Christmas

as an' had it for Christmas," obse

Mis' Winslow, in the im

it?" persisted Tab, in the

for dinner that day instead?" Mis

ate his oatme

he adult manner than its heart. After breakfast she stood s

one in Trail Town to have any Christmas after all,

ggest of the work" of the forenoon was finished, Mis' Winslow ran down the road to Ellen Bourne's. In Old Trail Town they

save for company, and there never had been any company since Ellen had lost her little boy from fever. Having no articulateness and having no other outlet for emotion, she fed her grief by small abstentions: no guests, no diver

warming her hands at the cooki

hed. Ellen was little and fair, with slightly drooping

rgy," said Mis' Winslow, "so I guess we even it up.

t your hands full of us." He rubbed his hands through his thin upstanding silver hair on his little pink head,

ok notice before your attention lay further upon her-angled waist, chin, lips, forehead, put on her a succession of zigzags. But her eyes were awake, and it was to be seen t

etty busy,

not deceived either, hast

o do, too," she said, "but she's going t

and stopped shav

f. She's got his room fixed up with owls on the wall paper. She's bought

" Ellen asked,

nfessed; "he must be quite a little fellow. B

her said; "I'd hate to have a boy co

question about Mary; and when she turned to Ellen again, "Why, Ellen Bourne," she sa

If you see her," Ellen said, "you as

hat word "about" pricks curiosity its sharpest. "Have you heard about Mary Chavah?" "It's too bad about Mary Chavah." "Isn't it queer about Mary Chavah?"-each of these is

nslow t

y; "I couldn't bring up another, not with my back

too, but being by nature a non

king for a single-hand

nsciously, and the other two women regarded

ng left single-handed," offered Mis' Winslow s

ing to help her get ready, seem's though

her," Mis' Winslow said; "maybe I'd best go

g out a pattern. Mary's face was flushed and her eyes were bright, and

or. "It come to me like a flash when I was working on Mis' Bates's bas

ning her tissue paper, oblivious of any presence. Alarm, suspense, doubt, solution, triumph, came and went, and neither woman

last. "See it-can't you

a pocket, a bit of braid, a line of buttons laid in as delicately as the factors in any othe

d you know how to do

ow how?" Mary i

em," Mis' Winslo

nk that makes any di

hat the physical basis of motherhood is the gua

cut out that c

d. She was of those whose

'em that teaches you to do for 'em. You eithe

e thought complacently, would know in a minute. The cutting of the coat did give her p

's coming. Seven-under-fifteen does teach you something, you've got to allow. Mebbe I could t

low. After he comes, maybe. But these things now I don't m

smiled in s

mes to you by having 'em. You don't think so

g in the face," said Mary, ca

w said pacifically,

. A week from to-mor

tently, with the light of cal

sday," she repeated. "A week from Tuesday!" she e

ation. During the weary period when nutrition has been one of the two great problems the tremendous impulse that has nourished the world was alive in the faces of the two women, a kind o

think? Mary Chavah's little boy is coming from Idaho with a tag o

ind never lightly forsook old ways or embrace

ry's hands the first thing," said Mis' Moran.

archingly to see if her though

she said, "is his getting here t

man looked a

o," Mis'

hristmas all his life, ten to one knowing in his head what he hopes he'll get

. But it has happened so. You have to say that to your life quit

its pockets, her black knit "fascinator" fallen back from her hair. She was looking down at her c

he City to meet him. The man he travels with is going to put him on the train in

t there won't be any Christmas waiting f

omething for Mary for a present," Mis'

mourned. "Everything comes too late or too soon

being drawn in their common sympathy; but it was a sympathy that saw no pr

never get her to feel bad about anybody not having a Christmas. I d

houghtfully, "Mary won't d

-the alarm of the sympathetic he

u can't give him a Christmas and every other of our children not have any ju

oes. "I don't believe there's never 'not a t

"and it's sacrilegious besides. When God means a thing to happen,

earthquakes and cancers," said

" challenged Mis' B

d shone sometimes when one of her seven-under-fifteen ha

found out about it and told the rest would get hounded out of town. But even now, I bet there's enough to us to do something every time-something every ti

I think about Christmas I almost wish we al

tes sti

it's right to go head over heels in de

is' Moran, "

d Trail Town could afford

Mis' Moran,

rt couldn't, that makes i

id Mis' Mora

ve done the only way there is to do. Land knows,

ooked up from

'no other way,'" she said. "T

money," sai

ike setting up one day of peace on earth, go

Christmas is abused all up and down the land, and made a day of expense and extravagance and folks overspe

, and you know it. I'm glad we've stopped all that. But I w

children doing?" said

Pep. And the four boys had their caps in their hands, and Gussie, having untied her own hood, turned to take off little Emily's. The wind, sweeping sharply round the

Moran, "put on your

instant second. What you got it off for? And li

e two women, by now coming down the path, Mis' Bates

l. An' we thought we'd ought to ta

d Mis' Bates. "W

l," Pep explained; "the real

tocking cap to the little girls, and it was Mi

ad, Pep?"

nd the skepticism of "Who you burying

s," he answ

looking down at him

t it straight about where Sandy Claus would be this Christmas. The rest of

had not heard, t

laimed. "You ain't to do a thing on Chri

interposed Bennet, defensively. "Can't we even have

," observed little Emily pu

know," Pep added, sotto voce. "It's going

Bennet; "I'll be corpse. Keep your li

se; the other two women overtook her; and from t

Saint Nic

st in the closi

rowning and all Mis' Moran's expressions were on the verge of dissolving; but in

e out there pretending to bury Santa Claus-and

aying, "We've been keeping still all the while!" Then Mis' Winslow pushed her hair, regardless of its

han we know about. Mebbe we can do something that won't interfere with the paper we've all signed, and yet that'll be something that i