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Show TVfP RT'I.I.ETIN "1 aMjejsssussTOMiesjea CfUtblt I W) By s OA.C McCLUIQ I WNU SHVKI CO. teaiafxWBxWsW J WASN'T there. Hadn't been SYNOPSIS how few Christmas packages there there aince he left to go to school that mornin'. Hadn't been It wii a blustery December evening wat in my old cart that afternoon. when Tod Wltheripoon, veteran western You know mine it the loneliest route seen since I looked back and moof Kaniaa mail carrier, Joined a (roup tioned to him to hurry on home. men in the SUr City hotel. They were in there It this tide of Nome City, g a mood, and Tod. always Alasky. The weather had been ugly And in ttorm uat i us. Genobliging, told them the story of his best all day, and late in the afternoon it thousand a I lived tlemen, years in Christmas. It was the story of little the next five minutes. And there "P'like" Gabel. whose name cam from was gettln' nasty, with the wind com-in Ms habit of saying "let's play like." Tod blizwas only one gleam of light in all higher, and a often takes "P'like" home from school toone not like a this them ten laggin' centuries. Just zard, baby with him on his mall route, and grows to love the boy. "P'like." orphaned while night was beginnin to uncurl its one. The boy was lost out in the a baby, lives with poverty-stricke- n awful night comin' on. Only one whips to lash the land to pieces. Grandma Gabel and her son. To, a long lad. "P'like" The snow at first was Just needles hope the candles. They might be attends school at District 33. taught by stingin', scatterln' like, but increas-in- ' lit Oh, if only one could be ahinin' beautiful Ruth Ravenstow, a seemingly somewhere. Just one little feeble every minute. I put P'like oui friendless girL Though unhappy, she frazzle of light. But would the litmakes no friends in the district One at his box to run across the canyon day Just before Christmas. Tod calls on to hit home. I knew he'd get there tle boy see it? The houses were so her and notices again how sad sh is. I far apart; and mebby nobody would He calls on the other families on his sooner that way, and I see what mall rout and, In order to mak things wat facin' for the rest of my ride waste them in a winder on such a seem more like Christmss for them, I pretty near forgot to give him the night, Christmas Eve, too, and Him leaves a cheery wax candle for each of that made it passible had once them to bum in the window Christmas letter for box 33. and he'd so wanted Eve. to find a letter in that box all that blessed little children . . At the fall. But I was thinkin' all the time end of my thousand years, say about about the big box I was carry in" four minutes and twenty seconds, I THE STORY Continued for him, that Ruth Ravenstow had came to and got action on me. School In District S3 held up till give me. and plannin' how 1I'd sneak "Grandma," I said, "Little Tully know tf isn't lost He's safe somewhere. Put Christmas Eve that year. And it up to the Gabel house Gabel without that box from Miss Ravenstow away Christmas come Tuesday, too. But I could get to Mrs. us. 1 could get by all out of sight Then you and Tone go I guess Mln Ravenstow wanted the him teein' morn-idown and get my horse and put him children with her Just ai long as right tellin her to keep it till it himfor him and let him open in your stable, and you wait I'm the could to keep her from herself. It looked that way to me, anyhow, self. goin' to find him." I looked back after 1 had gone a You see, gentlemen, when you've and while I didn't lay a word to little had to depend on a horse to do for and ways, and I see tittle P'like anybody, I did a lot of think in', with thai you, like he waa a brother, you don't Lord, yes, a lot of pityin' of that itandin' by the mail-bo- x run off and leave him to freeze, letter in his hand. I waved hm poor girL even in a stress like that But the children never objected to good-b- y again, and motioned him to But that woman stood up before atayin' in school till plum Christmas me and seemed like I never heard a Eve. They wai all havin a better voice like hers before. time there than they'd had at home. "I heard folks say that same thing And the old soddy, besides bein' natago before Tobe wai born. fuel. yean for lack urally warm, didn't And that wai a Christmas Eve, too. The district seen to that It wai Where will you go?" one thing they could do for her to "There's a candle in every house . how they appreciated all the wai in this valley, tonight I know aome doin' for their children. And they'd of 'em is lighted, and there will be a gone cold themselves, ai tome of gleam somewhere to guide me. 