Show J a I 1 in in te 41 a by MARGARET HILL hlll mccarter AA ir 0 A C SYNOPSIS during a blazzard cracked wracked december evening ning tod witherspoon veteran western kansas mall mail carrier loins joins a 8 group ot of men in the star city hotel he tells them ot of his best christ christmas r as of 0 little attle puke gabel who got hison his name ame from and nd from his habit of saying lets play like kt tod often takes ellke home from school with him on his rural mail route and learns to love the little lad Pl puke ike an orphan lives with poverty stricken grandma gabel and her son tobe a slow witted kindhearted boy ellke attends school at district 33 taught by R ruth uth Raven stow a beautiful girl seemingly friendless she seems very unhappy and refuses to become friendly with the parents of her students though she Is well nell liked puke knows she Is unhappy and this makes him sad THE STORY continued 3 at the teachers request built a leanto lean to room the the sod schoolhouse and she lived in it all by herself it seemed so unnatural for a smart pretty girl like her that had had a college education and been associated in a fraternity there one of the star county girls ever went to college that come back brimmie brim min with life and doin things and makin themselves felt every day in the week but this girl was clear shut away from the world walled in by the canyons of the upper smoky hill however as I 1 say us rural carriers come by and by to be more or less a part of the folks on our routes and ruth Raven stow no exception tod didn dian t say it but we tie uio knew him could understand uha that kindly face and cheery smile meant to the lonely girl hermit hermil on hlis w route rouge low JUST before christmas some thing god knows what made me stop at the school house one evening on my way back town the children had all go nehome i home and miss R Raven aven stow was alone lo 10 e we talked a little while land and when J 1 started to go I 1 said sort of careless like ill try aana and bring you a letter tomorrow she looked up at me with her big dark eyes like shed look me through her face gettin whiter every minute then she said slowly there to come mr withers who could mel inel knows where I 1 am I 1 caff ana neither help helinor bof nor be he helped a any ny where mes aped But buryl bury yourself w while he you are still alive I 1 help sayin me bein old enough to be her father and there aint nobody in the world so alone they jc cant zint be worth something to some lobody else when christmas eve comes we ought to put candles in our winders as a sign we still remember what the night means to the world what will it mean to the world the twenty fifth of the december of 1917 the world was never so full of hate before and who would see my candle out in this far away place if I 1 should light one 1 I guess im kind of an old style codger miss Raven stow but may I 1 say that theys one who always sees the good bein who never forgets even a good for bothin little lost I 1 do sort of wish try it for your own sake it might make you a little speck happier I 1 insisted 1 I thank you for your kindness mr witherspoon it was very good of you to think enough about me out tere here to stop and say this to me I 1 know you are sincere in your faith and it makes you happy goodnight bebby some of you men could have gone further with her mccullen you know how to plead cases know what to follow up with I 1 that was all I 1 could do but her look haunted me all the way back to town that night I 1 could see her eyes every way I 1 turned every shadow by the trail seemed to hold her face white with hem great dark eyes I 1 knew then there was a slow browin despera derpera lion ion in them that I 1 mistake y no matter how hard I 1 tried to pu put w t it out of my mind they was hardly any show of the seasons regular spirit of goodwill good will in the upper smoky valley that year you all remember 1917 clodin with war clouds black around us though we was so many thousand miles away from them rain bogged blood blackened fields of france may the good lord protect this world from ever scein the same again and may the good sense of the U S A help him to boost things sa it wont tod gamed a moment and stared at the lobby floor but not a man moved or spoke we were all aith him back in that time his story was teas painting lor for us three days before christmas I 1 left my cart down by the corner and run up through the canyon to the gabels cabels with little alike there no use for me to try to drive through the canyon over that rough trail and as I 1 told you it was a shorter way to the shack of a house hid be 1 I I 1 at ie r but this girl was clear shut away from the world hind the hills the dark was drop pin down fast that night it was just about the winter solstice you know the shortest day of the year and I 1 felt sort of uneasy about the boy goin up there alone in the deepa deep enin dark but I 1 of for his bright eyes in his little but ton head for bothin he could see battern bet tern an owl any night in the year As we turned out of the deep w KSee breems ms like a body ought to do mor ethan that ia specially to make children remember the day with a little gleam of joy when grown up just some little sort of Chilst masy thing a bit different from the other three hundred and sixty tour four days it makes the KU fe fellow 0 that does it feel so good too kind nd of f forgets himself in the doing isaas if its bothin morn moran a candle in the ahe winder its a token that its holy night and a lot children never forget those things never but bui if you you aint got even the candle no matte willin you are what are you goin to do mr with rae me V i im tafil th thi fil n kS abot that tha t too 1 I 1 says 1 I believe where the mind is willin to carry a bit of christmas sweetness in it somehow the candle comes what my own mother back in old vermont used to tell us when she made a happy christmas for her eight children out of just next to bothin at all the Wither spoons was so poor and I 1 never did forget it neither and how happy the least little snip of a Christ inasy thing did make us though we believe beforehand they could come but miracles aint au all in holy writ not yet even in a world at war and hatin and killin kiffin like devils and christ seemingly so lost and forgot out of it gentlemen I 1 aint no preacher the clergy missed me when it done its fifty years ago tod looked up tip at its in nigh uit that mischievous grin that made us all love him I 1 T