Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, December 18, 1890, Page 8

8 OHRISTMAS IN A WAGON, Youths’ Companion: A short proces- sion of roughly-dressed miners, together with a few sad-faced women, came slowly and quietly down the rocky and narrow trail leading from a little gronp of gloomy and stunted pines to a dozen or more small log houses, and three or four tents half-way bgtween the summit of a lofty and desolate rocky mountain and the narrow and barren gulch below. One of the women led by the hand a Hdtle girl of five or six years, on whose face there was tho questioning and sober ook often seen on the faces of children too young to understand w death means, butold enough to bs awed into silent wonder by its presence. Bohind the woman and child there walked a stoutly built and manly-look- ing boy of about soventeen years, who had given his arm to a slender, pale- faced girl of fifteen. Thero were tears in their eyes, and in the eyes of the women who had just seen the father of the chilaren laid in his grave under the small group of pines. Their mother had died the spring be- fore, and their father, always a restless, wandering man, had strayed from min- ing camp to mining ap, and had reached Camp Fancy but four wooks ba- fore his death. Now his children were alone in the world, thoir only friends the few poor miners who wore almost strangers to them, thsir only home a dilapidated wagon, with a raggzed can- vas cover and an equally razged little tent, while their only fortune was a few silver dollars in tho boy’s pocket. Their lot could not have been east in a drearier or more unpromising place than Camp [ancy—a half-deserted and de- pressingly desolate hamlet half-way up the barren sido of u rocky mountain, ten miles from the nearest town, and ten times as far from tho nearest railroad. Its two or three promising mines had gono through the procoss vulgarly called “petering out,” and within a few weeks the camp would be wholly abandoned. “The Huydens had temporarily taken up their dence in a deserted cabin. The night after the day on which their father was burvied, Louis and Huldah Hayden sat beforo the sparkling fire, and soberly discussed their future, while Nellio, the little girl, slept peacefully on her bunk filled with pine boughs and buffalo skins in a corner of the cabin, “We can’t stay here, that's certain,” said Louis, decidedly. *I don’t want to stay,” replied Hul- dah. “Nor I,” said Louis, mountains,” “Then you don't mean to boa pros- pector, like father?”’ questioned the girl. “No, I won't. It don’t pay. It kept father poor all his life, and I've often heard mother say she was worn out wan- doring round from place to place, and never having any place she could call home.” “Yes, I know,” said Huldah, with a sigh. “I wish we could have a home, somewhere, Louis,” “We will, but not here. I want togo back east to the places I've heard mother and father talk about, and I’'m going.” “lfnw\’" “In the wagon. It's the only way. ‘We haven’t money to go on the cars. Father and mother came out here ina wagon fifteen years ago and I guess we can go back the same way.” “Idon’t see why we can’t, even if folks don’t travel much that way nowa- days. If only Old Charley will hold out to get us there,” Old Charley was a bony and fecble horse, tied at that moment to a wheel of the cart outside. He had accompanied the Haydens in all their wanderings for the past ten years, and had drawn the wagon from gulch to gulch and camp to camp. Poorly fed and seldom housed from summer rains and winter snows,his hardships had been many, By 9 o'clock the next morning Touis had Old Charley hitched to the wagon, in which their few poor possessions had been placed. A few of the kind-hearted miners and their wives gathered around the wagon to say good-by to the chil- dren and to wish them good luck. An hour later Louis drove Old Charley around a sharp curve in the mountain road, and they saw the half-deserted log houses and tents of Camp Fancy no more. A cold wind was coming up from the gulch, and there were a fow fine flakes of enow whirling in the air, but the young emigrants ho to find it warmer with each descending mile, as