'em is always bound to do every That's what I keep my religion for. winter anyhow, rather than to let It'a to carry me through Just such that pretty white-face- d girl need a dark nights as this," and I left her. warm place to stay in, her bein all Out into the pathless dark and bit alone, too. Anyway, she kept them ter cold of that stormy night I went kidi till the last afternoon before with nothin' to trust to, but God's the holidays. mercy. But which way? Somehow THOUGHT a lot about her while that letter kept comin' up in my I I wai ilingin' my mail matter tomind. Why hadn't little P'like run home with it? You couldn't no more gether. Nothin' in it for her. of course. Not a tingle card of greethave lost him between their mailing, the kind that chokes the postal box and home that evenin' than you service to death every December. I could lose me In the Star House lobwain't lookin' for any for ber, no by tonight He was too sure-eyemore than I would have looked for d for that The wind and one for the Gabels. I'd give that all wasn't so bad right then, and he'd up for her by the last of October. gone lingin' home like It was a midI ever heard. Bnt that waa the coldest good-b- y But it got on my nerves more and And they'd nev summer mid-damore, wonderin' what her story run on oexore. a naa er letter to a An, tnai stood still used bein' he Grandma Gabel But quick. just lay, might be. It wasn't natural nor like the stubborn little tyke he wat southerner, and behave itself prop was it after alL He knew it could right at all. For even if she did live sometimes, and you couldn't move er. When you re xreezin' you'll do mean much, not to Gabels for he'd by herself, and had forgot bow to him. I wished I'd told him to hurry most anything to kid yourself give that up long ago, I guest but and with that letter to his mile, even with children he wat a dreamer. He had stood It through, you know. grandma, that's the acid test of an with it in hit hand till I wat out of one had she'd since the first bein' When I got to Gabels I ineaked sorrow there must have been Where had he gone with hii I took knowed wished I'd I'd her. tight to around carefully a time somewhere back in her life keep out of It? Where, but to the ichoolhouie? noticed the more and interest postwhen the had Christmas in a pretty range of them bright big eyes that He hadn't rid in the lame cart with mark. But my eyeballa were burn- could see further'n an owl can. But home, mebby. day after day, for me not to I got to worked up over her cate ing with reading addresses, and the I didn't need to sneak. Nobody waa me, know a little bit of the workin'a of I nearly forgot to have a thrill when bleary, bloodshot things were in- there but the old woman and Tone. that child's mind. I say again, all I caught tight of a letter tor Box 33, flamed with my cold. I had a notion a "Here'a for little children it Just open books if you your present to then and back make the go right the Gabels, and the very first one from Min Ravenstow," I be- only try to read 'em a little. But boy I cub needed to but hurry, hurry But had. mail wai they'd ever the way wai a long one, and the and P'like wai such a funny gun in pallin' on my curiosity, ai it will on myself, tone. "She said you must let him ttorm and twilight had come before a carrier's by the morn in' of De- youngster, he had his own ways of open It himself tomorrow morning. he could have got halt way back. cember twenty-fou- r every year. 1 doing everything.'. You mustn't let him see it tonight sure-headaa he waa. You rewaa thinkin' only of Ruth RavenHe wul go to bed pretty soon, won't member it wat on the loop I let school-hous- e when at I the stow, stopped heT I hope your letter brought you him out not the nearest point be to pick up little P'like, and be friendly, tween hit home and the old soddy. yea to chat a minute with the pret- I DID look back again at the turn good news," I added, to even waa if I freezin'. just I won't tax you to picture what I of the couldn't men I but all are alike tee the trail, ty girL I guesi about things like that. I don't sup- little fellow at aU then, to I knew he "Letter?" Grandma Gabel aaid, went through between the lonely hid pose Methuselah ever really got had cut for home. It had probably wonderin like. "I don't know what den Gabel ranch house and the tod over it, though you can't lay it bat- just dawned on him that he really you mean. Did Tully go to sleep in school house that night But one tened hit end. I knew she waa in had a letter for the Gabels, and your cart? Why don't you bring him thing in that long perithin' way I'll never forget Far and wide, here for a silent Christmas in her little he'd be dreamin' all aortt of In?" and there, sometimes seen, some room off the old tod ichoolhouie, dreamt, and "p'likln1 " to his heart's "Bring him In?" I bust out "I times lost waa the faint alone in a lonely land, shipwrecked content at he skipped along through glimmer of mail-box went him left at the ai I a candle light It guided my steps. on the earth billows of the canyons the canyon to tell his grandma what out there. She'd told all the chil- he had for her. And somehow 1 by it on my round. He had a letter else I never could have made the dren but Tully Gabel, good-band kept hopin' there was a check In for you, too. I told him to hurry trail down the Smoky hilL Seemt watched them trudgin' off out of that letter, till I