Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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i; A Christmas Tree Idyl ji j| M m jj ; ; By ALVAH GOROAN GARTH I! (OopTrlfbt, 1918, Western Newspaper Union.) passenger coach was filled with a merry II crowd and the ChristJl^ A mas spirit was broadly manifested. Luggage racks were filled with bundles giving out the perfume of flowers; here the head of a doll, there the wheels of a fjSjv I toy peeped out Some i. (Biv ? 1 jovial traveling men were discussing their welcome home and girls on college vacation bandied gay repartee. All was sural ana Happiness?except wuu uuc. Shrinking back into a dark corner Sf the car was a bronzed young man. Use face under the drooping sombrero bore a wistful, anxious expres> sion. He went out to the platform as ^ the train slowed up, leaped to the ground, skirted the main street, evaded a brilliantly lighted church 1 / where some Christmas eve festivity was In progress and reached a house . set In the center of a large lot He gained the shadow of a great evergreen tree. " The forlorn lurker ventured a few yards, gaining a view of an ell where ! a dim light showed. He uttered a com- j forting sigh and something about "the folks probably being at the church," tedding: "I can watch and wait I; wonder if the old hideout in the tree is 1 still there T* He reached for a branch, lifted himself aloft scrambled up the 1 trunk and came to where a few boards formed a platform. He had placed it there when a boy. It trembled from [ age as he crept upon it wnawe " Via nrklonaivul ^KMTT). JLlilCC uv n mwyv* vvij wivw.. fly. "Christmas eve, home, and? I what?" f ~ He had left this selfsame spot a ran- j away, he had returned like some fear- j filled fugitive. How vividly he recalled his last day at home! He and others j had been playing ball next to the home of wealthy Judge Earll. A cheer had ! " greeted his strike which sent the fephere whirling. It landed against a t window, crashed through it and a mlnt trte later there appeared a pale-faced, ' excited servant, waving his arms wild-i ly and shouting out: "Who did it? It has gone through f the judge's most valuable painting that: i cost him two thousand dollars!" - A wild thought came to Jasper. It r Would ruin his father to pay that big two thousand dollars. Ah! he would j earn it himself. Longingly he glanced ' at the vine-clustered cottage where " lived Edna Marsh, his first love, his "girL" Half an hour later he was >. huddled in a boxcar, going west Then three years, weary, toilsome, "p with no word from nome. Jtte naa Deen L lured to the gold diggings. Most days f he picked up flakes and nuggets worth | f a dollar or more. Twice he was lucky. |) He lived at the cheapest rate. In his j P snakeskin belt he stored -the precious : * - dust Then, just before Christmas, the j P J call of home was not to be resisted. L With a shock he aroused, chilled and r , confused. Lantern lights dazzled him I from below. He made out half a dozen L* forms. One was swinging an ax. It sunk deep into the base of the tree. "Take turns!" called out a sten r torian voice. <4Let all hands have a f chance at cutting down the biggest j f - Christmas tree in town. How she will I tower on the common tomorrow night, Ah .all aliv& with colored electric globes v and gifts for the kids!" E "Hold on r called down Jasper Wal* den, missed a clutch and fell to the snowy ground. jL He opened his eyes to find himself ? lying on a couch in the house, his faw ther, mother and sister bending over K him with solicitous care and there, . clinging to his sister's arm, pale and B- anxious, was his boyhood love, pret tier than ever?Edna Marsh. "My boy, Oh, my boy, heaven is DP kind!" cried his mother. Jasper unshipped the snakeskin belt.! E' "Father," he said, "it's full of gold. It j E will pay for Judge Earll's two thou-j ml 'sand-dollar picture." WI "What! that sent you away?" cried > ^ his mother. "Your ball never hurt the j I picture. It oniy ripped one end loose." There was a crash outside, then a dieer. The great Christmas tree had come down. The throng had seized it and were bearing it away, singing, "Peace on earth, good will to men." Jasper ran to the door, and Edna with t?Men," he shouted, a-thrill with joy, Hving his golden treasure, "trim that He fore and aft with the brightest Bettiest ornaments money can buy Bd send