1897 Christmas YOUTH'S COMPANION Magazine

Description: 1897 Christmas YOUTH'S COMPANION Magazine. Some contents: A Christmas Crisis. "C ORNEEL" FLINT, Mrs. Kitchell's widowed daughter, put her head in at the sitting-room door. "There !" she said, "ma's got to going about the catastrophe. Can't you head her off ?" But Mrs. Kitchell, who was entertaining her cousin's first wife's sister, from a neighboring village, pursued her subject. was, Hiram boarded a horse of 'Rastus's when 'Rastus was altering his barn. It died of the bots afterward, "Next thing and 'Rastus said 'twas Hiram's feed-told that to folks. They was pretty near not speaking, already, and after that -" "After that the thermome- ter fell forty degrees when they hove in sight of one another," said Corneel. She was small and narrow-shoul- dered, with a humorous, wide mouth and darting black 99 eyes. "And now 'Rastus has built the lime-kiln," Mrs. Kitchell. said " He and Hiram always suspected there was lime or something or other on our land and 'Rastus's; some of it's so stony it's spoiled for crops. And three years ago a fellow was here from Middlebridge, and speared round with a pickaxe and said 'twas lime- d hottor nut ----------- 2 ----------- 630 round face. He stopped eating, and sat trans- fixed. Never before had his grandfather spoken to him in such a way. He stared in affright. "Gran'ma," he gasped, "aint I going to have any presents for Christmas ?" His grandmother had sat down, heavily. She made no answer. before her, and frantically thumped her knees. "Stevie Burdicott's going to get a sled and some blue mittens, he said so. hang up my stocking and get some presents, gran'ma ?" But he saw that his grandmother little heeded him. She gazed over his head. "Child!" she said, "I don't rightly know what you're saying. I've got a load of trouble in my heart!" Nathan went and lay down on his stomach behind the stove, where the cat was, and rubbed his little grimy fists into his eyes. He was dismayed, bewildered. strange and terrible, and not to be believed. His small perceptions did not reach far. He knew that trouble brooded in the air, but he had not suffered from it till now. He was not going to have any Christmas. No stock- ing hung up on the foot of the bed. No little bundles to be found bulging it out in the morning-0 joy dear and inexpressible! No big bundles on the floor under it. No mouth-organ, and no skates, and no express- wagon ! There were no depths of wretched- ness beyond this. He felt as if the world had come to an The little boy went and stood Aint I going to Everything was end with a great crash. He lay there with a crushed heart, and kicked the air futilely, and sobbed. It promised to be a green Christmas. There were only a few sodden remnants of snow in the fence-corners, and the air was damp and springlike. Corneel Flint went around among the neighbors in a red shawl pinned over her head, and tightly across her meagre shoulders. Her face perked out of it sharply, and her wide smile did not disguise the sarcastic mood which was hers in these days. She ----------- 3 ----------- YOUTH'S gentle but steady breeze, the Eleanor was heading her course for New York. The captain was ready to go below again. "Make every inch you can," he said to the mate. "We must get in by Christmas if it is a possible thing." heard it, and reported to the forecastle that "the "old man' was going to drive her to get there on time." The captain's restless eagerness to get on grew upon him, and pervaded the whole ship. Never was so much bracing and trimming, so much adjusting of stern-sails done before. while the distance made each day, and the number of miles from the position at noon to New York, was told to the mate, and passed on to the men. And the man at the wheel After a The sense of the race took hold upon them. When the trade-winds were passed and the zone of stronger, variable winds was reached, then indeed, the ship was driven; driven till some- times even the forecastle, with all its hardihood, wondered if the "old man" of the quarter-deck had lost his senses. Nevertheless, very rarely a rope parted or a sail split. The captain's judgment seemed quick- ening to a perfect instinct, to know precisely what the Elea- nor would bear and do. "Seems as if suthin told him just how fur and no further to carry on," said Bill Calligan. Not a soul aboard but the captain himself knew of his past experience, but a sense that they were contending for something came from his very manner. While the captain would scarcely ----------- 4 ----------- "IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR YOU-" The sun had burned his way through the cloud and all the air was clearing. "Look," said the pilot; and there, beautiful in the morning light, and close at hand, it seemed, rose the Highlands of Navesink. The pilot had charge of the vessel; the captain was below again in his cabin; he stood looking down into the face of the baby lying there in the bunk. "Little Christmas," he said, "if it hadn't been for me you'd have gone to the bottom. If it hadn't been for you I should have made a wreck. Unless somebody has a better claim on you than I have, we'll stick together. You are hungry; but hold on the best you can- we'll have Christmas dinner at home." "Yes," said Bill Calligan, as the truth of the situation became known to the forecastle. "If the 'old man' hadn't set.the mains'l we'd never seen that brig at all. Tell ye, he knows what to do." 99 99 The cook was putting his galley to rights for the last time, making comments as he worked: "Hi, yi, debble! Sandy beat yo' dis time, shu'-make us go