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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Clinton News-Record, 1911-12-21, Page 3ecexaber, 21e1, 1911 Cl intan News Record 3 I. IA. despatch from the headquarters of Santa Claus states that P tX this has been an unusually prosperous year in Santa Land, and that when Santa Claus leaves for Canada his reindeer will draw a record aoad of good things .for Canadian girls and boys. Ile will call at +every home, and if no gift is left it will be because no stoekiug has. been hung near the chimney. FATHER TIME. AWHEEL.. "Whither so fast, old man?".asked the Snowy OWI of -the aged -wheelman who sped do\vn the road at a- never -changing pace, "Just going, going, going, --but 1 seem no nearer my destination • now than when I raced the stars in their courses on the back of a fleet camel. or bumped over tate rutted paving stones in' a Roman chariot," the white -bearded, thinly garbed sage eotnplainial.• - "Then, why hurry? It:s pleasant ,here at the'edge of the Waage .where I can dig up a -mouse front his burrow beneath the snow when I am hungry, and drowse and dream ill the big pines .when 1. tl.m • s:eepti," persisted the owl, as lie .fluttered alongside tltc fleeting • 'figure. ' "Gladly would I stop with you," -answered the •p.atriarelt, "but. I am due in yonder city et Midnight. `1 must- greet stranger called The New Year as the clock strikes tweleteehucl 'optm the ducjr called. The Past for the ease -worn Old Year::'That has .been my fate, my eiestiny, since this old world started on•its rolling way; that :tvill.lio my mission till the end of niy days." "And when will that be?" queried the ghostly night -bird. "When Eternity dawns," came back the tired answer over the a rider's shoulder, as the bird, tiring of •the. remeeseless paee, flut- tered heavily to a leafless bough: - "Strange old wayfarer, strange, strange," muttered the owl,' " tired, but can't stop: be waits for no.one stea.nge, strange;" Thi •• • Fl Ammon l 1'1 1 rl Father Christmas in His Workshop (Drawn by Harry Low -in the People's .Journal). •4‘wHY cannot we have a Christmas dinner, Just as everyone else has?" Mrs. Tilbury asked her husband as they sat at breakfast together the warning before Christmas. From the way she asked the ques- tion it was obvious; that Mrs. Tilbury was angry. She tossed her pretty head, and the way her nose rose in the air was a defiance in itself. Tom Tilbury, her husband, sat at the opposite side of the table. He was eating a frugal breakfast; in his usual very particular manner. That is, he toyed with a gl'a'ss of milk, two wholemeal biscuits, and a very small apple. Tilbury was a man of share habit, with. a long nose, long lines down the ride.of his mouth, a slight tendency to baldness, a somewhat weak eye, and a very subdued manner, "What is the good of it?" he asked mildly; "and where is the sense of it? Half the people in the world eat too much and make themselves ill over it.,, • "Yes—and the other half don't eat enough. Some—poor devils—beeauae they cannot get it, and a few like you, because they are afraid of enjoying themselves or seeing any one else do so. You look .as if you were eating money at every meal, and tliht every mouthful was part ,of a brick out of your next row of houses. Sensible saving, I can understand, but parsi- mony is horrid, and I'm just sick to death of it." "My dear Kate," replied Mr. Tilbury mildly, and crunching his• meal biscuit like a squirrel with a nut, "everything you eat is money, and one is no worse off for knowing it. The careful man saves the most." "My dear Tom," she replied, mim- icking his mild. manner, •"if you ate more you would be stronger, and would work better. You'd make more money in less time, and perhaps, then, I shouldn't be reduced to a rag of a dress which is only fit for the marine store." "I think it is very nice," he an. swered, '`and becoming." "You think anything is nice and be- coming that ischeap and the less it costs, the nteer and more becoming it is, in your eye." There was a: silence, in which, both thought their own thoughts. Mrs. Tilbury had been znarried just three months. "Tom is all right," said his sister, one of Kate's best friends, the day before the wedding, "but he's mean— that's what he is. It's in his blood, like a disease, and you 'cannot shake it out of it." Kate had . indignantly repudiated this accusation levelled against her future lord. She had been^ engaged to hila for two years, and had noticed no . signs of such a failing, Careful, of course, he was, that she had noticed. But was it 'not a -compliment to her that he should.. hoard his resources? Did it not prove his devotion and his desire- to make the marriage possible as quickly as he could? • Still, even in her courtship, she would have liked a little more than the' customary presents. She would have appreciated the • extra. little . gifts of . flowers, or chocolates, or theatre tickets which did not come her way. This seeming neglect she had overlooked—poor Tom was anxious, perhaps over-anxious, to provide for their future. She ought ter be the last .one to blame him for that, and she was. ` 'But when they were married she found his. sister's warning took on more serious import; Ise was mean. Though hehad an income of $1500 a year, he begrudged her.