the bill to me!" and then, as B led his sweetheart down the hall Bck to the parlor, he whispered: UA Christmas kiss for the wanderer returned 1" and Edna pressed her kggreet hps & his pwn? i; A Christmas jj I: Decoration |! I m I | By WALTER DBLANEY . | (Copyright, 1918, Western Newspaper Union.,i fIS Christmas present had been a bullet in his left arm from an enemy gun. He lay upon his cot in the field hospital. Yuletide bustle pervaded the camps outside. With grim, set lips, through an open window, he watched an airship gyrating in mid air. and wondered what the future would bring to him of weal and woe. The most resigned, heroic patient we ever had," spoke the Red Cross nurse to the surgeon. "When he woke -t ? a up arter we anesweuc ana misseu uxs arm, he said quietly: They didn't get both, did they? I've one still left for the service of my country." "Yes ," nodded the surgeon, "the man is made of hero stuff all through. He rooted'* eighteen of the foe out of a trench and marched them into camp all alone, that shattered arm hanging useless at his side." "Sergeant Dexter Marsh has something on his mind," said the nurse. He keeps his eyes fixed with a faraway look, as if some haunting sorrow made him forget everything else." "Tell him the general is coming to see hira," advised the surgeon. But the patient simply smiled his thanks when the nurse imparted the intelligence. Even when general appeared he was self-contained and f J "Bravest of all children!" spoke the war-scarred veteran. "You have added to our glory and the WRJtAxi /S army acknowl- iWt. edges it with grat- t- Vf y/H itude and esteem, ( Lieutenant /// | Marsh," and he I TJi VI U1 J pinned a golden \v ^ / I / medal to the blouse the patient wore. "Get well, *my boy," spoke the general. "Well see that you help win the war behind the lines as a directing force, just as you have with that mad, reckless dash that has invalided you." At noon, when the nurse came again to the cot, her patient was gazing at the holly and evergreen trimmings, and seemed pleased at some flowers brought by a comrade who sat beside him. "The whole company wanted to come," explained the latter, "but I told them that wouldn't do." The nurse accompanied him to the anteroom. "Do you know Lieutenant Marsh very well?" she inquired pointedly ; and as he nodded, "then can you tell me what is so constantly on his mind?' "It's Ada Wilbert" "Who is she?" "She was his wife. Back home he married her on an impulse. He had half an hour to catch a train. She had1 insisted that she would become a war nurse and follow him abroad. They were married by a clergyman, near the depot. Marsh had just time to snatch a kiss and catch the train. He has never heard from her since, but a month ago a relative wrote him that Ada had managed to have the manage annulled. She had disowned him, and it broke his heart." "Poor soul!" murmured the nurse sympathetically. Marsh closed his eyes as dusk came nn Thp hands outside were playing i ^ old, familiar A\ .1 ^ tunes. His tor|II tured mind went 1 jjII /,\\ \ back to home /'Ji flM&l Um 11 scenes of which l/|jB 11 Ada had been the itwflcenter* The nurse IM M|j fancied he was asleeP' an(* gH ^H!j the room. In the | corridor outside a girl wearing a MB gossamer spoke to "Miss Arnold?" \ / "From the chief Of the medical staff." The nurse read an order transferring her to another ward, substitute: Miss Ada Wilbert. She stared in amazement. "You know who I am?" spoke the intruder. "Why, yes. I?I cannot understand." "As to my being here? It has been *he one impulse of my life, ever since the .military authorities passed the restriction that no wife could accompany her husband abroad. My marriage went for naught. I had it annulled. I am no longer a wife. I am only a loving. loyal girl, whose place is beside the man for whom she would give her life." Ada swept asWe the enveloping cloak, to reveal a Red Cross costume. "You noble creature!" quavered the nurse. "Come." And after a while, when the shock and surprise of her presence had been subdued, Ada retold her story to Dexter Marsh. Outside his comrades were singing Christmas carols, but within his happy soul the very harps of heaven seemed to echo, with an angel of lfiie ftOiji paercy at his slflftj - *?? jj Santa Glaus' ji I; Present jj 11 By GENEVIEVE ULMAR \ j (Copyright, 1918, Western Newspaper Union.) WAS the mournful" r