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diff --git a/28110.txt b/28110.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..263e2aa --- /dev/null +++ b/28110.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1737 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jimsy, by Leona Dalrymple + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Jimsy + The Christmas Kid + +Author: Leona Dalrymple + +Illustrator: Charles Guischard + +Release Date: February 18, 2009 [EBook #28110] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JIMSY *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire + + + + + + + + +Jimsy + +The Christmas Kid + + +By + +Leona Dalrymple + +Author of "The Lovable Meddler," "Diane +of the Green Van," "Uncle Noah's +Christmas Party," etc. + + +Decorations by +Charles Guischard + + +New York +Robert M. McBride & Company +1915 + + +Copyright, 1915, by +Robert M. McBride & Co. +Published October, 1915 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I The Invasion 9 + + II The Biscuit Link 19 + + III The Chain Grows 27 + + IV The Chain Clanks 38 + + V The Proving 46 + + VI The Triumph 51 + + VII The Downfall 55 + + VIII The Chain is Locked 61 + + + + +Jimsy + +The Christmas Kid + + + + +[Illustration] + +I + +THE INVASION + + +His name was Jimsy and he took it for granted that you liked him. That +made things difficult from the very start--that and the fact that he +arrived in the village two days before Christmas strung to such a +holiday pitch of expectation that, if you were a respectable, +bewhiskered first citizen like Jimsy's host, you felt the cut-and-dried +dignity of a season which unflinching thrift had taught you to pare of +all its glittering non-essentials, threatened by his bubbling air of +faith in something wonderful to happen. + +He had arrived at twilight, just as the first citizen was about to read +his evening paper, and he had made a great deal of noise, yelling back +at old Austin White, whose sleigh had conveyed him from the station to +the house, a "S'long, Uncle!" pregnant with the friendliness of a +conversational ride. He had scraped away his snow-heels with a somewhat +sustained noise, born perhaps of shyness, and now, as he stood in the +center of the prim, old-fashioned room, a thin, eager youngster not too +warmly clad for the bite of the New England wind, Abner Sawyer felt with +a sense of shock that this city urchin whom Judith had promised to +"Christmas," detracted, in some ridiculous manner, from the +respectability of the room. He was an inharmonious note in its staid +preciseness. Moreover, it was evident from the frank friendliness of his +dark, gray eyes that he was perniciously of that type who frolic through +a frosty, first-citizen aura of informality and give and accept +friendship as a matter of course. + +[Illustration] + +"What--what is your name?" asked the first citizen, peering over his +spectacles. He wished that Judith's Christmas protege was not so thin +and a trifle larger. + +[Illustration] + +"Jimsy," answered the boy. "An' Specks, he's me chum; he goes to Mister +Middleton's, next door." + +Specks and Jimsy! The first citizen helplessly cleared his throat and +summoned Judith. + +She came in a spotless apron no whiter than her hair. She was +spare--Aunt Judith Sawyer--spare and patient as the wife of a provident +man may well be who sees no need for servants, and her primness was of a +gentler, vaguer sort than that of Abner Sawyer. Jimsy glanced up into +her sweet, tired face and his eager eyes claimed her with a bewildering +smile of welcome. Then because Jimsy's experience with clean aprons and +trimly parted hair was negligible almost to the point of non-existence, +it became instantly imperative that he should polish the toe of one worn +shoe with the sole of the other and study the result and Aunt Judith +with furtive interest. + +"Judith," said the first citizen, not wholly at his ease, +"Mr.--er--ah--Mr. Jimsy has arrived." + +Jimsy snickered. + +"Naw, naw, nix!" he said. "Jimsy's the handle. I'm a stray, I am. Hain't +got no folks. Mom Dorgan says ye have to have folks to have a +bunch-name. I'm the Christmas kid." + +"To be sure you are," said Aunt Judith gently, "to be sure. And where +are your things?" + +Jimsy's thin little face reddened. + +"Hain't only got one rig," he mumbled, "an' that warn't fitten to wear. +Mom Dorgan borried these duds fur me. She--she's awful good that way +when she's sober." + +There was wistful eagerness in his face to do his best by the one friend +who helped him. + +[Illustration] + +Quite unconscious of the scandalized flutter in this quiet room whose +oval portraits of ancestral Sawyers might well have tumbled down at the +notion of any one being anything but sober, the boy moved closer to the +fire as if the ride had chilled him. + +[Illustration] + +"Gee!" he said with a long, quivering breath, "ain't that a fire, now, +ain't it!" and because his keen young eyes could not somehow be evaded, +Abner Sawyer accepted the responsibility of the reply and said hastily +that it was. Then feeling his dignity imperilled in the presence of +Judith, though why he could not for the life of him explain, he