OCR Text |
Show CHRISTMAS EVE I csl HOME-COMING VfTTR' rsIT'A GR-HiM ! V-S-i BONNER. 3T WAS so cheerful when the unknown un-known crowds were efi hehind and t he known ones appeared. That was on the last part of the Journey. I'exter Lyons had been traveling all day and now it was dark and the lumps on the little branch line train were lighted and all the homo-comers from all directions had met. Everyone knew everyone else on this train and the conductor knew them all. The stove at the end of the train was burning almost too warmly. The train joggled along. The car was tilled with people, hags, suitcases, suit-cases, packages of all s h a p e s anil sizes. The conductor conduc-tor took the tickets tick-ets only as a secondary, sec-ondary, consideration. considera-tion. Ills first Interest In-terest was in hearing hear-ing how everyone had been, what I hey had been doing, do-ing, when school or college began after the holidays, when the business folk must be back-in back-in the cities. To everyone he wished a merry Christmas. Christ-mas. They had hurried so to make connections, con-nections, they had scrambled and pu.-hed through the great holiday crowds. But now they were all sure they would get home on Ciiristmas Kve. After they got on this train there could be no missing of connections connec-tions and the conductor had promised them they would be on time. Out of the windows occasional lights could he seen In the farmhouses they passed and in the streets of very small villages. IP.tt every house, no matter how separated and alone, was decorated. deco-rated. Christmas reached everywhere. It penetrated the traffic of cities and reached out to the most remote places. There was a general chatter going on, a renewing of friendships, a talk between some who only saw each other at this time of the year, who had different dif-ferent interests and occupations and lived in different places but who enjoyed en-joyed this annual little talk. And then the engine gave a long, long, long whistle. It was not the ordinary or-dinary whistle of an engine. It was the way the engine always whistled on Christmas Eve. so as to carry word to the waiting families and friends at the little station at the end of the line that the train was doing its part to wish them a merry Christmas by bringing its load of people. Dexter was out on the station platform. plat-form. Oh, such greetings as there were. And then a rush to the different differ-ent homes where hot suppers were spread out upon candle-lit tables and where ruddy tires radiated their glow of cheer. Dexter was surrounded by bis family. fam-ily. And besides there was Nancy. That made the home-coming perfect. For it gave him the hope, the uuspo-ken uuspo-ken promise that he would have his own, own home-coming before long. Nancy would never have joined this family gathering on Christmas Eve when Dexier was Just home, if she had not decided that certain matters Tie had taken up with her in letters were to be answered by assent ! "Oh. Nancy," he told her later, "it does, it does mean that you say 'yes,' doesn't it?" And Nancy said that it did! (Ct). ll'jr,. Western Newspaper Union.) |