Evening Star Newspaper, December 26, 1928, Page 27

BEDTIME STORIE The Queer Christmas Guest. A Merry Christmas to you all! May naught but happiness befall. —The Quaddies. Tt was Christmas morning. The great storm_was over. The Green Forest and the Green Meadows were no longer green; they were white. Jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun, climbing up in the blue, blue sky, looked down on a world of white—a. sparkling, shlmmering,l shining world—a very beautiful world. Farmer Brown's Boy, up at daylight, had to dig a path out to the barn. And When his work in the barn was done he | remembered his feathered friends and | Happy Jack Squirrel. He cleared off | the feeding shelves and then filled them | with Christmas bounty. Inside Farmer Brown's house was cheer. In one room was a big | grepllce. and there the red tongues of | fire leaped up the black throat of the | cl ey and threw out welcome heat apd added to the joy of Christmas mogning. From the shed Farmer Brown's Boy brought in great armfuls ©of wood—big logs that would burn long. | He whistled as he worked, for his heart was filled with Christmas joy. Mother Brown sang as she went about her housework, for there was joy in her heart also. Farmer Brown neither | whistled nor sang, but the happiness of | the day was reflected in his face. | Mother Brown ended a_song with a | little shriek. Farmer Brown's Boy| rushed to see what was the matter. | Mother Brown had retreated to the far | corner of the room. Farmer Brown's | Boy saw instantly what had frightened | her. Swooping and darting about was what at first he took to be a bird. | But almost instantly he saw it wasn't | a bird. It was a little brown person with wonderful leathery wings. “Flitter the Bat!" cried Farmer Brown's Boy. “Where under the sun did he come from? He must know it is Christmas and has come out to be our | Christmas guest. But where can he have been hiding all this time?” “I don't know,” declared Mother Brown, “but the sooner he goes back where he came from the better I'll like it.” She had thrown an apron over her head. Farmer Brown's Boy grinned. “What 1% that for?” he asked mischievously “So that that bat won't get in m) hair,” replied Mother Brown. | Farmer Brown's Boy laughed right | out. “Flitter doesn't nt to get in your hair,” said he. T venture to | gav that you couldn't make him get in your hair. Just notice how he never | touches anything as he flies about. See | him go under that chair without touch- | ing it. If there is any one more harm- Jess than little Flitter ¢ don't know | who it is. I think it is wonderful to | have him here on Christmas day. It is | like having & bit of Summer inside, | while outside everything is Winter. I| wish I knew where he has been keep- | THE WASHINGTON, D. €., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1928. EVENING STAR, BY THORNTON W. BURGESS ing himself all this time. It is funny that we haven't seen him before.” Mother Brown soon found that what her boy had said was true and that really there was nothing to fear from | the little brown-coated fiyer. Presently she began to enjoy his presence there. For a little while he flew about. Then he hung by his heels, head down, from a window shade. A little later he flew | about again and then disappeared as| mysteriously s he had appeared. Such | fun as they had hunting for him! The outside door had not been opened, so | they knew he had not gone out. He must be somewhere in the house. Farmer Brown joined in the hunt.