•a servant. More still, he had in property : and cash close on $5000, and much of it he had possessed long before he pro: posed. His parsimonious . courtship was after all unnecessary, and.. by no tneans a compliment to her.. He could have married her at any moment dur- ing the engagement without burden- ing himself, -and all the time have been more generous with the little at- t tentions a woman loves from the pian who intends to make her his.. wife. And now he had taken his last turn —he begrudged the cost of their food. The first • seek he grumbled at the household -tills. The next week he cut them down. The week after he an- nounced his intention of becomi • a not You are a dear, good chap is many ways, Tom, but you are mean, mean to the point of being .unbearable; and you get worse." There was a little• explosion of tears, angry, rebellious tears, after this ex- pression of opinion, He walked into the little hall and took down his hat and coat. As he slowly applied the hat brush before departing, he turned back to the break- fast -room. "I'm very sorry, Kate," be said. "I do want you to be happy. If you have set your heart on being festive, get a chop for yourself or some 'cut- lets, and cook a few -potatoes. I think I might eat :a potato, too, as it's Christ- mas." "Chops and a• few potatoes!" she said, and then laughed almost hysteri- allycally until she was exhausted. "I know what it is," she said to her self. "The man isn't mean; he has really no imagination. He hasn't got a sense of honour. But it's time I stop ped enduring thisand started to cure it. I'll revolt, and give him the shock of a lifetime." When Tom ca -fie home that Christ- mas. Eve he was in a very good temper. Something of the bustling, genial spirit of the world outside had touched him with its festive note. After all, it .was Christmas, he had thought, as he passed along the lighted thorough- fares and noted the cheerful shops. So touched had he been by the spirit of Christmas in the air that he had be- come generous. He had passed into a confectlonr's shop and bought a sul- tana cake, He himself would centre bute a little to the home festivities outside the ordinary routine of his wife's shopping. He would show her that he, too, could be generous. • He did not •notice he had picked out the smallest sultana cake in the shop, nor, that it was a, very little cake indeed, It was, as •he noted it, -a—niee-••sized cake for two. Once the spirit of generosity had - seized him it seemed to .grow within his being as if it were a strange new influence flowering there. Passing a greengrocer's shop, he bought a little bunch of mistletoe. Kate would like that, and, as he desired to be jolly, rather than sensible, perhaps he might kiss her under the green leaves and the pearly shining berries .as•he had read of young' people. doing in those absurd Christmas numbers: Yes, and to make their festivities more com- plete, he went • into his newsagent's and purchased an illustrated Christ-. Inas number, with a very red cover, and a very purple -faced Father Christ- mas printed on it. "I, might . road it aloud," he said; "there's sure to be something foolish about Christmas in it—what'Kate will calf the festive spirit," he thought. So laden, he reached his little home. Kate was there to greet him, the Kate he had known and always admired, the . woman he had loved. Was it Christ- : mas and the atmosphere of festivity which made his love seem . a more real thing. to him to -night aa he crossed . his own thresliold and looked en the laughing face of his wife? • After an,. he • was glad he had bought .the little presents he had collected, and .when he handed them to her, for the first he noticed the cake was small, and that the mistletoe was but a tiny bunch, and poor in berries at that. Still, the Christmas number was large enough, and its red cover did look warm and .cheerful, and gave off Jima right festive note., Kate .received his girts- cheerfully, •even • with an unexpected • show of gratitude. He thought :perhaps she was. too grateful, -and, looking at her closely, saw something in her manner, a sort of suppressed excitement, which he did. not quite understand or like. • But she was. in great spirits when she • joined hiiu at their •simple evening meal, and seemed to have forgotten g vegetarian. He had an• idea that by doing so he: .would. have the weekly. bills' at one stroke, and to a certain extent he had. This is the point where they had stuck, Kate was 'rather fond of the good, things of life, and had hospitable Instincts. He, was increasingly meagre as 'the week passed on, "Perhaps," she said, breaking, the silence, "' you will • tell me what your idea of 'a Christmas dinner is?" He munched his biscuit slowly. "Myself, 1 d'on't see why .we should make a special effort to eat a lot just because it happens to be Christmas. 