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Show HQME for SHRSSTMASE y WICKS WAMBOLOT: sfA ! It's great to get home ff-ril for Christmas! wVV.-v W ou have been away for the first time in your life. holding down a job a thousand thou-sand miles from the home town, bin now you're on your way home for Christmas, rolling into a country that j-ou know all about. You are the first one off the train, and the first through the gate. Father and mother are there walling for you. Mother hugs and kisses you without a word, but there is a tightening of her arms that speaks much. Father ihakes hands with you heartily and fays, "Well, my boy, you're looking fine !" When you reach the car, there are grandfather and grandmother, and Aunt Jennie and Aunt Molly; and they all act as though they never had seen anyone in their lives look so good to them as you ! You climb into the front seat alongside your father. It is Christmas morning and most folks are at home. But you see an occasional acquaintance and wave your hand gaily and shout. "Merry Christmas 1" And one or two step out from the sidewalk and stop you and say, "Well, I'll "ie dogged !" and shake hands with you and tell you how glad they are to see you. You are out of town now, speeding over the road that runs along the river, riv-er, that beautiful, wide, blue river, where in summer you swam and boat- ed and caught fish, and in winter hunted hunt-ed ducks. There down the road comes a familiar figure with a gun on his shoulder and a dog at his heels! It is Chuck Andrews. He recognizes you a hundred feet away and grins joyously. "Merry Christmas!" he yells. Your father stops the car, and you and Chuck grip hands. "Jiminy! I'm glad to see you." he says. "How long are you going to" be home?" "A week," you reply. "Fine and dandy!" says he enthusiastically. enthusi-astically. "There is the biggest flock of wild turkeys I ever saw over in Cedar Ce-dar Swamp; and the quail are as thick as grasshoppers this year. We'll start something." The car moves on. You are turning in at the home place; you are purring up the avenue to the house. Cousin Nat and Cousin Bill have your grip and hat and overcoat over-coat and carry them to your room. Suddenly you ask, "Where's Uncle Harry?" Grandmother answers, "Harry "Har-ry couldn't come. He is so far away he felt he shouldn't leave his business so long." You are disappointed, for Cncle Harry Is your favorite uncle, and you have been loking forward especially es-pecially to seeing him. You all sit down In the large living room before the crackling, fragrant log fire in the big fireplace. All are talking at once. Then mother says, "Mingo and Maria are in the kitchen. Don't you want to see them?" Mingo and Maria helped raise you. You open the kitchen door and Mingo Min-go and Maria, their black faces shin- And Says With a Grin, "You Hit Me Where I'm Weak." Ii:g with affection, greet you with "('i.ri.-.'mus gif 1 Chris'mas gif !" Ai.d Maria hugs you urn! croons cull cu-ll i.riiig names to you as she did when yon were a youngster. Mingo shakes h;u:r!.i with you and says, 'Tso sfm' :nvahful glad to see yo', Mistah Jam"; and you tell them you have brought Santa Clans with you. Hack you go to the bunch, and you lire no more than seated when there U tin; whir of a motor outside. Sum I . 'iy looks out the window and shouts, "Here's Harry!" Everybody tries to get out the door at once. Uncle liar r.v, willy and debonair us usual! steps smiling from a taxi. "Thought you weren't coming!" Homebody yells. "Had to come!'' he (lashes back Couldn't stand the pressure." Then the folks crowd round hlin. And he pn ,ln-s through to you, grabs your hand In both of his and says, "Well, lure's Sam!" And lie adds, "I don't know us I should have come If I hadn't known you'd be here." "Let's have the presents before din oer" Hiigtymts Home one. And there Is a rush for the library where packages pack-ages are stacked high on the big table. "Sam, you give 'em out," says grandfather. grand-father. And you tackle the job. Everybody Ev-erybody is pleased, or pretends to be, with what he or she gets. . And Uncle I'eter sidles up to you with your box of cigars in his hand, and says with a grin, "You hit