about convinced right home with it and I thought to me now that every house had its tight Then I don't know yet just myself there wat. You see, I'd been he would do It became he'i always candle in the winder, and though I how she did manage It Women's with Tully so much I'd learned hit wanted to get you a letter; and it couldn't have reached any of the home economics it clear beyond my trick and could "p'like" myself. My waa good it come just on Christ hornet, I would have wandered far out of the track and mebby never feeble intellect but somehow the old horse wat tough at a nut and aa nails, and with real horse mai Eve. It wai too cold for him come back to tell you thia tonight it hard slick P'like little at got by anything, to go on the long ride with me to- it hadn't been for them. d bundle into my sense, for he knew ever1 foot of my and slid a windin' that crooked, way through night Don't say he ain't here yet" (TO BE CONTINUED) cart before I knew, myself, what me needed to and never valley, pull he wai up to, layin': a rein to turn him right or left Just "It's the phonograph for Grandma trotted up and down, more'n for He wants one Gabel from Tully. him and but he ward, for her so much, it will be better me the route by sheer instinct along Although pneumatic tires are not which gives audible warning to the 1 If could I him than any gift give waa a good thing he unknown on American railways, in driver. A safety device within the and It habit had one. I've taught him how to had that leadin' in him. It taved England the London, Midland & tire allows the wheel to drop only use it and I want her to have it I me the first thing I Scottish railway la experimenting one-haFor that inch in the event of loss night hall not want It any more." know I tort of come to with a snap, with them with special cars to meet of pressure and enables the car to The look in her eyes aa she said and aee that while I thought I wat run on to the next convenient stopthat stays with me yet and I'll nev- picturin' out thing! up at Gabela 1 their conditions. These railcars before changing the deer forget it It was to strange and wai really gettin' that drowsy sleep- have been turned out by the Arm- ping place wheeL fective at Motors, strong, Ltd., Siddeley look I ever tee iness different from any that make! gettin' cold to per- Coventry, and shipped to Rugby, The body of the railcar is built of ' before or since. ilous. where the experiments are taking 0.10 Inch aluminum panels, bolted "Don't leave It at the mail-box.- " wide awake and place. routed I together. Complete rigidity li asmyself the went on, "but take it to the and hunched my shoulders sured by thia method of Joining the of are the made sensible, posThey lightest house when you come around the firm down the wind. For It sible construction compatible with sectional panels and the bodies are against Smuggle it In without him seemed in loop. just a minute, the storm strength and the requirement! nec- entirely free from vibration trouteeing' it Tell hit Grandma it it busted suddenly out of the foothills windows mechanito run at speeds of over 70 bles. Full-drosomething for Tully, and not to open of the Rockies and begun to slam essary are arranged beside hour. miles an haa been found It cally operated to tomorrow it till morning. Then around gettin' ready for a real bliz- possible, by the extensive use of the seats. let him open it I know him well zard. What followed the rett of that to eliminate weight to such The engine is an Armstrong Sidenough to believe he will be the hap- trip I have tried to forget It waa welding, 12 cylinder "V" gasoline enan extent this that of latest deley type piest boy on the Smoky Hill river the maddest gashingest wind I ever railcar for 4 feet 8H Inchea 275 b.h.p. at 3,000 developing gauge, gine Good-by.-" tomorrow morning. valley faced in all the yean I've trekked which it 54 feet long and The coefficient of adhesion designed r.p.m. up that valley. The mow didn't fall steel rails You'd have thought if my princi- till later. But good Lord of heaven, to carry 56 passengers and 15 hun- between rubber tires and times than of several greater luggage, weight only being dredweight at all, that she'd been a how the Smoky River valley waa ple works' torn in running that between steel and steel, the nine and one-ha- lf little bit happy herself makln' him tortured by that bitter wind in the order. railcar possesses extraordinary acto happy. But that was the coldest hours of that late afteron two darkening The is car carried y I ever heard. Seemed like good-beight celeration and braking properties. evenin'l I struggled wheeled a voice from the grave; so sad, and noon and early bogies, one of which is Under normml braking conditions to make every driven. Each wheel Is fitted with the distance covered in coming to far away, and final. And I went on through, determined then come back a gauge set at a predetermined and mail box. rest from 00 miles per hour Is apwith my heart so heavy for her that ingle the only thing that