the autumn had ‘been an unusually mild one, As they drove along with little Nell seated between them. wrapped in a reat buffalo robe, Louis and Huldah iscussed their prospects. They were utmn[fuly ignorant regard- ing the names and whereabouts of any of their relatives. Their information 'was confined to vague and indefinite re- membrances of of the fact that **ma had a sister in Jowa ” and *pa had a brother in Kansas.” They bad heard of Aunt Mary living “‘somewhere in Missouri,” and of an Uncle Harvey in Ohio, but their mother bad been much too busy to write, and their father had so far lost track of his own people that of late years the did not know where any of his four brothers or sisters lived—if they still lived,—and his children felt themselves to be utterly alone and friendless in the world. But Louis had grown a manly, cour- agents boy, and hardship had made Hul- dah old and wise bcynmf1 her years, ““We'll get along some way, I reckon,” she said hopefully. They had now gone well down the rocky trail into the gulch, overhung with resinous pines ung noisy with the splashing of the narrow mountain stream, along the banks of which thin G‘]‘H}fls of ice had formed during the night, **My idea is to go as far cast as we can before winter sets in in earnest, and then stop until spring at some town where I can find work. Perhaps you “I'm sick of the | kind-hearted men and women came out S Wt S Doed 10 Millions of Homes— 40 Yoars tho Btandard. THE OMAHA DAILY BEE; THURSDAN, DECEMBER 18, 1890.-TWELVE PAGES, MORSE’S. SILVER YEA SERUICE, $1000 | We have only a few of these left for Thurs- day and possibly Friday. Think of it, quad- riple plate creamer and spoonholder, gold lined whole set, at $10. DOLLS rioor o A e table at 10c. Dolls. have put 80c. DOLLS— dolls 78c¢ to $1.00. Dolls in this lot 14 inches long, hand- some faces, blond hair; your choice on a A special counter on which we invariably sold at Large, beautiful dolls that are worth DOLL. PARLORS. We have opened'a doll parlor on the fifth floor with a handsomely fitted parlor of fine French dolls. Open till © o’clock. NEW GAME Bring your children to see it. FIFTH FLOOR 10c Billy Bumps, Literary Salad, My Wife and I, Yankee Peddler, County Auction, Pyramid Puzzle, all worth 28c. $1.00 GAMES. Game of War, Chivalry, Innocents Abroad, Combihation Board, Hong Kong and Loto, Rex, Royal Arabia, Spanish Main, Office Boy, Brooklyn Bridge. Printing Presses, $1.28, $2, $8, $4 and $6. Writing Desks, $1.28, $1.78 and $2.80. Send mail orders. These sleds are practically indestructable; are all iron and steel except the wood top. The strongest sled the seat. made. Mail Orders Filled—Morse Dry Goods Co. MORSE'S. Lovely Christmas Gifts in Basement, OUR Housefumishing - Department Everything that goes to furnish a din- ing room or kitchen, "HAVILAND CHINA, 8ix different decorations. Marble CLOCKS arbie 0 A beautiful assortment of French and American Marble Clocks,from $8 to $32. All iron except Onyx Clocks Some of the newest designs in Mexi- can Onyx Clocks and Candelabra. TOILET SE 1S, Men’s Collar and Cuff Boxesin Loots at 9360 el Bl JUST ONR-HALE PRICE. SHOO FLYS, 50¢ Another lot Thursday at 8Oc. Don’t miss one of these. Special bargains girls’ tea and dinner sets at 5¢, 10¢, 25¢ up to §5 TOY DISHES in little IELOCIPEDES, Boys’ Velocipedes, a large assortment on which we have cut the prices in half. 25 CENT TABLE. Visit this on the fifth floor. You will find Dolls, Toys, etc., that are worth 50c¢ to 75c, and some $1 $1.50 articles on it. *‘THE MORSE DRY GOODS CO. —_— and Nell can go to school for a few | mouths, I've heard mother tell how there was places in Kansas wheve a fel- low can get good farming land free from the government, I think I'll be a farmer. I know I'd like it from what I’ve heard about that kind of o life.” So they journeyed on down mountain slopes and” through long canons until they came out among the low foot-hills, and for the first times in their lives, looked out across the wide, unbroken plain that stretched toward the east. It was now November. The season had been a warm one. The prairie be- fore them was free from snow; the days wore sunny, and the nights