1 shall go .on as I am doing, I.want no turkey, no plum pudding.. A vege- table soup, some of thoselentil steaks I got from the vegetarian restaurant, and a rice pudding will make a dinner quite as goodas we ought 16 afford, and nourishing enough for -a meal,. whether it be for Christmas or any other day." "But 1 do want turkey and plum pud- ding!" Kate answered. "I want to rook a good dinner, and eat it, too. 1 want to seeyou enjoy it, and not sit- ting there like a rabbit .nibbling raw- dust. I want to be jolly, and make the meal _jolly, to get some of the spirit. of Christinas into the house, to be, happy without considering laa cold-blooded way Whether I atn quite sensible." He looked up in his mild, short- .sighted manner and snniied. "Are you, not happy, Kate? he 'asked. "Happy—with a man who wants len- til steak for hie Christmas dinner -- their little. disagreement of the morn- . ing. After•the meal she seemed busy. "She was cleaning down the kitchen," she .explained, and dared him to put . his nose into it the whole evening. The evening wore away, and he went to rest at his usual .hour, It was an hour later when itis wife retired—that • cleaning process seemed, to be a long one. At their early breakfast next morning he was very quiet, and she• was ,iii •unexliectedly high spirits, .She served the simple meal he professed to like, and then hurried him into the • little room he called 'his study, and told him not to move about the house, as she was going to have a busy morn- . ing, and he would only bein the way., He sat in the little study 'before the fire, turned over his Christmas num- ber, and idly began to read a story. • It was a typical Christmas story of the- old type, full of port wine and 1.plutii pudding, turkey, .and stuffing, '•craekers,•and happy, genial frolics af- '. ter 'dinner. There was kissing under .the mistletoe in it, romping games, such as postman's knock, blind man's . buff, and hunt the slipper. • It was a • story of a jolly Christmas, with' mtich sentiment in it, and a good deal of real kindly feeling, When he cavae to the end of the story be put the number down on the table very quietly', and stared long and thoughtfully into the fire. "That' was a jolly Christmas," he thought, and then an unusual impulse stirred ltim. ' "I wish we were having a Christmas... : dinner more like the one in the Christ- mas story," lie said half -aloud. For a momenthe was inclined „0 go to his wife aild express his opinion, but he remembered the scene of the day be- fore, and pride was strong within him. Instead, he decided to put on his hat and coat and walk the rest of the hours away before their mid-day meal was due. Outside of the house, he passed rapidly through the. suburban streets, and set off on a brisk spin round the spacious Dark: • The air was Qletr and fine, bt `•osty. The ken air *tang his face, and soon his Tepid milk had suffused hits wish a Mae and vigorous glow. His exertion pat only cleated his brain, but aat tris mind working freely. The physical glow became a mental state. And as be went, he caught the slgna of Christ- tsaaa in the air. Outside the park he noted a group of children were carry- ing new dolls, obviously Christmas presents. At a cottage door a stout little boy imitated John Horner by sit ting on the step of • the door eating Christmas pie, He passed a church. and from within came the music of a Christmas carol. As he walked down the narrower streets they were' tilled with odours, the wonderful odours which come from cooking turkeys; or geese, great rounds of beef, and eau - sages, such as the clown waves in a Pantoinine. At first he had a mild contempt for these signs .of festive preparation, but as be walked further an unfamiliar sensation stirred within him, a wistful sense of something lacking, which turned to clamouring want. It was the return of his appe- tite, and from mild prompting it pass- ed to that acute stage which is the imperative demand. Mr. Tilbury was downright hungry. It was Just one -thirty when he reach- ed home, and he was thinking rather sadly of the dinner he might have had tine dinner he had scorned the day bet fore. His wife hurried into the ball to meet him. "You •have returned to the right minute," she said. • "Dinner has just been laid." Ile notfc'ed her eyes were bright, and her t'ot'nd face was rosy red. She had that cheerful air of bustle' and supre.,sed exciremeut which had irri- tated him the day befon•e. Site had also dressed very carefully, Her hair was done a new way: She wore her brightest blouse, and proudly display- ed the one or two little .presents he had given her. '!'hey walked together into the din- ing-rgem, and as be. 