| They looked under everything: they | looked behind everything. Nowhere was | Flitter to be found. Their little Christ- mas guest apparently had gone as sud- denly as he had come. All day they talked about it and " “HERE HE_IS!" SHOUTED FARMER BROWN'S BOY. | wondered about it. Late in the after- | noon Farmer Brown's Boy picked up | one of the logs he had brought in for | the fire. He noticed just before he put it on the fire that it was partly hollow | and that there was a big knothole open- ing into the hollow. Out of mere | curiosity he peeped into that hollow. t seemed to him that there was some- hing in there. He put his finger in and touched something soft. There was a funny little squeak. “Here he is!” shouted Farmer Brown's Boy. “He must have gone into this hollow log to spend the Winter. | and T brought him into the house and | the heat wakened him. I am going to | take this log right back in the wood- | shed, where it will be cool enough for | him to slep in comfort for the rest of | the Winter.” | And so it was that Farmer Brown's Boy's Christmas guest became his guest | for all Winter long. (Copsright, 1928.) LITTLE BENNY BY LEE PAPE. Pop was starting to get behind the sporting page and I sed, Hay pop wats | you think? 5 I scarcely know wat to think, the werld is so full of a number of things, pop sed, and 1 sed, Well G, pop, Wats you think, Puds Simkins played a fearse derty trick on me today. ‘Well in that case you have all the best of it, because he has his conscients to accuse and torment him wile you are blessed with & chance to forgive an in- Jury, pop sed. Aw, heck, pop, that guy hasent got any conscients, and anyways I aint go- ing to forgive him, I sed. ell of corse those facks complicate the situation greatly, pop sed. As I sed before, I scarcely know wat to think, he se Well G, , wait till 1 tell you wat he went and did, I sed. Me and him started to tawk about making New Year resolutions on account of 1929 coming and Puds sed he would make a resolu- tion to do his homework faithful every day as soon as he comes home from skool if I would make it too, and he crossed his hart and sed I here by resolve to do my homewerk faithful every day as soon as I get home, and 1 crossed mine and sed the same thing, and then we shook hands. ‘Well if that’s all that happens to you wen somebody does you a wrong, I see a fortunate future spredding in frunt of you, pop sed, and I sed. Well G, pop. wait till you hear the last of it. After we got through shaking hands Puds started to laff like anything and he showed me his other hand and here he had his fingers crossed all a time, so the resolution dident count for him, but it did for me, I sed. Wats that but & derty trick, T sed. Well, I cant say I think it was done from any charitable impulse, but at the same time if you hold up your end of the bargain you'll get ahed of Puds in ur studies by leeps and bounds and ow will he feel? pop sed, and I sed, He wont feel any way, G wiz pop you dont know_that guy. ‘Well all T can do is repeet, I scarcely know wat to think, pop sed. And he got in back of the sporting page and | 1 kepp on feeling werse insted of better. s ; 3 T l Improv:dent H < < ‘The good old friends I used to know | in happy days of long ago, keep coming ! to my door, in great privation and ) distress, and they would borrow, they confess, three bucks, or maybe four. | I'm glad to stake them when they come, so they may purchase chewing gum, or | haply hot cross buns; but it is mournful to recall the bygone times when they were all among the gilded ones. Today there journeyed to my den a man of threescore years and ten, who hadn't Abe Martin Says: Some people are called “Jakey” when | ther merely respectable. ‘What's more provokin’ than not havin anything less than a quarter when & subscription is taken up? (Copyright. 