moved +forward a chair for the Christmas guest and returned to his paper. + +Aunt Judith went back to a region of tinkling china and humming kettle. +The room became quiet enough for any one to read, but the first citizen +somehow could not read. He was ridiculously conscious of that tense +little figure by the fire with the disturbingly friendly eyes. How on +earth could a boy be noisy who was absolutely quiet? Yet his very +presence seemed to clamor--the clamor of an inherent sociability +repressed with difficulty. + +Jimsy glanced at the checkerboard window beyond which snowy hills lay +beneath a sunset afterglow. + +"Gee whiz!" he burst forth. "_Ain't_ the snow white!" + +The first citizen jumped--much as one may jump when he has waited in +nerve-racking suspense for a pistol shot. The boy had done exactly what +he had expected him to do--broken that sacred ante-prandial hour with +the Lindon _Evening News_ which Judith had not broken this twenty years. + +[Illustration] + +"Snow," he said discouragingly, for all he had determined to ignore the +remark, "snow is always white." + +Jimsy shook his head. + +"Naw," he said. "N'York snow's gray an' dirty. Specks said the snow we +seen on the hills from the train winder was Christmas card snow, and +with that the minister he up an' tells Specks an' me 'bout reg'lar +old-fashioned country Christmases, fire like this an' Christmas trees +an'--an' sleigh-bells an' gifts an' wreaths an' skatin' an' +holly--Gee--" + +"That," said Abner Sawyer with cold finality, "will be quite enough." + +"Sure," agreed Jimsy. "A Christmas like that 'snuff fur any kid." + +Irritably conscious that his reproof had been misinterpreted, the first +citizen riveted his gaze upon the Lindon _Evening News_. But he could +not read. Jimsy's irreverent air of friendliness was not the only +disturbing factor in his Christmasing. Jimsy, plainly, was cherishing +expectations. + +Conscious-driven, Abner Sawyer laid aside his paper. + +[Illustration] + +"James," he began primly, "I must take this occasion to inform you that +Mrs. Sawyer and I spend Christmas quietly--very quietly. We have never +had a Christmas tree, and personally I consider that holly is most +suitable and decorative where Nature planted it. Christmas," finished +Mr. Sawyer, slightly disconcerted by Jimsy's attentive stare, "Christmas +is merely a day and a dinner. Let the frivolous make of it an orgy of +sentimentality if they will." + +Jimsy's face fell. + +"Gee!" he said, "your Christmas ain't just an extra Sunday, is it?" + +Shocked, Abner Sawyer glinted over the tops of his glasses. + +"No," he said with an effort, "it--it is somewhat different." + +"How's it different?" + +"I"--the first citizen froze--"I hardly know." + +[Illustration] + +"What d'ye have that ye don't have Sundays?" + +"I--I believe it's turkey," conceded Mr. Sawyer desperately, and feeling +his dignity hopelessly compromised by a dialogue of such pronounced +informality, returned to his paper. + +"Gee!" said Jimsy, with a sigh of relief, "that's mos' enuff itself to +make a Christmas. Hain't never tasted turkey." He was silent a minute, +in which the clock ticked loudly. It was purple now beyond the +old-fashioned panes and the lamp seemed brighter. Jimsy's shrill young +voice broke the quiet, as it would, of course, be sure to do. + +"Say," he said kindly, "don't you worry none about that there Christmas +tree an' no holly. We'll have a thump-walloper of a day, anyhow!" + +It is conceivable that Abner Sawyer's experience with thump-wallopers +had been limited. There was something in the boy's words, however, that +brought his gaze over the top of his spectacles again and over his +paper. It was disconcerting to note that Jimsy still bristled with +faith and friendliness and cheerful expectation. + +"My remark," he said coldly, "about the absence of a tree and holly was +a statement--not an apology." + +"Don't get ye," admitted Jimsy. "Come again." And there was danger of a +mutual dead-lock of comprehension. Aunt Judith saved the day. Arriving +in the doorway with a flutter, she said that supper was ready and that +James had better wash his face and hands. And James, who was Jimsy, +meeting Aunt Judith's gentle eyes, turned scarlet, and stumbling to his +feet, he stepped, en route, upon the stately toe of Lindon's pride. + +"Gee!" he burst forth contritely. "I'm awful sorry, honest Injun I am. +Spoiled yer shine, didn't I? An' it was a beaut, too!" + +Could even a first citizen rebuke such eager apology? Better to stay +within the certain shelter of a chilling silence. + +[Illustration] + +Abner Sawyer rose, but even as he did so his world of law and order +seemed to rock in chaos about his feet. He was going out to supper--and +he had not read a single line in the Lindon _Evening News_! + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +II + +THE BISCUIT LINK + +It was at supper that the terrible realization came to Abner Sawyer that +Jimsy liked everything and _every one_ rather too well. He liked the ham +and he liked the biscuits, he accepted alarming quantities of marmalade +with utter confidence in his digestion; his round eyes swept every nook +of the prim