AINT no preacher but as I 1 told 1 you this was the best christmas bever I 1 ever had and I 1 guess I 1 got sort of softened down in spirit like it does a body good to get once a year I 1 went hootin home that night full up of a big idea the use preaching pr eachin to other folks about cheer and goodwill good will and doin little things to make folks happy if they cant do big ones when you aint liftin a finger to be and do the same your own self I 1 made up my mind right there id do my bit along with the free gratis advice I 1 was sh eddin on my route so willingly id take every mailbox mail box out there a good wax candle to set up in their winders christmas eve far off lonely little homes miles apart and out of sight of anybody but id learned to love the folks out there and bein a bit sentimental down under my alligator hide I 1 just wanted to once help spread the christ i 11 this was the best christmas I 1 ever had 1 est pocket of the carly sight of tobe oft off down where I 1 knowd id never seen him myself t i QS SSi tobe had fiad started out 0 u to I 1 meet beje us and as usual with his poor twisted mind about directions and ever everything y he went the wrong way by the time wed corralled him and run him in it was almost plum dark but I 1 stopped to speak a word to grandma gabel and tell her id brought the children home all right she uneasy about tudy because he was with me almost every night and he was such a cocksure little scamp anyhow and never afraid of anything always in like a bird just when she was wa beginning begin nin to 0 o feel anxious about him but it was different with big gentle tobe he ever off her mind their home was an awfully cheerless cold place but it was real clean and when tobe and little tully hit for the supper table I 1 noticed that what little there was on it seemed to be well cooked mrs gabel being a southern woman you know I 1 stayed a minute to talk with grandma those folks are so lonesome out there they are glad to visit a mite with anybody merry christmas I 1 says to be cheerful as I 1 started to go same to you mr witherspoon her voice had a hollow sound like it come from anywhere but the real heart of her it if I 1 can keep tobe and tully from freelin free zin and the stock fed and watered and a bit of food so as we wont be clear starved its all I 1 can hope for there come such a hungry pitiful look into her hard wrinkled face just then I 1 leave her for a minute mas sp spirit i rit in what simple way I 1 could makes bakes you all grin to think about it now but you remember how much we needed peace and goodwill in 1917 we were not grinning riot not a man of us u tee tec jennings and elbert arid and old thrum aaram star kere tery still even the lh new york city commercial traveler sat like a stone nian man there tins cometh something 19 in in tod s voice voice as well as his cords it that held licud us alt all laid anil il if we said rioting rioth ng it was because nobody wanted h to risk the sound of his own loice just then THE HE next day I 1 wrapped up a candle for every single mailbox mail box I 1 had wrapped it in pretty paper and tied it with a red silk cord cost moren a red ribbon but look quite so cheap as this here papery ribbon and I 1 put a pretty little christmas card with the seasons greetings gree tins on it in with every candle askin the folks at every box to take it with my best wishes and the hope light the same and set it in the winder christmas eve T that the candle was worth so much it just stood up with its tiny light to say that the bible is the biggest sacr edest thing in all our out comins and higher develop ins you know gentlemen gettin right down to brass tacks once in a while that becan we can society in general and criminals who are rich mens sons in particular and get away with it fairly well at least for temporary purposes and we can educate the youth each cornin comin generation a little moren the one behind it at our high priced colleges and make the state I 1 mean government and all it stands for a lot safer for our posterity than it was for our ancestry and we may domestic economize and decorate our homes with all money can putA put there here and be wised up on these here calori calories esra and salads and draperies and over stuffed seats but good and profir proper as it all may be without the bible in your home life and what it stands for you dont have no foundation under either your home or society nor much above that either your house is just a hollow sound a shell the real thing aint there th ere atall you remember elbert elbart what some poet said HA housel house j fuji jilt of brick and X st stone one yi Y idith with sills and posts and piers but aisom ahome e is built of lovin deeds that stands for a thousand years I 1 and en t 9 owin ones throw th i le 0 er oard the ship of st state t an t e little crafts that we c call our cwm 0 wn wh why then either as a nation or as a enduring en durin home we go down for the third time you can bet that well a bit of something like this was in rny mygind mind when I 1 wished them candles onto every house on the upper smoky route that holiday of 1917 you see I 1 was bryin to do my share tod paused but nothing broke the stillness of 0 the roon room save save the fivish of the she blazzard lashed dzinow against the star house windows trin dows afifa the day daya before christmas was a corker that year started in well enough but the end of that perfect day was a good deal like the one andin on us tonight only fiercer a lot and while I 1 as loaded with holiday mail as some rural carriers and bothin at all U ue like e town and city postmen I 1 was pretty well worked down helpin in the office till I 1 had enough sleep in a whole week to match moren I 1 one rest tatt added tided to that I 1 hid takena cold that settled in my ey esSay if you gentlemen think the winds have havi forgot how to blow because kansas is higher civilized arid and cultivated just start up the smoky hill valley some day like this ones been and you wont need three guesses on how long it will take to sliver your eyeballs to pieces one of my eyes was bloodshot and hall half blind and the other one would never been eligible for no labor union and do all the time and half time it had to do for bothin that was how it happened I 1 got so I 1 hardly read the addresses on my mail unless it was writ big and plain or type writ clear I 1 just had to depend mainly on the rural box number if that was all right I 1 let it go at that TO BE CONTINUED |