OTisP iirent things were ex-peeted ex-peeted of him at the ,,w!?0 holiday dinner, and was ' , iqX- . doing Ills best to ful- !V7yP (ill expectations. "Sol-, "Sol-, p6'-r' J omon Is almost as much OJS) of a responsibility as Johnnie," Mrs. Caruthers Caruth-ers said one day, when her husband was extricating Solomon from a tight place In the poultry yard fence. "I begin to be afraid that having him so much on our minds and In our company com-pany may affect our appetites for our Christinas dinner. As the holiday approached the whole yard began to look small for Solomon. Carrie Caruthers, coming In one day from a walk, complained that he had strenuously objected to making way for her on t lie walk. "Really, mother, it makes me feel as If we oughtn't to eat him," she said, coloring a little, "lie seems too human." "Dear me, child I" said Mrs. Caruthers Caruth-ers hurriedly. "Don't mention that before be-fore Johnnie." The next afternoon Johnnie came running into the house in great excitement. excite-ment. "The Leonard dog is chasing Solomon," lie wept. "Muvver, come find make him go home!" Mrs. Carulhers looked out. Solomon was certntnly having a perilous adventure. adven-ture. The Leonard dog was circling nbout liiin, making vicious charges. Nothing but the spreading of Solomon's Solo-mon's formidable wings and his harsh outcries saved him. "My! what a dreadful dog!" exclaimed Mrs. Caruthers, Caruth-ers, hurrying to the rescue. There was ear-splitting squawking from the terrified goose. "Muvver! Muvver!" cried Johnnie, bursting into heartrending wails. Mrs. Caruthers picked up a stick and made a motion of throwing it. "Go home !" she commanded steruly. The dog spread his feet and shook li'.s head. "Bow-wow!" he returned in-pudeiitly. She threw the stick. It seemed to be the only thing she could do. The Leonard dog whirled around in an anguish of pain and astonishment. Then, realizing that he had been worsted, he departed on three legs for his kennel. "You hit him, muvver I You hit him!" exulted Johnnie. The frightened goose sat hunched under a tree, his head buried In his oack. Some of the feathers were gone from his tail, and patches of fluffy down were blowing about the yard. "Blest if I can see what there is about that goose to fascinate an entire en-tire family," said Mr. Caruthers, appearing ap-pearing suddenly behind them. "If you don't look out, Lucy, you'll be refusing re-fusing your favorite hip slice when Christmas comes." Hip slice! Solomon's hip slice! Mrs. Caruthers could scarcely restrain a shudder as she glanced at the heap of feathers huddled In a corner. What a cannibalistic vision! "Oh, please, Austin, don't speak of it!" she begged. "Tell father what happened, dear." Johnnie, Incoherent from agitation, told the story o the attack and res- "Carrie Ain't Going Off to Your House to Live." she nodded yes. He did not for an Instant In-stant believe it. He was sure that Carrie was afraid ; that she did not dare say anything but yes to such a big, determined person as the young doctor. But he was not afraid If Carrie Car-rie was. He'd show him ! He'd tell him something he knew about himl "You're a foggone 'elusion !" he shouted wrathfully; "that's what you are ! Aunt Eu " "Johnnie !" Mrs. Caruthers seized him so violently that the end of the preposterous assertion was shaken into Inaudibility. It had been to her that Aunt Eunice had made the statement, and her heart died within her when she heard it on Johnnie's lips. "We'll talk about It some other time, dear," she said, trying to smile down her affronted af-fronted son's ire and conscious that Carrie and Doctor Arnold were gazing at her In amazement. "Don't you think we had better be getting Solomon's supper now?" It was an unlucky remark. Johnnie's face puckered. "I don't want anybody to eat Solomon," he reiterated miserably. mis-erably. "Austin," Mrs. Caruthers called to her husband, who was coming out of the garage. "Come here, please. This may as well be settled now." "What's the matter now, sonny boy?" asked Mr. Caruthers, approaching. approach-ing. "I don't want anybody to eat Solomon, Solo-mon, farver." "Don't worry," said Mr. Caruthers In his cheerful tone. "I've changed my mind. I think turkey will suit us all better than goose for our Christmas dinner this year, and I'm going to order or-der the biggest and fattest turkey I can find in the market and Solomon shall live forever. How will that suit you, Johnnieklns?" "I like that," declared Johnnie, polishing pol-ishing his tear-wet but radiant face on his sleeve. "Go Home!" She Commanded Sternly. cue. "Muvver frew a stick at him," he ended, smiles breaking out at the entrancing en-trancing recollection. "It hurt his leg. He could only run on free legs. He went home awful fast, didn't he, muvver muv-ver ?" Just then Carrie Caruthers and a joung man came around the corner of Ihe house and came to join them. Johnnie observed young Doctor Arnold with Interest. The day before he had heard hTs Aunt Eunice call the doctor "foregone conclusion." He watched ihlm narrowly, trying to discover how a "foregone conclusion" differed from ether men. He thought, on the whole, Jhat It would be rather nice to be on friendly terms with a "foregone conclusion." con-clusion." so lie moved nearer and timidly tim-idly announced that Solomon was a Christmas goose. "He's n splendid big fellow," said Ihe young doctor heartily. "How much yf him do you think you can eat?" i |