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Show greatest dinner they had ever seen, j Howls of steaming soup disappeared. The waiters piled their plates with , turkey and cranberry jelly, hot buns, J brown gravy, roast meats, and any j kind of vegetable desired. Tins was 1 followed by courses of plum pudding, ! ininee pie, fruit cake and ice cream. ; Mints and ruts, apples and oranges j climbed out of the baskets and slipped Into grimy pockets for futire refer- J ence. Appetites began to slow up. j Stomachs never before guilty of over-inflation over-inflation began to show distention and assume rotundity. Expressions such as, "Gee, I'm full" and "Golly, I wish , I could eat some more," came with real sincerity from the stuffed diners, j Miss Georgia arose and said, "Now, boys, if you will be quiet a moment I have a story to te'.l you. I think that perhaps ten of you were here a year ago today and will remember the story, but I will tell It again and hope ! to tell it again and again on each re- ' turning Christmas for years to come, j "Up until two years ago when my ! father died, I had never known any- j thing but a happy Christmas, r.ut it ' was not so with my father. lie was j often cold and hungry and Santa j Clans brought him no presents. He never remembered his father nnd bis . mother was very poor; and when she died daddy had no home and no friends to help him. He found a place to sleep in the back shed of an old warehouse and a kind old man gave him a quilt and a blanket that were little better than rags. He ran er- ! rands and did odd jobs for which he got a few nickels and pennies. "His name was George, but most of those who knew him never heard his name because he was generally called 'the alley kid.' 'The alley kid' j knew that there was a Christmas for most boys and girls, but he had never had one. The day he was ten years old was Christmas. It was a cold day and daddy had no presents and no breakfast. Everything in the garbage cans was frozen. He wandered about in the cold and watched the happy crowds go by, but they brought nothing noth-ing for him. He was cold and hungry; hun-gry; sometimes tears came into his eyes, but he brushed them away lest somebody should see them. "In the afternoon a little girl came down the street, carrying a basket of ; little boxes filled with candy and nuts j for poor children in that section of j the city. She saw him and gave him I "V T- 'J. '."y.n e-, ' - v' mt .ir- vv.' yr i f . K WiiliamLGastoh . '.iHE big house on the hill was w ful1 of clu'Istmas- 111 every S J room festoons of greenery, si; poinsettias and holly wreaths vied with candles, bells and tjtepj tinsel to make more radiant the es-!ve scene an(l in" yyZjv crease the Christmas spirit There were two great cedar trees in the hall, one on either side of the mantel, and both were decorated deco-rated and overburdened with a harvest har-vest of Christmas cheer. The last one of fifty expected boys had just arrived fifty boys whose ages ranged from nine to thirteen years. They scarcely looked the scions of wealth and ease. The tragedy trag-edy of struggle was deeply graven on every countenance and greatly over-aged over-aged their appearance. They were clothed in a nondescript array of long-worn long-worn garments, each article of which had been divorced from a former suit and handed down from a former owner. own-er. Patches, tatters and rags covered faded, oversized, buttonless shirts and constituted their full dress for the occasion. They were from the back streets and alleys and from bedrooms in1 woodsheds, warehouses and basements. base-ments. They were happy today. Each looked around upon the resplendent luxury with pop-eyed astonishment. It was all unreal and new to them. Down from the mantel behind trees came candy and nuts, and It was all for them. There was a pair of warm mittens for each boy, a cap and a pair of shoes with warm wool stockings for each one. Santa Claus distributed fifty new, crisp two-dollar bills, one to each boy and everybody was happy happy for once. A long table stretched through the dining room and the library, white covered and weighted down with a dinner that looked like the flare of heaven to the hungry boys. There were twenty-five chairs on each side of the table and one placed at the head to be occupied by the young hostess. The young hostess was Miss Georgia Cadwell, eighteen years of age. She was the daughter of the late George Cadwell and possessed to fall measure meas-ure his generous spirit and keen alertness. alert-ness. Her father was born on Christmas Christ-mas and two years ago he had died on Christmas. One year ago she and JpL fit, 1 1 iftfM "He Was Generally Called the 'Alley Kid.'" a box of candy. Childlike, she asked . him what he got for Christmas. " 'I didn't get nothin',' replied the ! shivering boy. 'I never had no Christmas.' Christ-mas.' " 'Did you have a Christmas din-nerV din-nerV asked the little girl. " 'I ain't had nothin' today.' " 'You can come to my house and my mamma will give you some dinner,' and suiting action to the invitation, she pulled at his arm and George followed fol-lowed her rather reluctantly into a better part of the city and into a big warm home. George was soon eating the first Christmas dinner he had ever had. The little girl's papa talked kindly to George and that night he was given a bath, a new lot of clothes, and for the first time since he could remember he slept in a clean, warm bed. "The rest of the story is soon told. George never went back to the old alley to live or sleep. That little girl was my mamma. Her papa gave George a chance to work and let him go to school. He grew to be a fine boy. He was taught to-tell the truth, to be honest and industrious. He became be-came a smart business man. On Christmas day when he was twenty-one twenty-one years old there was a big wedding in the home where he had had his first Cliristmas dinner and he was married to the little girl. He worked hard and was honest and every Christmas he and my mamma used to carry a basket of food and nice things to the poor people in the part of the city where daddy used to live. Daddy worked until he got to be president of the big bank where he first began to work. Before he died he told me this story and said he wanted mamma and me to help poor boys who had no homes to have a good Christmas. So daddy was born on Christmas, found his first friend on Christmas, ate his first good dinner on Christmas, was married on Christmas and died on Christmas. When he had money of his own he made a happy Christmas for as many as he could. "With each returning Christmas mamma and I will do what we can to carry out daddy's plan to make a happy hap-py Christmas for homeless boys. We want you boys to grow up to be honest hon-est men, to be successful in business and in turn to make a happy Christmas Christ-mas for other poor boys. "If nothing happens, there will be j another dinner here next Christmas, and all of you are welcome to come agam." I (S). 1329. Westirn Newspaper Union. They Fell Upon the Greatest Dinner They Had Ever Seen. her mother had given a dinner like this to the same number of homeless boys. Perhaps ten of those present today had been present a year ago. Dinner was announced. A scramble scram-ble for the chairs followed. xSTot schooled in the ways of polite society i or held in check by super manners, , each boy secured a chair and but for the clanging of a bell the grabbing would have started. Miss Georgia asked the boys to stand up for a moment mo-ment behind their chairs. When order or-der was restored, she bowed her head and in a clear ringing voice, said: Dear Jesus, Thou wert once a boy, So come today and with us share This feat of Christmas cheer and Joy; And we shall more enjoy the fare. Then the boys fell Into their chairs and about the same time fell upon the |