1928.) had a meal since Hector was a little pup, and he was sick and all bunged up, and tired and down at heel. I knew him in the bygone fimes when he was earning many dimes, an artist at his job; he did his work by day all right, he earned his wage, and then h&dnsght he joined the red paint mob. age was something so remote that it scemed foolish to devote much thought to such a thing; when one is young it's quite the style to look at prudence with a smile, and play and dance and sing. So ! this young man played on and on until his youth and pep were gone, he was no | more a star; a younger fellow took his place, and he at last was forced to chase to where the hasbeens are. Had _o | he but salted down a few of those rix- | dollars that he drew when he was in | his prime, he now might rest in comfort sweet, with large red slippers on his feet, and have a happy time. Now all his ‘hopes are dead and gone, and all his chattels are in pawn, forsaken and alone along the weary road he wends and calls upon his old-time friends to touch them for a bone. Oh, had I but the gift of tongues, and had I gutta- percha lungs, I'd call on men to save, so when they’re old they'll have their store, and need not dread the poorhouse door, nor yet the pauper grave. WALT MASON. (Copyright, 1928.) ]THE BOY WHO MADE GOOD.—BY WEBSTER l WELL, IV 1 GOT ARG | Lrmas VoRy micets A PROLD OF 7 \r e FARST PLACE | BOUGHT T LITTLE WOMAN A FERFECTLY USELESS. PRESENT AT OMLY COS. A Ko as i couLD Al 3 WD LIkeD SoMe BF i BOCHHT HEr THE Y GAV e ECKTIE ARD SLAPLER S T NICK My MOCH WHER | e BILLS Come STIETe) HAD A LOT OF £X TRA EREENTS AR 3 st O BT eCTED ORNE ARRWIED \ ACIDED A e EmBARRASSMENT B THAT PRECAUTION TEHECRED OV 0T W XPENSES GDAY O D AT ' Grey #2500 14 DB WHICH! PAMKE'S 1T ALFOST A PecorD CHRISTMAS FOR ME AL, T CERTAINLY €NV Y50, | WSkt | CooLD GETINTD THE SPRYT OF CHRISTAMAS THE WAY YU D0. T0 ME 1T'S ALWAYS BEEN A 20RD\D, FERFUNCTORY AFFAVR . S0 RE A PNGHTY LUCKY MAN Tm livin 1 MU J&f By BUD FISHER Summer, Mutt is There With His Golfing Alibi. By S.LHUNTLEY Can You Blame Pa? T R eSS . boarding It Fills me with amaze To Find that boarders everywhere Have »ll seen better THERE'S NO USE, IVE FGURED IT ALL OUT TO THE PENNY — WERE GONG DEEPER N DEBT EACH WEEK " SOMETHINGS GoT To BE DoMe —— DEAR ME, WHAT A SInP ALOYSIUS WAT To RESIGN AS GOOFYS MANAGER '* WELL — Now LETS SEE = in o house. — Yes, Al it Looks Tha' Way. \TS THE ONLY WAY oUT — OTHER PEOPLE PO IT, WHY NOT US 2 TLL TRY IT ANY WAY - Aloysws P MEGINIS coME HERE " MUTT, THIS INDOOR PUTTING GREEN T MISSEDS BUT TWO'S SIR SIDNEY 6AVE ME FOR. CHRISTMAS 1S HOT STUFF: (T ENABLES A Bozo—To PUTT IN THE WINTERTIME WITHOUT BATTLING THE USUAL HAZARDS OUND ON REAL GREENS! THAT EASY. Hence THIS LS A GREAT INVENTIONS | | PAR AND I'bl GET || ONE CAN PUTT UMDER PERFECT CONDITIONS, 1T ELIMINATE S EVERY ALIBI ¢ YES — IVE BEEN DOING A LOT OF THINKING, AND TVE MADE UP My MIND THAT WE ARE GOING TO TAKE INA PAYING GUEST UNTIL you LAND A JOB AND GET ON YOUR o FEET AGAIN ' HOLY MACKEREL' 1 WONDER IF THE OL' LADY BY ANY CHANCE MEANS SHE'S GONNA INTRODUCE A BOARDER WTO THE SACRED PRECINCTS OF OUR HOME ? A WORM STuck TS HEAD ow IN THe WORLD DID NMov MISS up: Winter Or |= KEN KLING He Oug’ht to Get Qut and Walk! Bv GENE BYRNES A Good By ALBERTINE RANDALL Mistletoe Fanny Flapper. .0 NOW JEST CALM LL'FELLER WATH WHISKERS AN TM YUH SURE HE THIS HERE MINUTE L GNE MiNUTES AFTER WINDY RECEINED His RICH UNCLE'S INVITATION. To.VISIT HIM (N NEW YORK = WINDY WAS ON THE TRAIN AND OF COURSE EVERYBODY N SCRAMSBURG CRME To SEE THEIR NATIVE THE MECHANISM 1S STUCK = YOU'LL HAVE SEND FORZ A SERVICE MAN WHATCHA LOOKIN’ FOR?Z ITS BEEN SUCH A LOVELY SHRISTMAS PARTY.— | Solitude for A DOWN A MITE 7 SANTA CLAUS —WHAT oF HIT O LOOKOUT FER THem QY SLICKERS, WINDY- HOLD YER \WATCH WHEN Y'GET N RIS WIFE_GAVE RiM A ZI\PPER WIND BREAKER FOR. CARISTMAS Ano ThE ZIPPER WON'T ZiP WhATS The MATTER 5 WiTH DOC ] . 7 . @928 N TRIBUNE, INC 1'M CRAZY TO LOOK AT _THIS DEAR LITTLE BOOK PARSON POPEYE GAVE ME SEND US A PICTURE PosTAL OF THE SUBWRY T'SELL YoU TH' BROOKLYN BRIDGE MY WIFE 10 THE ONI - TS, 5 feRRBLe ! HOW COME YUH WANTED TO SHOOT AT SANTA CLAUS, HOH LOOK AT WHAT T DURNED OU VARMINT LEFT ME HOW FER CHRISTMAS! / AT THE RATE THIS RATTER 1S CRAWLING CANT Y'é0 ANY FASTER THAN i Yes ano 11 A THE ONLY THING / THAT EVER FAILE] [TRAT ZIPPER JA You BuT You DON'T HAVE TO EMPRASIZE YouR APPRECIATION By WEARING 1T WITR Yo Z/A\\k\t I'LL JUST SIT DOWN IN THIS QUIET CORNER =~