me where I'm weak." I'resents are viewed and reviewed and right in the midst of it mother calls, "Dinner is ready." You all pour into the dining room. There 'are eighteen of you at the table. ta-ble. Your father sits at one end and your mother at the other. And you are at your mother's right. Your father fa-ther asks the blessing; then grandfather grandfa-ther carves the turkey. There is a Jolly clatter. Plates are passed until each has made the circuit and received re-ceived its load of good things. After all have eaten all they can hold, your mother pushes back her chair and rises ; you all follow suit. And your grandfather says to your mother, "Sally, that was a fine dinner" din-ner" ; and Uncle Bob adds, "Yes, 1 think I can get along all right now until supper." The family sifts back into the living room. Mingo comes in and puts more wood on the fire, and the flames shoot up the throat of the chimney. Talk lags. And cousin Nat asks you, "Who was the most precocious Fi it. i-V ,V -..-.11, .rWI'Hli l.,IMiif. The Chiffonnier Your Father Gave You for a Birthday Present. child mentioned in the Bible?" You answer glibly, "Job ; he cursed the day he was born." "You've heard that one before," says Nat. Then you give Nat this one: Every lady in tills land Has twenty nails upon each hand; Five and twenty on hands and feet; And this ts true without deceit. "Say that again," asks Aunt Eleanor. Elean-or. Y'ou repeat the doggerel, and are i required to do so again and again. "It's nonsense!" declares Cousin 1 John. "Hold on!" says Cousin Nat. "There is some catch in the punctuation." punctu-ation." And while the rest continue to puzzle, he takes out a pencil and an envelope and writes the thing down. "I've got It!" he announces, and reads : Every lady In this land has twenty nails; Upon each hand five; and twenty on hands and feet. Everybody laughs and Uncle George says, "That's a good one;" then the conundrums fly thick and fast. Before Be-fore you know It the family Is called in to eat cold turkey and other fixings left from dinner. You spend the evening cracking Jokes, and you pop corn, eat candy, and commit various gastronomic enormities. enor-mities. Cut who cares? Christmas comes but once a year! What If one should feel logy tomorrow? It Is worth it. To everybody's surprise, the tall clock In the hall booms twelve. And the folks say good-night and go to bed. You go up to your room the room you always have had and always will have. The lights are on. There is a cheery fire on the hearth. The bedclothes bed-clothes are turned down and your pajamas laid out. Your mother has been there. You close the door and look around. There is the chifTonnlor that your father gave you for a birthday present. pres-ent. And paper on the wall, you picked it out yourself with your mother; moth-er; and you and she selected the onr-pet onr-pet . There Is the tie-rack which Cousin Marjorie gave you made of embroidery hoops covered with rod satin. Y'ou go over to the closet and peer In. Your shotgun Is right wnere you left It. You think of what Chuck Andrews said about the wild turkeys and the quail "Oh, boy!" There is a tap jit the door. Your mother comes In. "I Just wanted to tell my boy good-night." You and she sit down on the edge of the bed and ! talk; then she says, "Now you must go to bed and get some rest," and she hugs and kisses you and goes out. You step to the window and raise the sash. The full moon Is shining as only a Southern moon can shine. The air Is frosty and perfectly still. Far off a dog is barking. You hear a cow lowing softly. A rooster, fooled by the moon, crows for daylight. Down in the village the chimes ring out from Matllii tower: Lord, through thta hour be Thou my KUldiS That In Thy power I may abide. You put down the window, undress, arid climb Into those pajamas that your mother has laid out. You extinguish ex-tinguish the light. And the next thing you know yon are on your kiics by the side of the bed. You have been skipping that sort of thing lately. You crawl In between the si ts ai d snuggle your head Into the pillow. A delicious drowsiness creeps over you. Gee I It's Krcnt to ((et home for ( Christmas i 11127. Wrci.m Nxwtuapor Union.) |