XMAS DAY OF MISED MEMORIES

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 306, 23 December 1912, Page 5 (Supplement)

XMAS DAY OF MISED MEMORIES

WRITTI > AM) ILLUSTRATED BY HILDA COWHAM.

T-tras not ""■'• fell". t' :s lime. I ossore you. , jplit on bin- ■ - ' ■ '■''■ • I !'i' r ' *" •'■ splitting or. n" ; " " "'" '"" '" ' ' !r " ; v ' ' ' T ,- U 're :i :..■ _ ■■.:'. '■•■■' he thought •f ii i™ with the i •."'!'■ '• '.'"eh -v'tit i Claus had. I

"I had one chocolate on my first inspection." -What a lark it would bi,'' he whispered to E". as we were putting on our stockings after V ';"•-' iSrptied them, and they were jolly .all. i "» well you. 1 asked him "what he mi-ant" and he .ills'; said "shut up.'' and pointed at Nanna, which was very rude. I thought. When breakfast was finished, and we'd thanked Santa Claus for his presents, Jacky

It may have been a plucky rescue, but not a polite one. considering it's always "ladies first, whether it's your sister or not," to quote mother, and the Browns' baby's a boy. Whilst all this excitement was going on the nurse in the meantime had missed her charge, and you can imagine h"r face and feelings when we. a dripping couple, handed her her precious burden, dripping also. She wrapped the baby in ncr coat and marched us both off home in front of her, and told us she'd "tell our mar how we'd behaved.'' "Mar." as she called her. we really didn't care about, but I did hope pa wouldn't be in, and that, like a good boy, it being Christmas morning, he had gone to church. But no fear : directly he saw we were not about to set the "usual example"' to, he played the truant. Bad man! The nurse wag horrid; said "we'd dipped him on purpose"—which was not true—and she piled on the agony so, that I expected every minute we'd be sent to bed and lose our Christmas dinner. But it was only ''whip behind" hard, which you get over quickly, if you don't think about it, and "go and change at once." Our Christmas dinner was "rippin 1 ." I borrowed the word from Jack. After it was all over, mother told mc that she expected some callers, and I must be very good. Before they came. Haines, the parlourmaid, put all the lovely sweets and cakes and things into the drawing-room, and having arrayed myself in my best sash and hairbows, I went round just to see that all was right and ready. I had one chocolate on my first inspection ; next time I had a bun, then a piece of walnut off an iced cake, and so on, for some time, so that after about an hour of this sort of thing I'm afraid the decorations looked I rather mauled. I was just thinking it wouldn't jbe wise to be about should anybody come, when I heard mother's voice talking to someI body just outside the door. There was no ! escape, but just time to spring into an old I oak chest that was near and let down the lid

"Oh d«arl 1 screamed aloud, and pushed up the lid, and ■ *re«t huj» mouse sprang; out."

turned to mc and said: "Put on your Tint and coat ar„: cell go ~ut." It didn't take mc long to ,!., that, mid 1 was ready in two twos, and we start.- ! i ff. "Where to." 1 said. "To the pond." said Jacky. I nodded, and we wen;. "I s.t, ." said Jacky. "if the Brown-' baby's down by the pond today, what a lark it would be to fach it to slide-." Now th,- Browns' baby's :l horrid little thing tnat can just stand on its bind legs, and is always being bn ugh", into our house for irjotier to make a fuss i :'• so naturally we don't i,ke it. 51 when Jacky said that, 1 promptly agreed. It was down by the pond in a rotten perambulator, ami its nurse was. as usual, talking to a policeman and some other nurses, so natural;-.- -,\r- took our chance, and I whisked it out of the pram. t r «jk hoM of one hand and Jar-kv -~, .ther. end away we went over the longesi ~,,,-j |~v,.licst slid.- on the pond. Somehow our attention must have been fully taken up witn the Browns' baby, who seemed to enjnv it. anyway. it was making up a fa-e of some =ort. whether to laugh or cry 1 don't knew. ~vh.--n suddenly we all found ourselves plunge,! j M t,, -op.eihii-g cdd. which was not at a!i plea-ar.t. 1 didn't like it much, neither di.> ':. ky. and ra it! it did the baby. .!.<■■'■ boa-ts i. thi.- iav of having done a pile" ;. re... jr. an i ought I 1 have a medal iron: •-,.■ Royal Humane Society, 'cos he picked ip the baby and struck out for the Ehn-c a llr ] | r .ft mr hanging nn to the edge of the ice. but in reality kneeling on the ground, ** the water was only about two feet deep.

I "'lt took Jack two hours to are**."

There was a bit of a rumpus after that, and I was told to go to my bedroom and sit there till the evening, and, if they felts like it, they would let mc come down. If they didn't— well, I was to stop till Pa could deal with mc. I was allowed no explanations whatever. It was a weary wait, as it got dark rather early, and I felt very sobered when Jack came up and told mc to behave myself — "like his cheek"—and go downstairs. Jacky thinks he's grown up, and when he can, he steals Rose's ithat's the gardener's) razor and shaves; also he puts on frantic airs and boasts of being a man and not a piffling girl. This sort of thing riles mc awfnlly, and whenever I see this mood coming on, I don't feel very sad if I see somebody taking a rise out of him. On Christmas night we always have a big affair of relations and things, and Jack and I have to put on our very best clothes and do the polite. On this occasion it took Jack two hours to dress. He seemed very mreh on the "pom." as I call the mood I was speaking of. so I didn't have much to say to him. it doesn't usually take Jack so long to dress, j and I wondered why he was so fussy, but I soon found out. We have among our relations a cousin called Angela, quite old. nearly twenty-one. She's father's cousin really, not ours, and although I've told Jacky a hundred times that you can't marry your second cousin, but you may your first, he's in love with her. and won't give up being in love with her. When 1 beard she was coming 1 knew the reason of the two hours' toilet —sad waste of time.- all for nothing. But imagine poor Jacky's—no. I won't -ay poor Jackv when I think of the "moo I" — di-m.ay when she came in on some enormous chap's arm. and told us then and there -he was engaged to him. and thai some day he would be our cousin, too. You should have seen ducky's face. It was black as thunder, and he was twirling, where he says will come his moustache some day. and when they passed on into the drawingroom I heard him mutter that he would be even with him yet. I was just hiding for my own amusement behind .m,. of the curtains in the hall when .Tacky trot his chance. The enormous man was sitting in the hall waiting for Angela just before one of the square dances, right

