Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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& Page Six THE CLINTON CHRONICLE Thursday* December 21, 1950 " *>i* ** v -' ** v: ' j V.V 1 ? 4 The Christmos Seoson $ brings to mind the Mony hoopy friendships thot we hove hod the pleosure of enjoying during the post twelve months. Wf trust thot wt moy continue to mem Your trust ond confidence end thot the seoson will be one of mony blessinot. T. C. JOHNSON CO. Electrical, Plumbing and Heating Contractors GREETINGS /u ust, you We do not consider our Christmas com plete until we have expressed our Season’s Greetings to those with whom we have been associated in the past years and to thank you for your consideration and patronage. It gives us a great deal of pleasure to extend these good wishes because we know the val ue of friends like you. Young’s Pharmacy By Vera Tarpley S TANDING ON her tiptoes. Mandy could see the whole bright ar- ; ray of them—shiny red, blue and i silver ornaments spread out on the ! table, waiting for Santa’s nimble | fingers to arrange them on the tree. “Pretteeee,” she murmured long ingly. If only Santa would let her help him. Just handibg them to him one by one would be wonderful. She turned to Gerald, who was busily fumbling with train tracks and get ting nowhere. "Gerry, you touch?" she asked, looking back at the or naments. Gerald looked up despairingly from his train tracks. "Sure, I touched them lots of times," he said carelessly. "Only you can’t," he added. "You’re too little.” “The Old Reliable If she coaid just toach them —just touch one,—then noth Inf else would matter. Voices floated into them from the ! kitchen. "The kid's old enough to | know there isn’t • Santa Claus, I anyway I" That was John Martin who said that John Martin, the moat wonderful Daddy in the I | world. They must still have been talking about what happened before supper. 1 Mommy had fixed hamburgers— ' they always had hamburgers on 1 Christmas Eve, and this waa the ; first year Mandy could have a ham-. ' burger like everybody else. There was really nothing to get mad about. Mandy and Gerald had been standing in the kitchen smell ing the wonderful amelia, while : Mommy was fixing supper. The basement door waa standing open to let out some of the smoke from frying, and up the stairs he came.' one step at a time, and peeked hie I little bead around the door. Mandy saw him first and screamed in happy delirium. Ger ald ran over and picked him up— he wriggled and squirmed and , licked Gerald all over the face, j Gerald knew it was a fox terrier pup—he knew all the names of the ; different dogs, but he bad always i wanted a fox terrier. Daddy came into the kitchen at that point He acted even more queerly—he was mad l And he started saying terrible things to Mommy—terrible things that made Mandy cry and Gerald want to run far away so he wouldn’t hear. *T told you to keep the basement door closed!" Daddy roared. "It’s just plain atupid carelessness on your part!” And he - snatched the puppy from Gerald’s arms and car ried him down the basement stairs. M ANDY WAS STILL looking over the edge of the table at the beautiful ornaments. If she could Just touch them—Just touch one- then nothing else would matter. She hadn’t meant to jerk the newspapers under them so hard— she just wanted to pull the orna ments a little closer to the edge of the table. But there it was—broken ornaments all over the floor—still shiny red, blue and silver—but broken. "Pretteee,” she said. "That does it!” shouted Mommy, bursting into tears. She swept up the pieces and dumped them into the wastebasket. "You put the kids to bed, John. I’m going over to Mother’s for awhile—maybe there’ll be some Christmas spirit left oyer there.” But John lay down on the sofa in the living room and fell asleep. He didn't wake up until Martha shook him frantically, screaming, “The children I The children are gone!” There was no anger—no accusa tions now. Just terror. John was the first to recover enough to start thinking. He ran down to the base ment and found the puppy gone. He went outside, and Martha was left sobbing alone. She was picking up the telephone when she saw it A light in the garage. John was standing at the garage door looking in—just stand ing there. A small pine branch was propped up in one corner—John had snipped it off himself that afternoon because it made the tree look lopsided. From each twig of the pine branch hung a bright shiny piece of ornament laboriously tied on with a string. At the base of the Christmas tree slept a huddled mass of legs and arms and a tail. The tail twitched a little and brushed Mandy’s fore head. "Pretteee,” ahe murmured softly. H. D. Payne & Company Mavt a GuiiAtmoA /• That's our wish to you for a $ Merry Christmof D. E. Tribble Company Lumber and Builders Supplies