'feared it familiar *meats of .cooked savoury things which he had noticed emanating from other people's houses greeted' ln(tn front the interior of itis own. Inside the dining -room :a wonderful change had been tirade, The table was. a sight to see. ' It bore a fine asort- men-t of floralehrysanthemtuns and evergreens iu the flower stand. The linen gleamed white beneath all their silver and plate. The table groaned under his best dinner service, and a heap of unaccustomed good things. Near his wife's usual seat a plump tur- key was steaming. It was nicely browned without, Tom did not doubt but that it was full of -prime stuffing within, and around it fat, brown sau- sages Made a sort of tangible halo. Near it were tureens' containing po- tatoes .•and o-tatoes'and a fresh white cauliflower, and a great boat was swimming with rich brown gravy. . A bottle of red wine stood near his wife's •plate, and one•of his best wlneglassea, Sparkling with its eheeri'ul polish, gleamed in- vitingly by the side of the promising bottle. .. , Kate took the seat opposite. the tur- key, and .lie went to the vacant chair at .the other side of the table which he always used. And then' he had a shock, a shock which dashed his spir- its with the coldness of an icy -.douche. ' He noticed for the •first time a pe- culiar design about the laying of 'the table.. •All the signs of festivity, the flowers ,the silver, the polishes glass, the wine, the dessert, and' the typical Christmas fare were laid ou her half of • the table. His end •ot the table looked very bleak Indeed. For him there were no flowers but the long bunch of mistletoe. In the exact cen- tre of the table was the small sultana cake. In teem of him was a dish of thin and watery :soup, and behind it a plate containing two slabs• of browns, subsiancc 4vlsielt she rerogntsed as his. favourite dish ---lentil steak, it took .him some time to grasp the situation. • When •he did, he found his wife had cut oft two thick,' juicy por- tions from the breast of tee turkey, and- was eating <Tan ly with barely a ec Inc Piar. e t in his direction:. ' "There is som.o mistake," he said faintly but. he knew there was no nits - take in*. heart.. The •spartan fare was for, him, the Christmas dinner for 'his .wife. "No mistake, dear;" his . wife an- swered. "I've cooked your *dinner just as you.say yeti -like -it, and I have cooked my Christmas dinner just like I have . dreamed • our first Christmas dinner., together .would be. One must make the, best of things:" she added, smiling bravely; • "and •if one must have a husband who won't•be• jolly on a C.hristmas Day then 'a senstible wo- Man must learn how to be jolly her- self. I have bought my. share of the dinner out of my own'purse,.and yours Will go Into the housekeeping book as usual." . • He •looked very grim for, perhaps five minutes, and when he tried to eat little pieces of the lentil fare they stuck in Itis throat, The •scentof the. turkey tempted him strongly ,and the sight of his wife trying to enjoy her- self alone was a stern reproof in itself. A thoroughly decent fellow at heart, he did not take long to come to •a de cision. ' • . • With the -ease and •quickness. of...a waiter, he cleared the .things .laid for him and set them on the sideboard: With equal quickness: he rearranged the. table setting so` that there vas a clear- space foe hint near his .wife at her end of the tattle. • Froni the side- board he brought a wineglass, and polished it. carefuly,• Theta be went to -the head of the table and kissed his smiling wife, and there was. no trace of bitterness in her action, • "A merry Christmas," he said heartily, and with some emotion, and though he knew, in tine face of what he had said, he was jooking more than a little ridiculous, he pushed his plate towards her, "Give me a_ big slice of the turkey," he said, " and a double helping of the 'stuffing. I'll he your guest to -day and do justice to your splendid cooking. Tomorrow, .In a husband wlto has learnt. his lesson, you will find a more generous host." And that was the first of many hap- py+ Christmases, and the spirit of the. great festivity lived in their hearts the whole year round, to the joy of Mrs. Kate and the increasing saile.