old room and marveled at old-fashioned china and silver that +might have come over in the _Mayflower_, and then again might not, and +he continued irreverently unaware that the first citizen was president +of the Lindon Bank and therefore not a person to be liked +indiscriminately by urchins. Thanks to something in Aunt Judith's eyes, +furtively concessional to boyhood, Jimsy had mislaid what little +constraint and shyness he had had at first. His at-homeness might be +gauged at a glance by the way he gazed at the biscuits. + +"Dear me," said Aunt Judith, glancing from Jimsy to the biscuits to see +which most threatened the other, "I--I scarcely think--I hardly know. +Abner?" + +Time, Abner, now to impress this urchin once for all with a show of +power in terms he can understand! + +Mr. Sawyer settled the trivial question of biscuits with dignity. + +"James," he said. "You may have just _one_ more biscuit." + +And Aunt Judith nodded: + +"Just as you say, my dear!" as she had been nodding effasively for +thirty years. + +Jimsy's eyes were very grateful and it came over the first citizen with +sickening conviction that Jimsy, misinterpreting again, had regarded the +biscuit as an overture instead of a show of power. Ridiculous indeed to +have thrown about your neck the unwelcome chain of a boy's regard and +then unintentionally to cement that chain--by a biscuit! + +Abner Sawyer departed hastily for his lamp, his fire and his paper. + +[Illustration] + +Jimsy followed Aunt Judith to the kitchen and here, in the shining +quiet of an old-fashioned kitchen whose spotless rows of pans and its +rocker by the window reflected nothing of first citizenship, the +memory-making mystery of child and woman in a homely setting drew taut +an age-old chord of sympathy. Out of the hum of the kettle and the +fire-shadows of the grate it came, out of the winter wind that rattled +the checkerpaned windows--that eternal something that is only given to +women to understand. Jimsy did not know why Aunt Judith smiled or why +the smile made his throat hurt a little. He only knew by her eyes that +she liked him and that was enough. + +"Aunt Judith," he blurted, "lemme--aw, lemme wipe your dishes." + +But Aunt Judith, with the wisdom of women, knew that the best-behaved +china is perversely given to leaping without warning out of the hands of +any boy, to his utter consternation, and she patted him on the back. + +"Bless your heart, Jimsy," she said, "there are so few I can do them +myself in no time." + +[Illustration] + +Jimsy!--not James! Jimsy felt that he must do something for Aunt Judith +Sawyer or his throat would burst. So finding one leg at liberty, he +furtively kicked the leg of the stove and hurt his toe, even as his eyes +fell upon a depleted stock of kindlings in the wood-box. + +[Illustration] + +"Well, then," he burst out in a glow of good-will, "lemme--lemme take +Uncle Ab's job to-night an' get the wood." + +Aunt Judith's horrified glance made him redden uncomfortably. + +"Jimsy," she whispered hurriedly, "you--you must never--never call Mr. +Sawyer--Uncle Ab. Nobody does." + +"But," mumbled the boy, "ye--ye said folks call ye Aunt Judith, +an'--an'--" + +"It--it's different," faltered Aunt Judith. "I--I'm nobody in +particular. Mr. Sawyer's a bank president, Jimsy, and I--I always get +the wood myself." She opened the door and pointed to a woodpile +glimmering out of the darkness with a rim of snow. "The kindlings are +split and piled in the shed. And hurry, child. The wind's sharp." + +[Illustration] + +Jimsy set forth with a noisy whistle. When presently he returned with an +armful of kindlings, his eyes were shining. And holding the door ajar, +he coaxed into the warmth of Aunt Judith's kitchen a shivering dog, +little and lame and thin. + +"Aunt Judith," he shrilled, dropping his kindlings into the box with a +clatter, "look! He was out there under the woodpile, shiverin,' an' he +won't go away. He's a stray, too, like I was afore Mom Dorgan gave me a +bed with her kids." He patted the dog's head. "Gee, watch him duck, poor +mutt! That's cause he's been walloped so much. Aunt Judith," he blurted, +his gray eyes ablaze with pleading, "can't ye maybe jus' let him sleep +behind the stove? He's so sort of shivery I--I feel awful sorry fur +him." + +"No, no, no!" said Aunt Judith in distress. "I can't. I can't, indeed. +Mr. Sawyer--" + +"JAMES!" + +[Illustration] + +Aunt Judith and Jimsy jumped. The first citizen stood in the doorway, +the Lindon _Evening News_ in his hand, still unread. Nor could he have +explained why, save that a boy's absence may, queerly enough, be as +clamorous as his presence. With the biscuit still upon his mind, Abner +Sawyer felt impelled to discipline. + +"Put the dog out!" + +Jimsy stood his ground. He was used to that. And Abner Sawyer wondered +with a feeling of intense annoyance what there was about this ragged, +noisy child that injected drama into incident. There was a tenseness in +the silence of the trio and the cringing dog. + +"Aw, have a heart!" pleaded Jimsy finally, and there was faith and +optimism in his steady glance. + +Abner Sawyer cleared his throat and looked away. He wondered why he felt +defensive. + +"I am fully equipped with the organ you mention," he said drily. "Put +the dog out." + +Jimsy reluctantly obeyed, and as the door closed upon the shivering +little waif who scratched and whined at the door of his lost Paradise, +Jimsy's face, sharpened by disappointment, seemed suddenly thinner and +less boyish. Bent upon making the best of things, he reached for his +cap. + +"Well," he said casually, "guess I'll go out and look the burg over." + +It was queer how Jimsy's conversation seemed to bristle with verbal +shocks. Aunt Judith gasped. Mr. Sawyer fixed a stern eye upon the clock. + +"It is eight o'clock," he said in what seemed to Jimsy's puzzled +comprehension a midnight tone of voice; "you will go to bed." + +Dumfounded, Jimsy followed Aunt Judith up to bed. Here in a great, +old-fashioned bedroom he forgot everything in an eager contemplation of +a whirling, feathery background to his window. + +"Aunt Judith," he called excitedly, "it's snowin'. Gee, that's +Christmasy, ain't it! I don't mind the snow at all s'long's I got a bed +cinched." His eager face lengthened. "Wisht Stump had a bed," he +finished wistfully. + +[Illustration] + +"Stump?" + +"I jus' called him Stump, Aunt Judith, 'cause he didn't have no tail." +Aunt Judith's eyes were sympathetic. + +But an embarrassing difficulty arose about Jimsy's bed attire which +drove Stump for a time from his mind. It was solved by a night-shirt of +first-citizen primness, which trailed upon the carpet and made him +snigger self-consciously behind his hand until he heard Aunt Judith's +step again beyond the door, when he vaulted into bed, shivering +luxuriously in the chill softness of unaccustomed linen.... And then +Aunt Judith blew out the lamp and tucked him in with hands so tremulous +and gentle that his throat troubled him again, and he lay very still. +Meeting her eyes, he suddenly buried his face in the pillow with a gulp +and a sob, and clung to her hand. Aunt Judith, shaking, caught him +wildly in her arms, cried very hard, and kissed him good-night. Jimsy, +Stump and Aunt Judith Sawyer knew variously the meaning of starvation. + + + + +[Illustration] + +III + +THE CHAIN GROWS + + +The house grew very still. Jimsy, awaking after a time with the start of +unfamiliar surroundings, heard the rattle of wind and snow against his +window. A tree brushed monotonously against the panes--then through the +sounds of winter storm came an unmistakable whimper and a howl. The boy +sat up. Stump! Huddled likely against the door in an agony of faith. +Jimsy thought of a winter night before Mom Dorgan had taken him in, and +shivered. The howl came again. Rising, Jimsy opened his door on a crack +and peered cautiously through it. The hallway was dimly alight from a +lamp, set, for safety's sake, within a pewter bowl. The house of Sawyer +slept. Gathering his train in his hand, Jimsy hurried through the hall +and down the stairs to the lower floor, quite dark now, save for barred +patches of window framing ghostly landscapes. A gust of wind and snow +whirled in as he unbarred the kitchen door. Then something with an +ingratiating waggle pushed gladly against his feet. Five seconds later +Jimsy and Stump were on their way upstairs. + +[Illustration] + +Excitement exacted its toll. Jimsy halted at the second turn in the +upper hall, his scalp feeling very queer. The lamp had gone out, +probably in the draft from the kitchen door, and he had lost his room! +Whispering desperate admonitions to the wriggling dog beneath his arm, +Jimsy went on tiptoed hunt until, finding a window, a turn and a door +that seemed familiar, he heaved a great sigh of relief and turned the +knob. As he pushed back the door, a flood of light and warmth fanned +out, and Jimsy, tangling his feet in his train as only a small boy +could, fell headlong into the room, propelling Stump, who yelped with +fright, at the very feet of Abner Sawyer. + +"Oh, my Gosh!" yelled Jimsy wildly. "Pinched!" + +[Illustration] + +Outraged, the first citizen rose from a bench beside a table and a lamp, +and Jimsy, scrambling to his feet, a ridiculous figure of apology and +dismay in his billowing train and sagging shoulders, saw that Mr. Sawyer +held in his hand a plane and a piece of wood and that the room in which +he stood was a work-shop perfect in equipment. + +"What," demanded Mr. Sawyer in a terrible voice, "what does this mean? +That dog--" + +But Jimsy had not heard. + +"Lordy," he breathed, "what a thump-walloper of a shop! Whisht Jack +Sweeny could see this. My, wouldn't his good eye open! Whatcha makin'?" + +Mr. Sawyer reddened as any man may whose weakness has been unexpectedly +detected by a boy in an acre of night-shirt. + +"No one," he began icily, "_no_ one--not even Mrs. Sawyer presumes to +come beyond that threshold"--he broke off and frowned impatiently, +feeling his power of aloofness threatened by something in Jimsy's eager +stare which claimed a kinship of interest.... There was an alarming +suggestion of intimacy anyway in a midnight scene with a tailless dog, a +boy clad in your own night-shirt--and an inferential person with an eye +by the name of Sweeny.... Why did a ridiculous frozen sense