The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 21, 1930, Page 9

. 80 much. . act as though it were a great, sur- THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. XXXVIL, NO. 5596. JUNEAU, ALASKA, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1930, MEMBER OF ASSOCIATED PRESS SECOND SECTION Ly @Rfi&ifias’ » A 510 There was Christmas music every | ‘Wwhere. The pines were singing soft- | 1y to themselves. It seemed as though they sang great long notes filled with melody. Blue curling smoke could be seen from the chimneys of houses and great old trunks of trees made crackling sounds. It was a world of white and dark | patches, of lights and shades and of the sounds of the wind and the Ice-coated trees. It seemed like a background of music to Frances and Floyd as they walked up beyond the town to the woods to gather Christmas greens. They wanted a great many greens. The house expected them. Every picture wanted ifs spray of green behind it, every window wanted its wreath, and the house wanted its big tree, and its little onz for the center of the dining room table. ! “You're coming to Christmas din- ner, you know,” Frances told Floyd. “Yes, your mother did ask me. It was so good of her. Of course it will be my first Christmas. away from home, but we never celebrated Christmas much at our house. Not the way you seem to do. | “Why, I never knew people to celebrate Christmas as you do—' and there are no young children in your hopse.” | “We've always done it that way,” Frances answered. “Mother always had Christmas celebrated as though every one of us was a child. | “Maybe it's what keeps us feeling so young and merry all the time. We're such a family for games and fun—ali by ourselyes, t00.” ‘What a beautiful waik they had, and how Floyd did enjoy helping them decorate later on. Since his business had called him here, and since he had seen ‘so “You're Sure It's Not Just the Family You Love?” | much of Frances, he had never felt happier. At first, as he went inside with the Christmas greens, he felt a bit of a stranger. 1 Their voices were all louder than usual. They were calling directions to each other. They were laughing over the things they were doing. | They were so enormously busy | over such details. They took as much time wrapping up a paper| of pins for one of the members cf{ the family as they would have done | had it been a rare necklace. And about every little detail they ! took the same care. ) The Christmas decorations Wwere finished. The wreaths were up in: the windows. Every picture had its! spray of green behind it, and they were all talking of how it would loock on Christmas day. Floyd was sure they would all prise to them. That was how they entered into the spirit of their| Christmas. “Come very early in the morn-, ing,” Frances’ mother was saying| to Floyd. “Then you'll be here in| time to help open the presents and empty the stockings.” Floyd accepted gayly. It was really his first Christmas like this. And in the center of it all was Frances—Frances whom he loved “Maybe,” he said to her as he was leaving, “maybe .I could really be a member of this family next year. Do you think you could love | me enough to take me?” “You're sure it's not just the family you love?” she asked, smil- ing. “I'm quite sure of the member of the family I love best,” he re-, turned, and she buried her head in his heavy overcoat and said: “Well, I think it's a very good Therc was Christmas music “ev- L erywhcrel \ B ) | ’Gho, Tt e cle Beagor. “Floracnee Harvig Well = us-go back over the centuries that we ma ljsee, the soft Judean hills flooded with heavenly/light; that'we may behold-the flaming:star of t e/ East guldmg the three wise men, Melchior Wl? ing white hair -nd sweeping, snowy/beard; - Caspar, a berutiful boy, and Balthasarjin the prime of life, symbolizing age, youth/and 'mid- dle age, bowing-at the cradle in the/manger (> HEY bring from afar their gfitSnof;goldaand frankincense and myrrh to the I\mg of Kings,as the song of the héavenly'chorus of The Master’s touch worked strange /miracles long .ago. But let ussnow-turn a simple-diai and S it miraclerhas been Wrought —cven here:as, i HE roomisfull ofisound. The air 1srcna’rged with Chnstmas—-always Christmas. (Even | % § Ql }// | ¢ .