- faction of her husband. —The People"!, Journal. EirErtgoVill Christ hr•st 1'n a s e< I t3y SiR �RNLST I'• Known r'1 1 T '1 StiAUCLUON In asking, me to write "Christmases I havo known," I presume the editor does not desire me to refer to those early Christmases lookod forward ` to with anticipation, looked back to with .the somewhat mingled feelings that have resulted from pleasures and pre- sents on the one, side and a surplus of food on the other, Rather, I suspect It is to Christmases in out-of-the-way parts of the world, where the gocd. thingsof the festive season loomed larger its one's mind because of their absence. In a somewhat long sea Career of twenty years. I naturally have spent varied C'-hrirttpases--•-"In heat among the tropics, in ice among the floes," in a Gale off Cape. Horn,• My first Christmas away front home Was' spent in a gale. of, wind off Cape Horn in an 'old sailing ship. Twenty odd years ago life was harder than it Is now, and after weeks of weevilly biscuits and salt junk, we killed the pig for Christmas, and celebrated the Say with roast pork and a plum pud- Sing with .a larger modicum .of raisins :han generally obtains at sea. The ship -was under top -sails, thrashing into a south-west • gale. The giant ;ombers, with the free run of the 'Southern Ocean before and behind :hem, hanintered at our steel sides and swept over the decks, Intermittent • mow storms added to our discomfort, ind a hard four hours' work reefing .opsails gave us an appetite for our •lhristmas faro.. It was a work of skill a go ;from the steaming galley down nto the dark quarters where we lived —or rattier e xisted. In those days it vas four lhotus on watch and four off, tnd I remember that night that we tad hardly turned Into our sodden funks when it was all hands to take n the fore topsail, y['he result of the order was that we spent about three- Iuarters of en hour, after clewing up ;he sail, aloft in the icy wind, every tow and then the nearly -conquered tail: ripping forth from underus with t report like .a cannon; and when finally the last gasket wasmade fast round the sail, we . de*mended to be greeted ' by the sluicing seas. All ;houghts and sentiments of Christmas lad disappeared from our minds, and ' we were only too ready to drop asleep !n . our wet clothes. So much for Christmas event off Cape- Horn. Stranded en Yorkshire Coast. Another and still •more uncomfort- able Christmas was spetit••much near- ' er home—In fact on Boxing Day, we were hoo near the shores of old.Eng- land; being ashore on the Yorkshire coast in. another heavy gale. We left London on Christmas Eve to go, to Middlesbrough, there to Ioad.for the Tsar East, .Christmas morning broke cold and :stormy.. As we .staggei`ed along the east coast northwards, 'we thought of, the pleasant firesides and comfortable, homes we had left. :All through Christmas Day we fought the head seas, and it was' one of the dreariest days I have ever known: next morning,. Boxing Day, • we were close in to the. .Yorkshire coast. .Through misadventure, Mir boilers ran down, and ,about 6 o'clock that night we drifted on to the coast.. The ship :heeled over, and it hooked as though •we shohld have to abandon 'her at once. On board were eight Britishers and -forty Chinese. The.C'hinese seem- ed to,consider that it was time to take to the boats—an .opinion not shared by the captain .ot the ship—and' it took somewhat more than. gentle per- . suasion to point this out to them, .as they caste trooping to the boats with all their Household' goods. It was a peculiar sight to see thein,"with their bundles—and especially the inevitable umbrellas—struggling , for the boats. The ship was lying over atan angle of about forty degrees, and during the mightscene powerful tugs came; out, .but is was impossible to •do spore than stand by. When morning broke, with infinite trouble, • they took hold. of our ship, anti on. high title she was event- ually refloated, not leaking very bad - travelling. The mirage danced on thoik near horizon, throwing up little pin-• nacles of ice into the forms of eastleiee and fortresses. Ail the moruing we•• had trudged, pulling at our sledgete withiaur tents and stores behind. At one o'clock came the welcome word "Lunch." The harness dropped from our tired bodies, and in a few minutest the tent was up, and :the welcome hiss of the stove told us that Christmas lunch was under way. Little scrape of bacon, saved up carefully, bits of broken biscuit over and above our actual ration, were all mixed up in one glorious pot of hooslt, Too soon wait tue pannikin of hooslt ilinlshed, but a was washed down with an extra strong brew of tea. Mightily refresh- ed, we budded on our harness again, and rolled off some eight miles across the snow Attain until, at six o'clock at night, we stopped for the day. The tent was up again, the stove. hissed out its welcome message once more. and a still thicker pot of hooslt was our reward: Then came the ions looked -for extras. My Companions. produced some cigarettes and some extra biscuit, and I, after a dive into my sleeping bag, brought out from the, toe of a clean sock a little plum Mid - ding about the size of a cricket ball. The oil ration was very small, and in order to save fuel we boiled the plum pudding in the water that eventually was used for the cocoa, but never did pudding taste more delicious, A little sprig of holly stilt further heightened the (lhristmas.effcct, and when an was over we turned into our sleeping -bags with the thought that at least we bad had a Christmas feed, Thus passed Noel of 1902. Out of the World. • The Christmas of 1e03 