of guilt +impede his tongue now when rebuke was imperative?... Why on earth had a +look of relief and understanding supplanted the puzzled friendliness of +Jimsy's supper-time stare?... So might a dog look who had waggled in +friendly perplexity at the foot of a flawless statue only to find that +the statue held in its hand a lowly but perfectly comprehensible bone +... and the dog's attitude of course toward the flawless statue would +never be quite the same--nor-- + +"James," said the first citizen hoarsely, "go to bed!" + +[Illustration] + +"Aw," said James softly, "make it Jimsy. Aunt Judith did. I ain't no +stiff wit' spinach an' buttons chasin' newsies off the porch." + +"Jimsy!" said the first citizen faintly, and felt his world rock about +him again. For fate and Jimsy, it was very plain, had filed the word +away with the biscuit. + +[Illustration] + +Jimsy's grin was radiant. Upset, Mr. Sawyer turned back to his bench +with Jimsy at his heels. + +"Oh, Lordy, Lordy," breathed the boy in an ecstasy of admiration. +"Makin' a Christmas present fur Aunt Judith on the sly, ain't ye? Won't +she jus' open her eyes! _I_ bet! And polishin' the wood yerself. Gee!" + +Mr. Sawyer cleared his throat. + +"Mrs. Sawyer and I," said he, "do--not--exchange--gifts--at Christmas. +This cabinet is for my private office at the bank." + +Jimsy's face fell. + +"Aw," he said gently, "seems like ye'd orta give her sumthin' fur +Christmas. She's so awful good.... B'long to the union?" + +"I--I beg your pardon?" + +"Carpenters' union. Jack Sweeny does." + +The first citizen froze. + +"Carpentering with me," he explained stiffly, "is a fad--not an +occupation or a necessity. I," he added "am President of the Lindon +Bank." + +Jimsy's glance was sympathetic. It regretted the world's gain of a bank +president at the expense of a better carpenter. + +"I kin plane," he pleaded eagerly. "Honest Injun, I kin. I kin whittle +too, like ol' Scratch. Lemme plane this--" + +"I thank you," began Mr. Sawyer coldly, with unfortunate selection of +words, "but--" His voice faltered under Jimsy's shining gaze. For, +reading in the formal repudiation a vote of thanks, Jimsy had seized a +plane and set to work. + +[Illustration] + +The shavings flew. The clock ticked loudly in the quiet. Outside a +winter blizzard was sweeping in white fury from the hills. Stump +crouched silently in a corner, his head upon his paws. And Abner +Sawyer, returning to his work in helpless indecision, felt his privacy +and his dignity forever compromised by a boy and a dog. He knew of +course that a small boy, scantily clad, should not be planing furiously +on the bench beside him at midnight with a sociable gleam in his +eye--yet--something--a terrible conviction perhaps that if he spoke at +all his voice would be hoarse and uncertain and his poise threatened by +the paralyzing sense of apology which welled strangely up within him in +Jimsy's presence, tied his tongue. The minutes ticked loudly on and the +shavings flew.... And Jimsy would misinterpret whatever he said in terms +of sentimentality. He always did.... The clock struck one.... Abner +Sawyer rose. + +[Illustration] + +"James--Jimsy," he said, and his voice was hoarse and uncertain as he +knew it would be, "you must go to bed." + +Jimsy looked up sympathetically. + +"Got a cold?" + +"No." + +"Frog in your throat?" + +"No." + +Jimsy resigned his plane with a sigh. + +"Golly," he laughed, "we'd catch it, wouldn't we--me and you--if Aunt +Judith knew!" + +Then he glanced at Stump and said nothing at all. And quite suddenly +conscience told Abner Sawyer that he could not accept without giving. +Jimsy had helped him willingly and he had accepted--why he could not for +the life of him remember, save that it had something to do with his +throat and his poise. It did entail obligation of a sort, however, and +he was a just man. Abner Sawyer did not look at Stump. He blew out the +light. + +In silence the two passed out and closed the door. The episodic +irregularities of the evening beginning with the Lindon _Evening News_ +had reached unheard of climax. A mongrel dog was asleep in the warmth of +the sanctum. + +Abner Sawyer had a strangling sense of another link to his biscuit-riven +chain and passed his hand over his forehead in a dazed and weary way. + +"Abner," said Aunt Judith nervously at breakfast, "you--you don't think +this once we--could have--a--a Christmas tree for Jimsy?" + +[Illustration] + +"Certainly not!" said Mr. Sawyer coldly. + +Aunt Judith's hand trembled a little as she poured the coffee and the +first citizen waited so long for her usual reply that he thought +impatiently it would never come. It came at last--quietly. + +[Illustration] + +"Just as you--say, Abner." But the final word was lost in an outraged +yell from somewhere near the woodpile. + +"It--it must be Jimsy," said Aunt Judith hurriedly. "He--he was up so +early I gave him his breakfast. He's shoveling the snow from the +walks--" + +"Gwan!" came a muffled roar. "Say that again and I'll bust yer face +good." Sounds of battle and vilifying repartee speedily upset the Sawyer +breakfast. Abner Sawyer pushed back his chair and strode hastily to the +kitchen window. He saw concentric circles of fists and snow and a +yapping dog. He could not know that the defensive section of the +maelstrom was Specks, the Christmas urchin next door, or that Jimsy and +Specks settled every controversy under Heaven in a fashion of their own. + +The first citizen flung up the window. + +"James!" he said in a terrible voice. + +The concentric circles wavered--then whirled dizzily on. + +"James!" Too much conventional horror and dignity there to pierce the +elemental. + +"_Jimsy!