not too cold for them to sleep comfortably in the wagon. So they started across the plains, a forlorn little company. Their well-nigh disabled wagon, the horse’s too prominent bones, and the peculiar- ities of their appearance and method of travel excited both interest and amuse- ment in the towns through which they passed. The horse grew bonier and more fee- ble as their {ournuy grew longer, They had to travel very slowly, There were some days when Old Charley was too lame and too tired to carry them on at all, On such dpys they bad adreary timesitting around the camp-fire or in the wagon while the December wind swept across the plains unbroken by hill or tree. Their small store of money grew smaller from day to day, as they pur- chased the food they must have at the widely scattered runch houses and in the shabby villages through which they Kusso on their journey—whither they new not. At each village Louis tried to find employment, but always unsuccessfully. But often, when they encamped near a town or farm house, curious-minded but to the wagon and the children went on their way with gifts of food and cloth- ing, and often they found shelter at night and on stormy days in hospitable ranch-houses, 1t was the day before Christmas that they found themselves facing a strong, cold wind from the north, as they drove toward a little town far in the distance, but rltflnly visiblein that flat andalmost treeless country, The wind flapped the ragged cover of the wagon as it rattled along over the frozen ground, and late inthe day flakesof snow began flying in at the open front of the wagon, Old Charley walked slowly and un- steadily along, while Louis sat on the front scat holding thelines in his chilled hands, Huldah ‘and little Nell saton the straw in the back t of the wagon, warmly wrupgsd in buffalo and skins, of which, fortunately, they had a good supply. Nell was a light-hearted little crea- ture, even amid her dismal surround- ings, and once her curly head, tied up in'a red nubia, appeared above the mass of robes in which she sat, as she said, “Say, Louie?”” “Well?” he replied. ““Is tomorrow Christmas?” “Yes.” “0, goody!” Louis and Huldah were silent. There were tears in both their eyes, for, poor as their parents had always been, they bhad always made much of Christmas, “saving up” for it for weeks beforehand. Only last Christmas they had had a tree, the memory of which made little Nell’s eyes sparkle and her cheeks glow, although it had been only a poor little tree, after all, strung with popcorn, and and having fewer things on it than many children find in one of their stock- ings. i\'ilh tho tree still in mind, Nell asked: ‘‘We’ll have another tree, won’t Louie?” —I—1'm afraid not.” *“Nor nothing in my stocking?’’ Louis thought of the three or four small pieces of silver, in the pocket of his ragged vest. It was the lastof their money, but he said, as cheerily as he could, ‘*Yes, yes, little one; youshall have something in your stocking, any- how.” “Can’t we even have a little teenty- tonty tree?” “T'll see, dear.” “Ain’t there any old Mr. Santa Claus in this countw‘(" I guess s0.” ““Well, you must send him a letter as soon as we get to that town, and tell him I want a tree, a big tree, with 40,000 bushels of things on it, and I shall go right to work now and pray real kard for what I want most. Whatshall Ipray for for you, Louie?” 40, nothing.” “What, not even some merlasses candy?” “0 yes, I'd like that.” Well, I'll ask for that for you, and for a lovely blue silk dress and a perlanno to make music on for Huldah,” There was silence for a long timeaftor that. The short, dull day was ending in gloomy darkness when they reached the outskirts of the little town, They un- hitched Old Charley on the low bank of a little stream a short distance from the nearest house, The wind had gone down. A light snow was falling, and it was warmer, Louis built a fire, and while he went to the town for a loaf of bread Huldah made tea. After their frugal supper was eaten there was nothlng left for them to do but to “*snuggle up,” as Nellie said, in the buffalo robes and straw in the wagon and go to sleep, Before she lay down for the night