est *ace ever was> f q II though rotund, smooth Jl as a woman's, wTith kindly but serious eyes. Their owner was uf thouShtfally pacing the sidewalk in front of the hotel* Suddenly he J halted and his face rVk I shone as with an inI VLh*\ ^ 1 spiration. "The chimes of Christmas eve," he murmured, and a omllo noo/iQfnl nairoFantlal oil cnflrt OUiliV/l VA VUUUlJ UlA 55VV'* will and gentleness, told that his soul was drinking in the sweet music of the distant bells, their notes mellow and soft as silver beads dropped within a crystal dish. "Fire! fire!" someone yelled. "It's the schoolhouse. No, it's Benton's Store." The man watched the firetruck pass bnt did not join the rushing throngs. He entered the hotel, sank Into an armchair and sat immersed in meditation. He was not aroused until an hour had passed by. Two men took the chairs just beyond him. "That settles Santa Claus!" spoke one of them. / "Much of a blaze?" "Enough to burn to ashes the Santa outfit the store had ordered from the city." "We must rig up a home-made Kriss Kringle, then. There's no time to lose, either. Those little ones will be on hand at the hall in two hours." The sad face of their listening neigh bor lit up with responsive sentiment. "Excuse me, gentlemen," he spoke, "but do I understand that you are looking for a Santa Claus?" "That's it," nodded the man nearest to him. "I'd like the job. I'd enjoy the Jollity. I am the Humpty Dumpty of a stranded company, homeward bound. In my wardrobe, I am sure, I have el very notable Kriss Kringle disguisa" Thus it was that Robert Merrill, excircus clown and famous Humpty Dumpty, set juvenile Belleville wild with delight that memorable Christ urns eve. "You have won all hearts," enthused Mr. Arnold Drew to the great star of the occasion. "You have gloriously saved the day. Of course you will be my guest." Robeft Merrill hesitated. Then he glanced at four little happy-faced children in the Drew automobile. "Perhaps I can make up a Christmas special for those cherubs," he said. For two hours at the Drew home Robert Merrill fascinated the little ones. He exercised the best that was in him of grimace and contortion to set them wild with delight. They were singing a carol at the piano when Mr. Drew beckoned, led him into a small room and proceeded to a closet. "We have a jewel of a governess for the children and this is her sewing room," he said, going to a cabinet. "This may be acceptable after your arduous exercise," and he set a dewinter and a glass on the table. He was almost startled at the sudden change that came over his guest Robert Merrill's features grew stern. "I want to show you something," he said, and bared one arm. Across its surface was revealed a date. "Ten years back?you note it? The circus tattoo man did that It commemorated the day when I realized that my reckless way had brought me to poverty, had cost me a lc*lng wife and two little cherubs. Ten years?twenty ?a lifetime, still will I seek them the world over to atone for my cruel neglect I" "You brave, true man!" cried Arnold Drew shamedly, and swept the table clear and went back to the room where the children were, leaving his guest to recover 111s composure. "Show me!" Robert Merrill started with a thrilL fPIIik? Pw-y Up tnrnpfl tn pnnfrnnt a swppf. Dfltient faced woman, whose eyes were fixed upon the tattoo chronicle as though fascinated. "It is true?" she whispered, and tottered, and he caught her in his arms, and the joy of his own soul seemed imparted to that of the lost one found?his wife! f "At last!" his tones vibrated. "You believe? You forgive? Our little ones?" "Safe in the care of kind friends. I have toiled for them so gladly, thinking you dead. My husband, you have redeemed all those bitter, cruel years I" Arnold Drew, returning, stood spellbound viewing the reunited twain? and comprehending. "You will send for your little ones," he said, "and tomorrow will be for all of us the brightest, happiest Christmas day that loving hearts can make It!" 1 B ^ B ! HMh JH hJH I I Mk i I i . t We have est line of Journals, Days, Cai Rprnrrls. carriedin tion of tl / These bo bought r will be sol< that will p] I tt 11 n Herald d( Mail Orders Fille Bamberg, - - - - Books / / the iarg: Ledgers, Invoice, >h, Time, Etc., ever this sec-! he State. oks were ight and i at prices lease you. / \ -V )ok Store d Day Received - - South Carolina A