_" There was sharp informality now that meant business. Jimsy +upset his freckled antagonist in the snow and wheeled. + +"Mister Sawyer," he yelled indignantly, "he went an' said ye was an ol' +crab--an' a miser--an' a skinflint--an'--an' a stiff--an' I blacked his +eye fur him an' tol' him he lied. An' he went an' said ye didn't have no +heart or ye wouldn't let Aunt Judith carry in the wood an' do all the +work an' never git no new clothes--" + +"Yi! Yi! Yi! Yi!" derided Specks. "Boney Middleton tol' me--Boney +Middleton tol' me. You won't have no tree or nuthin'." + +"Didn't I tell ye 'bout the biscuit?" demanded Jimsy fiercely. "An' +about Stump sleepin' in the work-shop, didn't I? Hain't that enuff? +Hain't he good to boys an' dogs? I--I don't want no Christmas tree, ye +big stiff. I'm goin' to have turkey--" + +But Abner Sawyer had closed the window with a bang. Although he did not +look at Aunt Judith he knew that her face was white. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +IV + +THE CHAIN CLANKS + + +It was the day before Christmas that the Village Conscience telephoned +the Lindon Bank. + +"I felt that I must call you up, Mr. Sawyer," she said firmly, "and tell +you that the boy you have with you over Christmas is going around from +door to door, ringing the bell and--_begging_!" + +"Begging!" + +"Perhaps I shouldn't call it _just_ that--but--well, saying 'Merry +Christmas!' rather hopefully." + +Feeling rather sick, Abner Sawyer formally thanked his informer and rang +off. Glancing out of his office window he saw with a shock that instead +of Austin White, who usually drove him home at night, Jimsy and Peggy, +the old Sawyer mare, were waiting beneath a snow-ridged elm with the +sleigh. Jimsy caught his eye, smiled warmly and waved, and because +Abner Sawyer did not know what else to do, he stiffly returned the +salute and reached for his hat, irritably conscious that sufficient +sleep and food had already left their marks upon his guest. Jimsy's +cheeks above the old-fashioned tippet Aunt Judith had wound about his +throat were smooth and ruddy. + +"Aunt Judith didn't want me to come," explained Jimsy, "but I tol' her +how Gink Gunnigan often let me drive his truck an' I guess I coaxed so +hard she had to.... Unc--Mister Sawyer, it--it's nearly Chris'mus eve!" + +Abner Sawyer climbed in without a word. Peggy flew off with a jingle of +bells through the village, through the woods, through a Christmas eve +twilight dotted now with homely squares of light shining jewel-wise +among the snowy trees. + +[Illustration] + +"Jimsy!" + +"Yes, sir?" + +"A lady telephoned that you'd been--_begging_--from door to door." + +Jimsy hung his head. + +"I--I only rung some door-bells an' said 'Merry Chris'mus.'" + +"You expected and received--money?" + +"Y-e-e-e-e-es, sir." + +"Why?" + +Silence. + +"Jimsy, I insist upon an explanation." + +Jimsy gulped and faced Abner Sawyer, his eyes blazing with heartbroken +disappointment through tear-wet lashes. + +"Uncle Ab," he choked, "it--it was a Chris'mus s'prise fur you an' Aunt +Judith." A great tear rolled slowly down upon the tippet. "I--I seen a +book on fancy carpenterin' an' I--I didn't have no money an'--an' a +thimble. It ain't silver, but it's 'mos' as good." And then Jimsy lost +his moorings with a sob and cried his heart out upon the sleeve of Abner +Sawyer. "I--I got the book buttoned under my coat," he blurted after a +while, "an', Uncle Ab, I'm awful sorry 'bout the door-bells. All the +fellus do it home--" + +[Illustration] + +Abner Sawyer would have been less than human if the boy's tragedy had +not touched him. + +"Why," he asked huskily, "why did you wish to give me a Christmas +present?" + +[Illustration] + +"Because," cried Jimsy passionately, "yer so awful good to me an' Stump, +an' so's Aunt Judith. An' I thought mebbe ye'd never had nobuddy ever +give ye a present an' mean it like I did or--" + +"Or what, Jimsy?" + +"Ye'd feel diffrunt 'bout Christmas." + +The first citizen took the reins himself, tucked Jimsy in beneath the +fur robe and drove home in silence, conscious only that the world was +awry and he hated the Village Conscience. Nor was he quite himself even +after supper was done and Jimsy, a little tearful still in his +disappointment, safe in bed. + +"Abner--" began Aunt Judith from her chair by the fire. + +"Yes?" said Mr. Sawyer coldly. He wished Judith would not talk. She +rarely did. He was tired and upset and probing desperately within for +some remnant of the cold complacence of a week ago. + +"The minister was here to-day. He--he told me how Mrs. Dorgan took Jimsy +in from the street. She--drinks. He--hasn't--a real--home. The minister +would like--to--to find one for him." + +[Illustration] + +Jimsy again! He must fling away his chain now or feel it clank. + +"That," said Abner Sawyer resentfully, "is of no interest to me." + +There was pitiful, hard-wrung bravery in Aunt Judith's face. Only a +passionate surge of feeling could have swept away the silence and +repression of the years. Only a woman's emotion, wild and maternal for +all its starving, inevitable as the law of God, could have leaped a +barrier so fixed and unrelenting. + +"Abner," she said desperately. "I--I want to keep Jimsy. I--I can't +_bear_ to see him go--" + +"Judith!" There was more in the single word of course than Aunt Judith +could know. There was an unread paper and a biscuit, a tailless dog +invading sanctity, a yelling boy by a woodpile, and now the memory of a +twilight ride and the tears of a choking lad upon his sleeve, an +irritating record of moments of weakness which it behooved a first +citizen to stamp out of his life forever. Aunt Judith read in his face +an inexorable death-sentence of her hope and rose, trembling. + +[Illustration] + +"You are a hard, cold man!" she said, very white. "And the house is so +lonely I hate it!... I _hate_ it!" quivered Aunt Judith with a long +shuddering sob; "there's no one to love in it--no one! And everything +Specks said to Jimsy was true!" + +And then, crying and shaking, she was gone, and Abner Sawyer went with +stumbling feet to the privacy of his work-shop, his face death-white. +The pompous illusions of his little world were tumbling to ruins about +him. + +He had said with frequent unction that he was a "hard" man, interpreting +that phrase liberally in terms of thrift, economy and substantial common +sense, and his world, through the mouth of an urchin, had flung back to +him the galling words--_miser_ and _skinflint_! They had fawned to his +face and flouted his back, gossiping of servants and made-over gowns +and kindlings. Up and down the quiet work-shop walked Abner Sawyer, +clinging in an agony of humiliation to the loyalty of a little +urchin.... It was all he had, he told himself fiercely, all he had! +Jimsy alone saw him as he was and liked him.... No heart!... No +Christmas tree!... No one in the house to love.... He must prove then to +Specks--to Jimsy--to Judith--to the Middletons--to all Lindon-- + +Turning with hot anger in his heart, he saw a book upon his work-bench; +and picking it up, Abner Sawyer faced the pitiful fiasco of Jimsy's +Christmas gift. With a great lump in his throat and his eyes wet he +glanced at the fly-leaf. + +"To Uncle Ab," it said, "from Jimsy. Chrismus gretings." + +The door clicked as it had clicked the night before and the night +before. + +"Unc--Mister Sawyer," said Jimsy sleepily. "I 'mos' forgot to come, I +was so awful tired an' sleepy.... Ain't--ain't sick, are ye, Uncle Ab? +Yer face is awful queer." + +"I--I don't know," said the first citizen hoarsely. "I--I think I am. Go +to bed, Jimsy, and--thank--you--for the book." + +Jimsy went back to bed. He did not know--nor did Aunt Judith or Abner +Sawyer that presently he was the sole keeper of the house save Stump +snoring in the kitchen. For Abner Sawyer was furtively driving Peggy +into a village that knew him only by repute and Aunt Judith, having +slipped away in white defiance to Cousin Lemuel's down the road, was +driving into Lindon with the surreptitious savings of many years in the +old-fashioned pocket of her gown. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +V + +THE PROVING + + +The clock struck six. It was Christmas morning! Jimsy awoke with the +thought of turkey uppermost in his mind, to find Aunt Judith by his bed, +a wonderful look of Christmas, he thought, in her gentle face. + +"Dress quickly, Jimsy," she whispered, "and don't make a sound--not a +sound! I'll wait outside by the door. It--it's a Christmas secret that +nobody but you and I must know." + +Jimsy tumbled into his clothes and opened the door. + +"W-w-w-w-what is it, Aunt Judith?" he whispered. + +But for answer Aunt Judith only hurried him in a flutter to the +sewing-room, safe this many a year from the measured tread of +first-citizen feet, and closed the door. + +"Oh, Aunt Judith!" gulped the boy. "Aunt Judith!" + +A Christmas tree winked and rainbowed glory in a window by the eaves, +everything beneath its tinselled branches that the heart of boy could +wish. The radiance in Jimsy's eyes brought Aunt Judith to her knees +beside him, her sweet, tired eyes wet with tears of pleasure. + +"You like it, Jimsy?" she whispered. "You're sure you like it, dear?" + +Jimsy buried his face on Aunt Judith's shoulder with a strangled sob of +excitement and delight. + +"Aunt Judith," he blurted, "I--I can't 'mos' tell ye what I think." + +Aunt Judith's arms clung tightly to him. + +"Cousin Lemuel helped me," she whispered. "The house was dark and Mr. +Sawyer in bed. There wasn't even a light in the work-shop. We tiptoed up +and down the back-stairs. You mustn't breathe a word of it, Jimsy! Not a +word! It's for you and me." + +Jimsy sighed. + +[Illustration] + +"Whisht," he said, "whisht Uncle Ab believed in Chris'mus." + +Aunt Judith kissed him. + +"Bless your