%; 2 /’/lnl\\\ voices of the present are mingled those/of the past. At:Christmas man is at his best. It is the blest-season of the year. ‘The season:of gwm’g and:receiving. Thesseason of love reborn. It is, theimiraclesseason. - APPINESStisiingthe afir. Laughterweigns. In 1 the tongues-of all nationstvoicessaremaised in greeting. Thelangels sang-out their glad tid- ings of.great joy above thex plameof Bethlehem and as often as-Christmas comes; the=carols, musjc,-bells, V01ces;;all unite in ‘a great”’sn;gmg cucle soundlng~o erall theswo _,_rldnhelgladmo,zds. Merry Chfistmas! flow- " angels on the plams of Bethlehem floods/the-air.- the word 1s radiant with holiness." With the, { shoulders. Why Lucy!” ExtraChristmas Plate, By ROBERT, _17’(: STEAD | L] On the fourth Christmas in suc- cession Nellie Martin set an extra plate. On the past Christmases not to have noticed it. s year Fred Martin, walk- h2 big dining rcom just as his wife was adding the fin- }ishing, touches to her Christmas table, stopped when his eye fell on the extra plate. “I think you shouldn't set it, Nellie,” he said, gemtly. “It only | reminas xs of—things we would be better to forget.” Mr\ Mart'n brushed a capable, xln hand quickly across her Things would go blurry when hought of Lucy. t me leave it just once he almost pleaded. “It is han four years now since » and every day I am 2r back. Particularly I like to think that set and waiting for her. Oh Fred, if we could let her know." Fred's hands found hers, where it had re/ted a moment agamsc the thl)le for support “I know,” he said ~huskily. “I was wrong In turning her out as I did. I thought the ‘honor of the family demanded it. I thought perhaps she would write; that is, if she is still . , . He left the sentence unfinished. Death might not have been unwel- me to Lucy, and four years of ence left them to draw their own conclusions. | “Lucy is too proud to ‘write,” his wife ‘asserted. “And yet, I have al- ways felt that sometime she would come back. Perhaps at Christmas. That is the time of year when one Just, can’t help thinking of home.” , “If that Blake boy had been any good,” Fred lamented. “She was just throwing herself away on him. That is why T gave her the choice of giving him up or getting out. 1 wanted to save her. And she got “I know,” his wife agreed. “You meant it for the best. Arthur Blake was said to be wild and useless, but the Blake’s are a good family, and I've often noticed that boys of a good family generally straighten up again, even if they do go a little wild for a while. You know, Fred, people who said you were, well, Jjust a little—" “But I got a wife like you,” her husband answered. “That makes all the difference.” “Yes, and Arthur got a wife like Lucy—if he married her,” Nellie Martin insisted.,“Let me leave the plate once more. I'm not giving up hope—" At that moment the boys were heard coming in by the Kkitchen door. There were muffled voices, and a sound as though they were helping some one. George, the elder, appeared in the dining room door, and his face summoned ' his mother. “Some one here to see you Mom,” he asid, in an awed voice. In the kitchen Mrs. Martin found a woman sitting on a chair, her head turned away, her figure en- :clusod in a frayed cloth coat. So- berly she crossed the kitchen floor and turned the head to her eyes. “Lucy!” she cried. “Lucy—" | The girl made as though she would speck, but seemed overcome. H{ur mother dropped to her knees beside her, chaffing her hands, speaking words of endearment, cry- | ing for Fred and the boys. l “We found her in the snow, just | between. the barn and the house,” | the boys explained. “She seemed to /| have fallen there.” | But right then Lucy seemed to | come to life. She sprang to her feet. “Mother—Dad — I can't keep it i from you any longer. Please help me off with my coat.” Willing hands drews it from her her moth- ep exclaimed, “you are well dress- ed ‘Well enough, mother. You see, Arthur wanted to be sure how you would receive your erring daughter before he would agree to come in." | “Arthur!” “Yes. He is in the cutter with lit- | tle Nellie, just beyond the wind- break. Boys, will you run and tell | him?” The boys dashed off, but Fred Martin seemed the most excited of “Two ra plates, Mother!" extra pla