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Show lwyj ; Kiums 1 ; J J'k ; Marj Graham cv?3 ! i?yi 3T HAD always been such a nice, deceptive way in which, to speak of specially delicious r.nd de!--ct-. able sweets sugar plums, j Her grandiuot !ier had called candles and candied fruits and luscious bon- bons "sugar plums." And she had j nlways, because she liked can, lied I fruits so particularly, called them ; "sugar plums." ! It had bo-n seventeen years since i r.ose had first remembered hearing of 1 "i-ugar plums." She had been three : then, and her grandmother had said I i Rose Had Been Very Busy Getting S Ready for Christmas. I In the wise, w ise way that gramimot'i-1 gramimot'i-1 cr always had of knowing what was what, "Yes, only Santa Clans knows bow to g-'t the choicest of sugar 1 plums." Roe was very busy gelling ready , for Christmas. It "as a busy t.rno j In the family. There were mince pi, s lo be made and plum puddings, and 1 almonds to salt, and fudge to make. 1 and wreaths to make, and bells to I fix. and fresh caudles to put in ihe candlesticks red candles at this i time of the year. It was a time for general cheer, am! from Rose's family a great share cf j this cheer went forth, i H was not that tlicy were wealthy. They were, In fact, the opposite. Bui It was their great satisfaction that by hard work and groin enc -gy I of spirit they could do a great deal in I a small way for every one with whom I they came In cou'act at lids si as, ,11 cf , the year. I livery present, no matter how ::u- l'le. was prettily wrapped. There v -is I no com',, sceiislon in their giving. lo 1 Ihem li was a hi,: part of thcii Chr-i. j inns dellghi that they know so many people wilh whom they cor.' 1 share llu lr Chrls'mas sacrifices and tin' iv sull of the 'ate hours they kept for weeks before Christmas In their Iniui mcrahle small preparations. Saving ':i 1 always .such fun I liroughout the early aulunin. Of what fun was saving sav-ing If It were a, I to ,- forever hidden? hid-den? There were two presents nwaliim: Chrlstinao morning for Rose to unwrap. un-wrap. They were for her and she bad taken (hem In when they bad arrived, bill she bad not opened them. She was curious about these pros-nils. pros-nils. She knew Ihov would be cpiUe simple, bill one was from Billy mid vuii" was from Joe, and both Hilly and .Toe had lately been running a race, as it were, for Rose's acceptance of engagements, for her favors. She liked Billy much better than she did Joe. she knew that Bi'.iy liked her. She knew that Joe liked her. too. She felt that Joe would always al-ways make her very co'.i.fortable. would always be very kind, very dutiful, duti-ful, and that she would always have to be dutiful, too. Of course, that was ail right. But she felt that with Bii'.y she wouij want to make him so very happy, acd with Joe. that it would te so much more of a duty. Y'et Joe was more reliable, he was less irresponsible, less spontaneous, and so much more exact. But Billy was such a dear! She could label ail Joe's goa points. Billy's were less tangible, hut they were there, all right, even if she couldn't name them. She helped her mother with the last Christmas Eve touches, covered the fire over with ashes, put out the lights and finally went to bed. The next morning she opened Joe's present r.rst. Somehow she wanted to keep Billy's to the last, the way she had done with things when she was a child. There was a little note with Joe's present, telling her what she knew he had bo-n wanting to tell her for a long time how much he thought of her. what a good wife he knew she would bo of that, he said, he was confident. An,', he hoped she would be ; of the same opinion about him. l'e I would make her. he was quite s"re, I a good husband. I Then there was a word about t' e present. He had not known what to give her this year; he knew she had all of those things which, as their posl tions now were, were the cn.y things he could give her. but his mother moth-er had suggested a very complete sewing-box. There was no note with Billy's present, pres-ent, .lust a card upon which he had written t "I think you like these 'supir plum' tilings. Merry Christmas." It was ia wholly unreasonably large box of I candied fruit. ! Later Billy himself came around. : What a dear he was! Oh. yes. Billy 1 iCl' ; A, ?4 s,:i .'JJrg-r "Crazy Present I Gave You," Bill)' W.is S.iying. was a ii .-ar. And ihcy haul u':.st',clce. too, and Billy was grabbing her K"vl w a s say itig : "Cra? 1 resent 1 gave jou. but 1 knovr ou like sugar plums : and. acy-vv acy-vv ay, 1 had In mind a ibamond 1 ''- Inn Just 1 bought I d speak to you about it I'u-sl." Blily bad bis own Ideas. "Sacai' plums." ,!o,' bad consulted bl mother moth-er and there had been a sewing hex. Uli. .she couldn't fell Just why.pcr haps, but she did love Hilly ami she didn't love Joe. Perhaps It was because be-cause Billy was Just a dear. "The 'sugar plums' win," she said, and I'd love the diamond ring." Hilly didn't unite understand tn first part of her sentence, but he dM the lasl and. after all, 1 tint wM 11 t hat wim iiccessai jr I O 111. VVfiltfTB Nwa'krr Vol"' |