the little glrl wenttooneend of the wagon and nned a pair of her ragged stockings to he outside of the wagon cover. *“There now,” she said, when this was done to her satisfaction, it won’t be the leastest bit of trouble tor Santy Claus to stop here on his way to the town, and he Mors‘e’s—leth and Farnam. Open ".Vl:ill 9 B’clo_ck. Rocking Horses, 5th Floor. ‘We have an immense assortment that we will sell av very low prices. Open Evenings until 9 0'clock. Ladies’ Pl Initial : Handker'fs 3356 Unlaundried, hemstitched, corded border, hund embroidered, initials, in bundles, 6 for 81.50. Another lot, laun- dried, in fancy boxes, finest quality lined cambrie, six for $2. New Silverware Department open on Main Floor. MAIL ORDERS solicited and promptly filled. DICKENS’ Complete Works $3.98. A splendid edition of 15 volumes,pub- lished at $22.50, We have taken our vook room for silverware and art goods, ana will close out books at cost. MORSE’S, 16th & Farnam Winfer othing 100 boys’ cape overcoats reduced frogs $1.75 THE MORSE DRY GOODS CO, Al 'of our $4 and $5 overconts redudd§ T $2.75 THE MORSE DRY GOODS ¢ 100 boys’ winter knee pant suits, a, 5o 18, reduced from $4 1o $2.95 - THE MORSE DRY GOODS CO, 200 pairs boys' heavy kneo pants $8 duced from 76¢ to 39c¢ Alsoour entire stock of fine clothi consisting of dross suits, jersey sul kilt suits, boys’ long pant suits MARKED DOWN. The Morse Dry Goods Co. THE ORSE DRY O0DS €0, Will offer this week in thef® Men's Furnishing Goods Dep'y 200 dozen Men's Fine Infv tial Linen Handkerchiefs at 35¢ or $1.95 Per Half dozen in boxes. 50 dozen Men's Silk Initial Handkerchiefs, good size an fine quality At 75 cents. Silk Mufilers, large size - $1.2, Our Dollar Neckties for - 50 Imported Smoking Jackets - $7.7, Silk Suspenders - - - g1 Lamb's Wool Lined Kid Gloves 75 cen Lamb's Wool LinedKid Mitts - § Seal Skin Caps - - $10 to $1 The Morse Dry Goods Coi—+ AIR RIPLES $2.50 Mail Orders Filled. Another lot of the boys’ mate! less air rifles, nickel plated, fir 65 shots without reloading; come early to secure one. This gun is perfect in mechanism, is aoe curate, carries a' B B shot, proper care will last a Iffetime, Securely packed, by ex ress, 32.68. $2.50. ' MAIL ORDERS FILLED. Don’t miss getting one. Yoy will be more than pleased with your purchase. It is not a useless tin gun, but a regular air rifle. can fill iny stockings without even get- ing out of his sleigh.” uis and Huldah sat silent around the camp-fire, looking at the pair of empty stockings dangling from the pins that held them. Suddenly the boy said, “We ain’t got but forty cents in the world, Huldah, but I’d rather spend it all than have her get up in the morn- iug and find them stockings empty.” 850 wonld I, replied the girl, prompt= ly. “I couldn’t bear to haveher find nothing at all in them.” “I reckon she'd sleep sound enough and not waken if you and I went up into the town and bought her something for her stockings.” “Oh_yes; she never opens her eyes after she once gets to sleep. and there’s no danger of her coming to harm here.” So, after seeing that Nellie was well covered under the robes, ahd the wagon cover closely drawn infront and behind, Louis and Huldah walked up the one un- lig hted street of the dreary little town, in which there was no sign of Christmas cheer. There was but three or four stores, and thé Christmas toys on sale were few and poor. But they seemed grand and ubun({um. 10 this boy and girl, who had lived all their lives in moun- tain gulches and on mountain tops. They bought a large yellow orange and a tin lamb on wheels, and then went up the street until they came to the small wooden church in which was a Christmas-tree for the chil- dren of the town. A woman about to enter saw them trying w'reep in at one of the frosty windows, and asked them to go in with her. They shily accepted the invitation, They were mistaken in their theory that noone would gonear the wagon while they were gone. Hardly had they entered the town, than there came rid- ing swiftly and boisterously across the plain a Yxilurmua company of hall a dozen horsemen of tho class known throughout the west as cowboys, Their hilarity is not always