fas', mighty fas-then send li'l Christmas to say, 'Hold on, yo' mus' wait, yo' go too fas'.' Cap'n say, 'I don't like to wait, but I will wait, for dat Ole Sandy beat yo'-Ole ----------- 5 ----------- R. W. A Christmas Conflagration. EN or twelve years ago, before the trade in Christmas trees had passed into the hands of dealers who procure their "stock," by contract, from the backwoods, it was often possible for two or three boys, by uniting in a venture of this kind, to earn a considerable sum Even now this can be done in many villages and small cities. In 1883, when I was a schoolboy, the price of a family Christmas tree was a dollar, and a large Sunday-school or hall tree was worth five, or even seven, dollars. Two of my schoolmates and myself engaged in this Christmas - tree business for several seasons, and one year we of money. cleared a hundred and fifty dollars. Our method was to harness a span of horses to a sled on which was set a long rack, or "body," used for harvesting hay and grain. With this we drove a distance of ten miles to a ral old pastures partially overgrown with small fir-trees of about the right size. Here we selected and cut what we pleased. We took great pains to choose pretty trees, and also to cut and transport them carefully, so that the fresh, crisp twigs might not locality where there were se be crushed or stripped of their foliage. My youthful partners, Bert and Ben, became adepts in the business. All "spindly" or thin trees were passed by, and only the thrifty, thick and dark-green trees taken. These were then sawed off at a height of a foot from the ground, great care being used not to scar the trunks, or even to burst a “blister" of the balsam on them. Bert, who had charge of the team, exercised equal care in nacking tho troos in tho roglr ----------- 6 ----------- HE feud between Widow Mulcrary and the railroad began on the unfortunate day that Patsy stayed at home from school to mind the geese. "Patsy," she had said that morning; "I have to go to Mrs. Gray's to do washing the day, and I'm thinking you will stay at home and mind the geese while they feed a bit. There's fine good grass in the field beyant, and it's a shame to shut thim up while it lasts. Jamesie, b'y, ye'll be telling the t'acher." "But what'll I say, mither ?" asked Jamesie. Mrs. Mulcrary pondered a moment for a speech that would be sufficiently dignified. "Say, is it ?" she replied. "Just say that Mrs. Mulcrary has the honor to presint her complimints to Miss Williams; that it is distasteful to her intirely, but circumstances are such that she's needin' the services of her son Patrick for the one day, and would she be so good as to oblige her wid excusing that same." The length of this and the elegance of the language were too much for Jamesie, but he i struggled manfully to repeat it. "Mrs. Mulcrary presints her son Patrick to Miss Williams. The services is distasteful to her intirely, and the S complimints are such-sure, mither, what does it all mane?" Mrs. Mulcrary was holding up both hands in mingled amazement and laughter at the strange | jumble into which Jamesie had thrown her tl studied lan- fo guage. "Did ye hear the bosthoon !" she exclaimed. ". I don't know what that manes mesilf. Here, Jamesie, b'y, sit on me knee till I tell it t'ye again. 'Mrs. SC W "Indade, fe F Mulcrary ----------- 7 ----------- Hunting Musk-0xen near the Pole. my rifle and entered the valley, hoping to find we were close to Musk-0x Valley, where, three Leaving Matt with the sledge and dogs, I took slightest indication of musk-oxen, though we had years before, Astrup and myself had first seen After some twelve hours of steady marching, them there again. So far we had not seen the Hunting Musk-Oxen near the Pole. By Lieutenant R. E. Peary. N the fifteenth of May, 1895, the storm ceased which had held Lee, Hensen and myself prisoners for two days upon the Independ- ence Bay moraine, the shore of the "Great Ice," more than four thousand feet above the level of the sea. Then, in a very short time, I completed all the prepara- tions for a trip down over the land in search of the musk-oxen which would be our salvation. Matt and all the dogs were to accompany me. I took the little "Chopsie" sledge, our rifles, four days' supply of tea, biscuits and oil,-we had had no meat for several days,-and the remainder of the dog-food, which was a lump of frozen walrus meat somewhat larger than a man's head. Lee was to remain at the tent during our northern absence. The almost total lack of Snow on this northern land was a surprise as well as an annoyance to me, since it threatened to damage my sledges seriously. But by keeping well ahead of the dogs, I was able to pick out a fairly good though circuitous path along the numerous snow-drifts which lay on the leeward side of the hills and mountains. and killed some of these animals. followed the same route where, on iy previous visit, their traces had been visible on almost every square rou o ground. ----------- 8 ----------- HALF AN HOUR WITH C S' UPPOSE you resolve that in the coming yea you will devote a small fraction of your time- is astonishing what can be accomplished in thirty minutes set aside from each day-to the cultivation and development of your higher and nobler side. away from the drudgery of life-from the bank the shop, the office-a half an hour and give it to the unfolding of those faculties which will bring you in contact with the highest and noblest things Can you imagine the tremendous change in your life-the uplift and the inspiration which a year thus spent would bring? 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