| Show M J 01 tin 6 0 jt sy my LAURA JEAN L IBBEY LIBBEY N ON am copyright christmas wants ats and wo rines do you grieve no costly offering ott ering 4 to the lady you can make one there la Is and gifts less worthy queens Q beens have stooped to take th the gift ot oz a loving heart Is coming it Is almost here the C CHRISTMAS re thought brings joy to most hearts yet there are some in whose cup worry Is mixed with pleasure the woman of slender means w who ho has a large number of relatives friends and acquaintances notes the advance of that holiday with no little apprehension it means gift giving there theres s aunt sallys family of seven she could not give to one without slighting the others the same rule holds good with brother james family of six and uncle abner s family of 11 including the new baby her husband husbands s relatives are quite as important his ills brothers and his sisters his cousins and his aunts have to be remembered and all of the little fry then there s a score of women at the club they always send her a trifle and must be remembered in return altogether they foot up to over gifts her own niece hints that she hopes santa will bring her a pair of nice ion long kid party gloves Tobe to be sure they cost four fifty but they will last the whole season his ills cousin bess declares that she wouldn t thank santa for anything less than a set of gold bracelets she has been pricing them and finds that they cost from 40 up hubby s mother has been piping for a new bonnet while her own mother stands badly in need of a new pair of spectacles a dress and a little check to help her out with her dental work her own children are talking bout sleds hoops dolls skates etc the worried woman reckons hitup if up backward backa ard and forward it would take something like 1000 to cover their wants ants hubby hands out 20 to buy christinas christmas gifts with fear and trembling she shows her list and the cost what he says we wouldn rit t dare repeat putting Us arm around his wife the pr man of the world gives her a bit of wholesome advice saying bif vif if your relatives and friends keep in with you and only care for you for the christmas presents they receive you can do very well without them it is pleasant to remember your mother and mine with gifts each as costly as our means will permit an inexpensive card with a cheery christmas greeting will show the others that they were in your thoughts and should b be appreciated when christmas giving is a drain it should not be indulged in it if others wants bring you worries norries gift making Is robbed of its hearty joy loning to mother s A ree an exile lone in heart and fame A wanderer weary of the way A stranger without love a sweet claim on any heart go where I 1 may N NO 0 MATTER how far away from home one may be when the holidays approach there Is an intense long ing in the heart to take a flying trip back to home and mother though it be only for a day that one day of all the year christmas you know just how bountifully the table will rill be spread in the low old fash boned dining room turned into living room when the dishes are cleared away and the fringed flower besprinkled worsted tablecloth takes tales the place of the white one there s sure to be a christmas tree in one corner of the room mother never misses having that there s always a little present on it for each of her boys and girls no matter how old they may be even though they be married and far away its hard to tell which misses mother most the single man living a rovers life tossed by unkind fate from post to pillar or the girl who left home years ago in her teens to better her fortunes in the great city the man wanders through the streets of a strange town he stops to look in the shop windows bright with yuletide toys upon a christmas tree juba ten days till christmas reads the card upon it he looks wistfully and thinks of home mother and the christmas tree she Is sure to have there then and there he makes a desperate resolve to go home the white haired woman bending over her loom in the factory threads her way quickly through the holiday crowds to her lonely room in the base ment flinging herself down in a chair she covers her face with her hands the present drifts from her she slips into the past once more she is bidding mother good by the day after christmas father sisters brothers are there life in the city has not fulfilled her golden dreams she secured employment not to teach children to play on the melodeon melode ork which she under stood so well but in a factory with wages scarcely sufficient to keep soul and body together each year she hoped for better things while the roses faded from her cheeks and her brown locks turned to gray she had barely enough in her purse to pay for one months room rent it was always demanded in advance suddenly the resolve came to her so strong that she could not resist she would go home to the scenes of her childhood back to home and mother and stand once more before her christmas tree she makes the start before her courage gives out no wonder christmas Is a happy time it Is a family gathering heart to heart god bless christmas day wrong christmas spirit S cirit they ne er considered it as loath to look a gift horse in the mouth and very wisely would lay forth no more upon it than worth IF F THOSE who have striven so hard to make male holiday giving pleasing tor for others only knew of the spirit with which it la Is received it would nip much of the pleasure out of the old time honored custom it would be laughable were it not so pathetic in many an instance the wife of the clerk living in modest apartments hears bears the express mans s rap on the door with rith a thrill of pleas ure his ills well todo to do aunt hanna from the country has sent them an tin mense christmas box I 1 do hope its a lace centerpiece for the dining room table a handsome carving set a silk dress pattern or a set of furs I 1 hinted so strongly to her when she was here last those were the things I 1 hoped santa would bring us hubby could not cut the strings fast enough to suit the kiddies who gathered open eyed about the great box A note lay on top stating that auntie had made everything in the box with her own hands the shriek of anger was ras drowned in the shrill cry of delight by the little ones as package after package was ras unwrapped there was a canvas doll with a pretty hand painted face that baby could fling around as much as she pleased without injury there were scarlet knitted caps and mittens for johnnie i knitted sweater for dick a soft fleecy wool scarf for the mother of tl C kiddies and three pairs of knitted socks for their father was there ever such a lot of old as that exasperating 0 I 1 woman has sent us I 1 wouldn t give them house room declared tin wife aunt means well responded her husband reprovingly many a long weary hour those dear old hinds hands have spent in fashioning those gifts you find so unwelcome another ring at the bell it its s from your mother exclaimed the wife excitedly now we shall be apt to get something of some account the children hearing that held their breaths the package disclosed a toy engine for baby sue who had never seen an engine or ridden on a train a pair of riding boots for master johnnie aged ten who never I 1 lad ad a horse to ride with no prospect of ever owning such an animal a pair of french vases for the wife together with a pair of pink satin be rib boned bedroom slippers a coat and trouser hanger for the bead of the household the wife was so angry she could only sit down and cry what does a roman foman living in a third floor rear flat want of satin bedroom slippers she demanded ill 11 pitch them all out her husband quoted slowly I 1 never cast a flower away A gift of one who cared tor for me A flower a faded flower but it was done reluctantly |
