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Show j Christmas j and Old Loves By LA URA JEAN UBBEY When I think on the happy days I spent with you, my little dearie, j Now what lands between us He, How can I but be eerie? AS yuletlde draws near, a man's mind Is very apt to revert to happy- Christmas times that have gone before. There Is . most always a woman connected with I a man's happy times and pleasant day : idreams. The man who left the farm to make his fortune In the great city and who has become rich, a bachelor boarding at a fashionable hotel or club, can usually recall soma particularly happy Christmas in the long ago it Christmas dinner in the old home, taking his first sweetheart Christmas eve to a ball in the town hall; the delight de-light of taking her home a mile through snow drifts on a winter night. . He had written to her a few times after aft-er leaving home, then the excitement of city life had crowded her out of his memory and his life. As Christmas draws nigh again, thoughts carry him back to the girl he loved when time j , was young with him. On the Impulse ! j of the moment Jie dashes off a letter j ; to her. He does not know whether she will receive it. She may be mar-j mar-j rled or she may have moved away.. The old folks at home had been careful care-ful never to mention her even in answer an-swer to his inquiries. How strange It is that the same thought can fill two different minds at ! the same time. The girl of long ago, still single, knowing he has not wed, picks up courage to send a Christmas card to the boy grown old now who took her to her first ball on Christinas eve. The letter and card cross each other as each flies to its goal. The bachelor finds It in his Christmas mail, j The lonely woman standing by a wln-I wln-I dow In a far-off farmhouse has a let- ter handed to her by a neighboring j farmer who kindly fetched it to her from the post office Christmas morning. morn-ing. Simultaneously there is a warm glow In two hearts widely severed. And yet there are people who wonder won-der that there are romances which are revived at yuletlde when men and women no longer young sigh for love and home cheer, If they sit alone and lonely listening to the chimes of the Christmas bells. Christmas day Is the time to light the sacred fire upon the altar of old hopes arid loves and make the longing and dreams realities. Sending a little Christmas card with a well-chosen kindly verse is sure to find an echo in a lonely man's heart at this time of all others. One should not check the kindly resolve to send one. It can do no harm and It may bring much happiness. happi-ness. To whom are you going to send ' your "Merry Christmas" card in this : year of our Lord 1917? Perhaps I'll ! find one in my stocking. I'll hang It J up and see. I take this occasion to j send each and every one of my readers , a Merry Christmas, together with the wish that the coming year may be the most successful one of their lives. - ' (Copyright.) j |