kept any Joy in and tote that precious phonograph pressure, and in the event of loss proximately 250 yards, and in emerit was the thought of the glad sur- up to Grandma Gabel'i. I couldn't of pressure a plunger at the back gency the car can be stopped in prise coming to my little pal snug- think of not dclivenn' that one thing, of the gauge is pressed out by a approximately 83 yard! from SO though it ain't a carrier'! business spring, closing an electric circuit miles per hour. gled in betide me. You wouldn't believe, if I told you, story-tellin- n' full-grow- slow-witte- kind-hearte- d n' to do that But out there we're human more'n we are "regular," as I've said, when duty and needs calls us. And the old man at Washington wear in' the striped pants and high hat and general regalia of the flag fixin's is apt to wink at our short comin's when it's done in the name of Him our silver quarters says we trust in. Seemed to me pretty soon that I was the only livin" thing west of Hutchinson, Kansas. All the world was Just rock and roar and cold dark nothingness. l dian'l seem to be followin' a trail at alL I just spattered into space when I left the last box and turned back on my home route with that precious thing of Ruth Raven-stow'- s. All I could do was to trust in the Lord. and my old horse's manhood to do the right thing by me then. For when you are lost in them canyons on a night like that you are lost, and the ocean ain't no crueler about givin' you up. To forget that because I knowed it so blamed well I begun to wonder how many of them candles would be lighted later, in the valley. And I tried to picture them, each flickerin' its little bit of a glim againt the big riproarin' storm swearin' so at 'em. And I tried to think the storm itself wasn't no monster but just a big bully that only needed you to call its bluff to "quile down" at HE sure-foote- y. over-mas-teri- n' s" y, big-iize- jig-jagg- Pneumatic Tires for British Railway Trains lf p n!?Ec Margaret Hill McCarter self just to p'like somebody way out on this big prairie might come Tod" i eyet were tparkling nine, but Christmasfng along, and need hit voice, that hud dropped low, did And it called to me. I heard it in the little, soft voice candles have. not chant. TIIK By MARGARET HILL McCARTER in tlje STOBY-Contin- ued --4 it After while they all went out and I knew I was in the deep valley, and I got all confused about directions and had to fight on, numb and half blinded with the cold, lure of nothin' any more. All memory of the landmarks went blooey, and at the last turn of the trail I was utterly lost For one long minute hell took hold of me. Hell ain't hot and fiery at alL It's eternally cold and black. But as I started forward, prayin' as I'd never prayed before, I see a light bless the Lord a real light a Christmas candle in a winder. And it grew till the sod schoolhouse seemed to sort of be comin' forward to meet nr . . . Miracles ain't all in Holy Writ Some of 'em happens out on the rural route on the upper Smoky. Humble place, you city fellows might think, but Bethlehem wasn't an up to date place neither, 'specially the cattle garages outside the town proper. But somehow it got into history to stay. That cold, white-facegirl had lit her candle, lettin' it flare out on the d darkness of lonely, my way. Hardly one chance in a thousand, on that Christmas Eve, that any human bein' would need it But they did. Golly I Don't I know they did. I was froze nearly to death, but how that candle light did begin to warm me. I staggered up to the winder, too chilled to find the door, and looked inside. My eyes d storm-threshe- It said 'hurry,' and I hurried, and hurried, and hurried, and it got it brighter, and brighter, and laughed when I come in. And my letter wasn't a p'like' at all, but a real letter and teacher is so happy. We've just been laugh ing and laughing." Wai teacner happy? Gentlemen, can you run off through your minds what it would mean to you if you'd ever been a pretty young girl livin' back in New England? You'll have to "p'like" like the dickent to do that but stretch your imagination to the crackin' point and do it And you had a sweetheart over teat. And the last word you'd got definite, awfully definite, wat that he was dyin' in a German prison camp dyln' of sickness, and hard labor, and starvation. And the world went black before your eyes. And all you could do to keep from goin' des perately mad, wat to burn every bridge behind you, and bury yourself out of sight You can do that about at effective on the upper Smoky at anywhere I know of. And Just to live on day after day, the only thing to feed your soul on but it'a the thing they it bein' the touch of children'i hands, and the sound of children'i voicet five dayt In the week the other two daya be-i-n' a dumb blank growin' more desperate and lonely every day, till it took a lot of courage and an awful sure-enoug- dead-sure- h st Ruth Ravenstow was sittin' by the fire and little P'like cuddled in her arms. wat blurred for a minute. Then I ee