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Show Th Christmas ' Spirit Bv Mary QraJiam Bonner (. 1X2. Wottrn Ntwippr Union.) T? I.lkn hnd been feeling that there "' wns no such thing In the world aa n Christmas spirit During the summer, for example, she hnd taken n trip. Everyone seemed to enjoy It. Koryne seemed to be glnd to get nwny from the world with Its scnnduls nnd Its spoilt clvlllcntloa. That wns what everyone said as they took the trip through the simple wilds, remote nnd picturesque and old. This seemed to be the life everyone longed for and then some one mea-' tloncd n scnndal which had taken plaee nearby some months before. With n dash everyone made for the Rcene to they could tell the people Imck home that they had seen the locality lo-cality of tho scandal nnd Ellen had been disgusted. Was It such a sordid world otter nil? Then she hnd taken some poor children chil-dren to a big store to see the Christ-inns Christ-inns display and they had been refused udmlttance. The customers bad objected ob-jected to such crowds of children they wanted to see the display themselveswhy them-selveswhy should poor children see the toys when they could only took! And all about the outsldo of the store were eager little faces peering Into the windows and hoping that perhaps they could get in when the one who watched at the door was not looking. Once In n whtlo one did and the children chil-dren from outside waited for the news. "What did you sceT What did you seel" they shouted as the lucky one came out again. t fv .Other stores had been different Other stores had not had their rich customers 'c6mplaln? "'BdlrU''hal saddened sad-dened Ellen. And one of 'these very complalners had bought slxi copies q( "The Christmas Carol" by Dickens to give away to friends. Ellen heard that later. It had not Improved matters. And on this same Christmas trip another an-other shb hnd met hud said to her that these children had such shamefully poor coats nnd had reproved 'Ellen. "I wish," the woman who had spoken spok-en so shnrply to Ellen bad said, "that they hud somo of the nice warm tilings belonging to my children," but when Ellen suggested that she should e something for these children she had gone off angrily. And another person had. patted her as she had seen her walking with these children nnd had said: ' "A flno work, my dear." And Ellen knew that the woman felt she hnd showed Christmas duty and Christmas service and Christmas love by making that speech. But when Ellen began to Bee the trees which were sent to the city for Christmas she felt better. The smell of the trees gave her some of the Christmas spirit Oh, yes, it was all right after all, sho had been seeing only what was disagreeable aad everything ev-erything else bad passed her by. And then one day in the crowded section of the city she saw a small crippled newsboy go up to a Salvatloa army bucket and put In his donation. Helping others to have a Christmas dinner when he was none too sure of his own I As she saw it she involuntarily smiled and a smile answered hers. A strange man was smiling at her. Was some one going to be Impertinent Imperti-nent to hert Waa the Incident of, the little boj only going to serve 'as an excuse for n man to umlle at hert Uut In another moment he was apologizing. apol-ogizing. "I'm so sorry," he said. "I was trying try-ing to place you In my mind. I was so sure I knew you. And then I remembered re-membered that jou were the picture of the girl on the cover of a magazine last Christinas which I saved all the year and so which Is naturally very familiar to me. I am so sorry I" And then Ellen laughed. For last year she had posed for one of her artist friends. "I don't suppose you've any Idea," the man continued, "how much good that picture did. I've beard so many speak of It and of the Christmas spirit it expressed. You fairly breathed It then." "Aud now I'm different?" she asked. "You don't look Just as Just as Chrlstmasy," he faltered. - And Ellen felt ashamed. For she bad been critical of others and In worrying wor-rying about the world's shortcomings she had lost her own Christmas spirit spir-it But it had been merely wanderingIt wander-ingIt was not utterly lost and the man? The roan who had found It again for her? Thay became friends and then they became sweethearts and they made of their love a permanent thing and wen married. Aud he always called Ellen his beautiful beau-tiful Christmas picture And KUea WM glad thai he did. It kept constantly con-stantly In mind the Christmas spirit that had pnee almost left her for good and QUI |