of the most agreeable sort and it is sometimes dangerous, particularly if it has been in- spired by liquor. When they are sober they are not only kindly, but sometimes reckless, in thelr generosity. The men who now came riding across the snowy plain had not the best inten- tions in visiting the little town. There was a saloon of the lowest class just out- side the village. Tho riders intended to make a visit to this saloon—after that no one, not even themselves, could say what form their festivitics would take, The old wagon with its flopping cover attracted their attentionas they came alloping along. They reined up their Eorscu before it and began joking gaily about its dilapidated appearance, the still burning camp-fire revealing its rickety and ragged condition. “That *d be a gay old rig to ride up an’ down Fifth avenoo in woulan’t it?” suid one of the men. 2 “It's scen mighty tough times, that’s sure,” said another. “Wonder where the owner of such an elegant outfit is? If he ain’t careful sumubok ‘Il stealit. It aint safe to let valuables lie 'round loose in this country for—well, I'll be ever- lastingly ding-fiddled—look therel” He pointed his whip at Nellio’s stock- ings as asudden flime from the fire re- vealed them flapping in the breeze, *'If omeyoungsterains hung up itss tockings for Christmas!” The other men drew near. One or two of them dismounted, and one tall, lank man, older than his companions, took one of the stockings and feltof it,saying, “Well, old Santa Claus aint filled it yet and I don’t reckon—Hello!”” He stepped back in surprise as a curly brown head was thrust from the rear of the wagon, and a childish voice ex- claimed: “‘Are you Mister Santa Claus?” The men on the horses laughed gnd one of them said, **She caught you that time, Cap.” “Well, who be you, anyhow?” asked the man nddressed as Cap. “I'm Helen May Hayten.” “0 you be, be you? “Where’s all your folks?”? “I ain’t got none, only just T.ouie and Huldah, and I s’pose they’ve gone off to hunt Santa Claus. Do you s'pose they'll find him? *It’s hard tellin’ whether they will or not, What if they don’t?”’ The ohild’s lips quivered and her voice trembled as she said, ‘‘then I s’pose my stockings ’ll be empty in the morning, and they ain't never been empty a Christmas yet.” ‘I\’\yhero d you come from, anyway ?” “From the mountains way off yonder,” She thrust one arm out and waved it toward the west in the darkness. **And your dad didn’t come with you?” “He couldn’t—he’s dead.” “Nor your marmy” “She’s dead too.” “And there ain’t nobody in the carv with youl” “No mam-—nobody.”" “Who's Louie and Huldah?” “Mg brother and sister—and they're splendid, They’ll find Santa Claus, Louie’s got forty cents for him, I heard him tell Sis so.”? “Oh, he has? Well, T guess yowd better crawl back there and snuggle down among the bedclothes till they come back., That's what you’d better do. Good night-" “Good night, mister; if you see Santy Claus you'll tell him ’bout my stock- ings?” . YOh yes. Good night,and sleep tight.” “Good night. 1 wish you a merry Christmas,” The men mounted their horses and rode away in the darkness, the tall man called Cap dashing silently on ahead of the others, ‘When Louis and Huldah returned they found littla Nell sleeping us peucefully as when they left her, They put the orango into one stocking and the toy lumb into the other, together with a lit- tle bag of candy that had been given them at the church. They climbed up into the wagon and were soon sleeping by Nell’s side—three homeless ycung wayfarersunder the Christmas skies, It was after 10 o’clock when a man rode silently and slowly out from the town, casting half-furtive glances back, as if fearing he might be followed by some of the companions who had long ago missed him from their revels in the saloon, He had heard one of them come to the door and call after him as he stole away, but they knew that he was a man whom it was best for them not to tollow, §0 they went back to their cups, expect- ing him to return soon, He rode straight to the wagon, dis- mounted, and stood for a moment listen- ing to make sure that all was silent within, Then he cautiously tip- toed near in the