before mother entered with Lady Petersen and her stuffy daughter. Then a great many more people came and Jack must have come in, 100. 'cos I heard mother say, "Here's my jack isn't he a boy to be proud of ? Go and fetch your sister, dear," when something ran across mc in the box. I sat still quite petrified for a minute, and then I heard a little scratch! scratch! Oh, dear! I screamed aloud, and pushed up the lid, and a great huge mouse sprang out. It was awful, more than mv nerves could stand or anybody else's, 'cos the room was clear in two sees. Jacky has teased mc since for being a coward, but as he ran with the rest I don't think he can say much. Eh?

•«I tv«s just hiding behind one of th» cm tains \»r.en Jacky jot his chance."

ghosts, and what a lark it would be if we hunted for one. | Ours is a very large old house, just the sort i of place that ought to have a ghost, and, as ' many of the other kids thought it really had one, the idea came as a great spree. Mother ! gave ii- each a candle. I seized a poker. Jacky ' brought the pun found in his stocking that I morning, one of the girls had a mop which she threatened to whirl round in his face direct Iv she saw him. and when we were all armed with something we started off, and commenced by thoroughly inspecting the attics lirst. Of course, we found nothing, but we all started when cook's alarum went off Wo tried the next Hour, found nothing, then the next, and so on. having found noIhiti" to excite lis anywhere till we came to the cellars. They certainly looked more hopeful. The were dark and damp and musty, and we'd only one candle left amongst us all. I'd jll-t got 111 the bottom Step 11111 l WHS treaditur lightly across, with everybody hanging \crv n.-ar! when something blew the candle nut. Of course, we all rushed to the -tails. Mini in -crumbling we all fell over. When we reached the top. which we managed with . difficulty, as everybody would hang on to one,

"It wa* into the coals we had fallen."

under the mistletoe, of course, when Jacky. who was hanging about there, too. went up ' to him and asked him "what he meant byit? Didn't he know that the lady was pledged to him (Jacky) first, and that if he didn't give her up this very night matters might become serious, and he would feel it was bis duty to call him out and light for her. He knew a piace in the garden that was quite secluded, he'd often had fierce 'scapes there with chaps, and that he'd saved up his pock't money for months, that he'd almost divided on the house they would live in when ho left school and got a 'job' in father's office." The enormous man looked rather surprised at first, and then burst out laughing. That Was rather hard on Jacky. ] think, and j Angela walked out of the drawing room and l "saved the situation." as they say in novels, j , "Hullo! Jacky. darling!"' she said, "come ''• and talk to mc." And she kissed him. He j looked rather queer, and said. "Please don't, you shouldn't kiss one man if you are engaged . to another." She laughed very much at that and kissed him again. I suppose he could stand it no longer, 'cos he got up and went off into the dining-room. I followed him directly the other two had ! gone lo have their dance, and found him con- ; soling himself, or. rather, letting off bis fury . by pulling a few bonbons all by himself. I'■ offered to help if he'd share the contents, but j he wouldn't agTce to that, and proposed that , we should go and get the paper to light up | the Christmas-tree, which, after stuffing our j pockets in case we felt hungry, we did. When we had the Christmas-tree we had snap-dragon, and that made us think of

"When I reached the dining-room I saw J-ick> » ting in a chair smoking ens of dad's cigars."

we had an unexpected surprise. It was the 1 coals we had fallen into, and we all looked like ibis. Jack} looked so funny—as black as n nigger minstrel. All the nurses were ; waiting for their charges, ami didn't look brst pleased when they s :l w them, but Nanna and . mother soon put them right, and they departed.. We were bathed for the third time and put to bed: but all was not ended yet. As soon us we were in bed .lucky announced that be felt a gnawing, which would not lie satisfied till he had bad a date. So. promising to bring mc one too. he crept downstairs. I sat up in bed. and waited and wailed till 1 nearly fell asleep, and Jacky did not return, and I begun to think he was having too much of a good thing and eating them all him-elf. so I too crept downstairs. When I reached the dining-room I saw Jack sitting in an armchair looking vers funny, smoking one .f dad's eiuars. I though) at first he was alone, but in the chair opposite to Jack was the enormous man. also smoking. .lack didn't seem to have got any dates, so [ helped uiv-elf. and was going "to depart, when Jack '-aid he'd conic too. He still looked very fimtiv. and rocked a good deal when be stood up. The enormous man go! up too, picked up Jack on one arm and mc on the other, and carried Us up to bed. Jacky told mc after he'd gmie that he didn't like cigars, but h" wasn't going to be done out by ! that chap. If he could .-moke them, so could ! .lack. | Ait! thai'- ihe lust thing that I can re- | member, for two -ces. after, it seemed to mc. 1 there was Nanna telling us to -get up quickly. as we were all going to spend Boxing Day at grandpa's."