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Show SANTA CLAUS. V. S. -piBBllE big blond mr.-hanlc I iZ "looked awkward and out U7 of place In the crowd of are; women shoppers at the - rv toy counter. Ha seemed Jt, painfully conncloua of the ll sharp contrnat between his old working clothes and th stylish dresses of the ladles who Jostled blm on either hand One given lo studying the fuce of Christmas Christ-mas shopper would easily have read the question which ruskes Chlrntmns tha most pathetic aa well aa Ih happiest happi-est holiday In the year- tho question. "Can I do It with th little money I have?" At length tha man caught the rye f a ssles girl, and leaning over the "Bay. miss. I've got a little feller at home that' been talking for months about Banty Clans bringing him a horae. I'd like tu get him one If I ran afford It. How much la this?" and he pointed to an equine paragon In front of him. "That Is three dollars," aald tho snlea girl. "Drat grade we've carried. You "THAT'S EASY." sea It' covered with rial, horae hide lud naa a rem nair tan anu niane. The mechanic shook hla head hopelessly. hope-lessly. "Yea," he said, "It's a fin horse, all right, hut I can't pay that much. 1 thought p'r'ap 1 could get aomethlng for a dollar a smaller one, niebhe." "I'm sorry," said the girl, sympathetically, sympa-thetically, "but we cleaned out every one of the cheaper kind this sfternoon and this Is the only one that'a left of the three-dollar lot." Then suddenly her face lighted up. "Oh, sr.y," alia exclaimed, ex-claimed, "wait a minute.' She dived under the tuble and came up with a counterpart of the liL.se they had been discussing; a counterpart, counter-part, but with a broken leg and minus that very useful iippurtc nsnre, a tall. "There," ahe aald, "1 Juat happened to think of this! Somebody knocked It aft th counter yesterday and broke the leg. Th tall kept coming out anyway, any-way, and I guesa It' lust nuw. You could have this for a dollar. Mebbe you could fix It all right." Th man examlued the fracture seriously. seri-ously. "Why, that's easy," he said. "AH It needs Is to peel the hltlo up a little and splice the leg and then put on souis of old Peter Cooper's salve. Make It aa good as new." "And porbaps you can get some horsehair and make a tall. They're just tied In a bunch and put In with a plug." "Ob, I'll fix that all right, nil an. I've got an old bristle shaving brush that I can use It'll be real styllab une of them hobtalled coach horses, you know." They both laughed. "You're mighty good, mtas, and I'm obliged to you." "Oh, that'a all right," aald the girl. "I know how It la Christmas times tnyaelf," and ah elghed as the customer cus-tomer turned happily away to play hla part of Santa Claua, veterinary surgeon. |