darkness, his arms and pockets full of bundles, He filled the little stockings to the top, and tied the other bundles to a wheel of the cart. Then he stood still for a few moments, his head bent forward and resting on the cart wheel, A moment later he mounted his horse and rode a few rods in the direction of the town—then wheeling suddenly and furiously around, he dashed madly away in the darkness over the plain in the direction from whence he and his com- panions had come, while they waited in vain for his return. : T jest bet yo Cap’s went back to that there wagon,” said one of the men, “He's a queer one, is Cap. It aint the first time I've knowed him to act queer after running across some little young- ster, an’ I b'leceve there's something in that story I've heerd 'bouthim once havin’a little girl of his own, and her ma and her dyin’, and him bein’ reck- less ever sence, He'll be sober for six months now. He's a queer one, any how.” . When morning eame an a TLoul climbed out of the wagon, he gazed in open-mouthed surprise at the stockings and the wagon wheel below them. In one stocking was the great doll ho and Huldah had so wished they might buy the night before, and in oneof the bun- dles were the dishes Huldah had said little Nell would **'most go crazy over.” In the bottom of the stocking were twenty-five shining gold dollars in a buckskin purse, while in the bundle were many good and useful things, They had not had such a breakfast for months, and Huldah said she should bo able to get upa **real Christmas dinner.” But in the midst of her preparations for it the good woman who had invited them to the church the night before found her way down to the wagon and took them to | her own comfortable little house, and that was tho end of their wanderings for | that winter, | A place for Louls was found in one of | —_——m the stores, and the kindly disposed peos ple of the town, with true western hosy pitality, helped them inso many wuy§ that the hardships of the past were soog forgotten in what they regarded as the wondcrfulf)rospcrit of the present, ‘I'he little town Is a prosperous ofty now, and Louis Hayden is oneof its mosh active and successful young business men. He has a home of his own on the very spot on which he and his sisters kept their Christmas in a wagon. s Dr. Birney cures catarrh, Bee bldg, e Where Artificial Eyes Come From, Artificial eyes are supplied to all the world from Thuringia, Germany. Nearl, all the grown inhabitants of some of thl villages are engaged in their manus ture, Four men usually sit at a tabl eich with a gas jet in Tront of him, nn? the eyes are blown from gas plates an moulded into shape by hand. Tho oo‘}: ors are then traced in with small nee ro set rule being observed -in thy ng; and, as every man uses his ow: >fore How Our Forefathers Lived Our forefathers hud fewer indc cupations than ourselves and mc forced idleness. They saw less they depended more on home for amusement, Hen'e the pilgrim with his licensed exaggeration, the minstrels and the whole army of jesters, jape disours jong leurs, gleemen, ribulds an goliards—all the tribe of those who Pier Plowman calls were welcome in - The Order of the Thistle. The Order of the Thistle has claimed avery ancient date for its foundation-#~ even as far back us A, 1, 809; but it wag either restored or instituted by Jamed V., 1510, when he with twelve knigh completed the roll, It now consists of the sovereign and sixteen members; Sf Andyew is its patron saint, and the colol of its distinctive vibbon is dark green, The knights of this order ure iu\'m'l:gu Scotchmen, AR Tho Antipyrene Habit, sl physicians nssert. that the \ 0 in L‘u) morphine habit is caus! i 10 use of the new febrifuge, antipy, « rene, People who arve inchined to exper- iment with medicine, especially youn women, take antipyrone until it loses ity curative power; then they resort to mom phine, ——— The Saltest Water on Earch. ‘The saltest piece of water upon earth is the Lake of Urumia, in P uated more than four thousand the sea ievel, It is much salte; Dead sea, the water being found onm analysis to contain noarly 22 per cent of sult, - Dr, Birney curcs catareh, Bee bldg "