a light that made it the best Christmas I ever had, just as I told you long ago in the beginnin' of this evenin'. Some of you here may remember back when thia tale begun. There was a big fire In the stove, and the room wat dark, except for the light through the gratin' in the stove door, and the Christmas candle. Ruth Ravenstow wat sittin' by the fire with little P'like cuddled in her arms. And they waa aingin' "My Old Kentucky Home." But what teemed strangest to me, and I rubbed my bleared eyes with my frozen paw to be sure I wasn't dead and in heaven, wat Ruth't face in the firelight through the ban of the ttove door. Day after day, that fall, I'd never teen anything but a still, cold, marble woman's face. That night In the warm shadders, her cheeks waa pink aa June rotes. And her smile a man would be willin' to be froze nearer to death than I was just to get the memory of that smile, and the red lips, and the pretty white teeth the picture of it I aay tucked away for a keep- take in nil mind's big storehouse. The hotel lobby wet very quiet, and voire, even and gentle, hardly teemed Uka sound. We were vision. ing the ttory a he told it, and the toorld outtide was forgotten in the eweetneu of that Chrittmat spirit. can be told quick THE restthough It took tome Utile time then. At I've said, P'like waa a stubborn little round-hea- d when he got set on a thing. He'd got a letter, and hit bright eyet law what mine, bein' blurred, had ove- 7Wi rlookedthat it wat for District 33, not Box 33, at I had supposed. He didn't know the word "district" but he could read "box" all right anywhere, and as the Gabeli never got any letter a, he figured it mutt be for somebody else. And who, but for teacher? Hit little heart waa bustin' with sorrow tor her children can love ao much deeper than us grownups, who blab about love, can un- derstand. '1 knew it wasn't for Grandma, she doesn't read writin very well," he told me as I waa thawin' out "and I wanted to make teacher glad 'cause she didn't have any letter or anything at alL And you know, most anything can happen at Christmas, so I thought I'd p'like 'thirty-thremeant her, and I had something for her. and it would be a letter that would make her ao happy, and I'd run all the way back and give it to her, and then scoot for home fast as I could. And I'd p'like she'd be so glad the would smile at me sweet. his voice went down low But . . . "It got cold and dark, and . , . I didn't get Inst" The little fellow buttoned his lips. "1 didn't get lost, but it was sw e' aeemin' unmerciful God to even light a candle on Christmas Eve. grip on a far-awa- y, little can.. A NDdie thenthrows"to itsfar that beam." I've heard you tay that Elbert then a little child from a home of poverty and ignorance, a child that had to juit dream all hit good timet, till hit dreamin' ia realer than hia real ity, he comes through the dark and cold, beckoned on by that candle light and filled with child love, to e letter, bring you a that I, in my broken eyesight had thrown into Box 33, that waa meant tor District 33, and I hadn't never read the name, "Miss Ruth Raven tow" on it at alL Thia little child comet In the dark and bitter cold of the lonely twilight of Christmas Eve, 'cause he loves you. And you read d you pretty, girl you read the letter he had had to Just "p'like" would make you happy. And it told you, the letter did: , make-believ- broken-hearte- "Darling Ruth: "I'm safe in Parii, and almost welL Will sail for America when it'a over, over here. Two German guards heaven bless them helped me to escape. One lost hit life by It in the (Deleted by centor). Love it bigger than hate. "Always yours, "Hadley." My best Christmas? The time I took them candles to the folks on the upper Smoky; the time a little light glowed in a winder in every one of them far away homes of that valley; and maybe a little sweetness of Holy Night glowed in the hearta of those poor folks. And one of the candles shinln' from the winder of an old toddy ichoolhouie, taved a little boy with hia precious e, d and saved the soul of a girl from madness. Saved me to tell you fellows here, that all the riches in the world, all the fame, all the power, and learn in', all the big business, and beautiful homes, are only half finished and more than half worthies! without the candle in the winder, the sign of sympathy for the wanderer outside. The to ken you mjght lay of the love that a baby came more'n nineteen centuries ago to put into the heart of the world, and bring it peace and mes-aag- storm-wracke- good-wil- l. The wind's layln' some and I've got to make my route again tomorrow. Here's hopin' you all get aa merry a Christmas as you deserve, to you. and good-nigAbram Star, the richett man in the .ounty. Tee Jenningt, the best dretted inun in town, filbert McCullen. the iMrif minded one emong ut, with the fully, awfully dark, til- l- luund adroit Kanlcrn mletmnn, ell Hood up light, and it Mus teurher't candle in ideally at Tod patted out, IT11E ENDJ umdnw. She put it there her- - ..." ' ' |