arrived its far sterner conditions. Aea'.n we were on: a journey towards the Pole, ' again we were hungry, but far more hungry than the time before. Our party consisted of , four. We were nearly 9000 feet above the sea, having conquered the mountains that, lay be- fore us on the previous journey. There were now no clogs,, food rations were ' much shorter, and the cold was muck more severe. We had Peen crossing great undulations capped with crevas- ses for the last few days, and a bitter wind from the South blew dead in our • faces. Our clothes were Worn, our I strength was rapidly decreasing, and a Christmas dinner was more • eagerly i looked forward to. We felt more than I ever that .we were out of the world— little speck perched up in an iinmen sity of ice and snow: The same- Sue shone down on us, but now it seemed • to impart no w•arintii, and yet the Christmases in Many Lands. O:ne Christmas Day was spent in India,. at the somewhat. early age of eighteen, hunting a two -horned rhino- ceros. I did not shoot 'the animalSbut nearly managed to shoot an unfortun= ste beater, who, to my somewhat un- travelled eyes, appeared, like a•rhino- eros 'moving among the reeds. It was hard to imagine it Christmas Day, :he only tangible sign of it being the )1ems pudding borne in at dinner time oy a . dusky -faced Indian clothed in bite. The punkahs were' in full ming, 'and the night was warm, and I •emember well thinking what a tray- !sty of. Christmas it. was. Since then 1 have spent Chistmases n Peru, (Vilna, Japan, Australia, Nent iealand, Brazil, America, and many ether' quarters of the world, but nat- irally the Chi•ist'mases that I spent in :he South Polar regions stand. out • nemory more vividly than any others, Because on two occasions they were accompanied with extreme.ltunger be - 'ore and extreme hunger :after, the tetual •days themselves being red- etter ones • .because of a slight in- trease of food. Heaven knows .there vas enough focal eoloring in the ice tnd snow which surrounded us for ,housands of utiles to,. make up for the Topical C'itristmases of long ago, but would that the ice'and snow bad been listributed over the years and the 'cod of other days concentrated on hose two oecasians. • Near the South Pole, In 1902 we were a little party of. three men, working South towards ':hat elusive goal --•-the Southern apex of the world, With our party were some nine dying dogs, altnost on their last legs with scurvy. Ahead of us lay a range of mountains, Whose stern peaks dared the blue, of the cloudless sky, I can see again the great cliffs or deep -brown granite capped by three or four hundred feet of snow, and to our hungry. minds the first simile we could think of was how like a gigantic Christmas cake. These cliffs—some 4000 feet high --lay on our right, To the left stretched away the great plain of snow across which we were • .- SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON sense of Christmas' was with us. I• re- member on this last 'Christmas 'we did nearly fifteen miles' marching, and the wind was increasing as we put our tent up 'et night to celebrate the oc- casion: We had already at lunch taken a 'photograph of our camp, with the flag flying, and as.I look at it now 1 notice the ice around our faces where breath froze and our beards stuck to our clothing: That night, in addition to the biscuit and ordinary Koosh, we • had some of our last ill-fated pony ration, consisting of dried carrots, cur rants, and maize, and .when the lid was lifted from the cooking pot it was:. not long. before the contents of, that ..` pot were transferred to our. insides. We finishedthat• dinner with another w plum pudding and •a spoonful of creme' • de menthein a 2 oz.- bottle, given to us before we left by a friend in Scot-„' land.: We luxuriously puffed a cigar .: each 'after dinner, then got Into :our sleeping -bags, .first to think, then to •'- dream, of home,. The existence of the plum pudding this time was known to the .whole party,. Wben wel started from winter quar- ters we had as }yell one .tin of sardines and a 3. lb. pot of black currant jam, rut in our stern determination to cut down weight, made necessary by the deep snowand failing ponies, we de- poted these two luxuries. We could not afford •to drag a continious weight of two extra pounds from November till the end of December, and so sar- dines and jam had to remain behind, '• t may add that they became mightily,. useful on our return journey, when we,,;. picked them up, arriving at the depot,: 'r. with no food left in the locker. Thus passed our Anaretic Christ - messes. It lies •ott• the knees of the gods at present as to where future ones will he spent, but wherever they •M may be, those memories of the South- ern days will be the most vivid to me. —The People's Journal. ., • Suitable Citristmas Present for your Boy or Girl awa3r from : home vrould be a "1"ear 's Subiscriptio141, ' to The News -Record.