heart, Jimsy," she said bravely. "So do I." + +[Illustration] + +But even bewildering hours with gifts and trees must come to an end, and +presently Aunt Judith and Jimsy went down hand in hand to attend to the +fire and breakfast.... And the opening of the sitting-room door froze +Aunt Judith Sawyer to the threshold, her face whitely unbelieving. +Something was wrong with the primness of the sitting-room--something in +evergreen and tinsel and a hundred candles that showered Christmas from +its boughs--something was wrong with Abner Sawyer--up and waiting by the +window, his face twisted into a faint and sickly smile of apology. + +For now that he was in the very heart of his "proving" he did not know +what on earth to do. Dignity?... It was hopelessly out of the question. +With a monument to his midnight guilt blazing there in the corner--with +Christmas wreaths hung in the windows to confound the Middletons--he +must face the music. Feeling very foolish, he cleared his throat and +essayed to speak, paralyzed into silence again by the unexpected +evolution of a hoarse croak so horribly un-first-citizen that it +frightened him. + +[Illustration] + +Jimsy broke the staring silence. + +"Uncle Ab," he quivered, "ye never--ye never went an' done all that fur +me!" + +"I--I don't know," said Abner Sawyer, swallowing very hard. "I--I think +I did." + +"When," faltered Aunt Judith from the doorway, "did you--do it?" + +"It must have been after midnight. I came in very quietly. The ride was +long--I went to Matsville. You must have been in bed asleep--" + +Jimsy embarked upon a handspring of celebration. + +"Two trees!" he shouted, caution quite forgotten in his wild excitement, +"two suits of clothes--two everything! Oh, my gosh, Specks ain't in it. +I'm the Christmas kid!" and then in a panic he was on his feet again, +his face hot and red. "Aunt Judith," he exclaimed, almost crying, "I'm +awfully sorry--" + +Aunt Judith's tremulous laugh seemed tears and silver. + +"Never mind, dear. It's all right now. Abner," she swallowed bravely, +"one of--one of Jimsy's Christmas trees is in the sewing-room. I--I'd +like you to see it." + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +VI + +THE TRIUMPH + + +Specks reviewed the Christmas tree in the sitting-room after breakfast +and looked upset. It was bigger than his own. + +"Got one downstairs, too," crowed Jimsy. "Uncle Ab," he added, "he sort +o' wanted it to be awful Christmasy through the whole house, an'--an' +Jiminy Crickets, Specks, it is!" + +"Uncle Ab--who's Uncle Ab?" + +"Uncle Ab Sawyer." Jimsy bristled. "What ye got to say about it?" + +"Nuthin'." + +"Did _you_ get _two_ trees, Specks?" + +"Naw. Hain't many folks did, I guess. 'Tain't nuthin' to crow about, +anyway." + +"Huh! Thought ye said the Middletons was more Christmasy'n us." + +"I didn't." + +"Ye did." + +"I didn't." + +"Ye did, too, and I walloped ye fur it. I'll wallop ye again if ye say +ye didn't." + +"Jimsy!" Aunt Judith's gentle voice put an end to controversy. An +armistice was pledged. + +[Illustration] + +"Did ye get skates, Specks?" + +"Nope." + +"Gosh, I'm sorry fur that. I got two pairs. Mebbe--Aunt Judith?" + +"Yes, Jimsy?" + +"Would ye mebbe mind me givin' Specks a pair o' skates? Mr. Middleton he +ain't so Christmasy as you an' Uncle Ab--" + +Specks swallowed hard and accepted this and the skates. But he could not +forbear at least one shaft of triumph. + +"I got a sled, Jimsy!" + +"Huh!" said Jimsy. "So did I. Two of 'em." + +It was too much. The street urchin in Specks came to the fore in a +mighty wave of envy. + +"Gawd!" he gulped. + +Jimsy glowered. + +"Hey!" he whispered fiercely "Hain't ye got no decency?" + +Specks blushed apology and departed. + +[Illustration] + +Later, Jimsy reviewed the Sawyer turkey with a reverential glisten in +his eye. + +"Specks!" he yelled from the kitchen window. "Yi, Specksy!" + +"What d'ye want?" + +"Come over an' see the turkey." + +"Y'ain't got two, have ye?" demanded Specks with suspicion. + +"Naw," said Jimsy. "One's enuff. This un's bigger'n the turkey Pete +Googan raffled off last Christmas eve." + +So Specks returned to envy--for the house of Sawyer had outdone the +house of Middleton once more--and Jimsy in a glow of noisy delight led +him to rows of pies and a barrel of ruddy apples--to celery and +tarts--to fruit cake and cranberries and simmering vegetables--in short +to every home-keeping kitchen device for filling a country house with +the odor of Christmas and the promise of good cheer. The Sawyer kitchen +to-day was a wonderful place of shine and spice. Even Aunt Judith felt +the nameless something in the air, for her cheeks were faintly pink and +the hand that smoothed her snowy apron trembled ever so little. +Christmas had not come so this many a year. + +But Specks departed this time with a furtive air of triumph. + +"Mr. Middleton ain't no stiff," he announced. "_He's_ goin' out on the +hill coastin' with me this afternoon--" + +"S-s-s-s-h!" whispered Jimsy fiercely. "D'ye want Aunt Judith to hear +ye? I git awful sick o' wallopin' you, Specks, but lemme hear ye say +that again an' I'll baste ye good." + +The kitchen door swung back. Specks paled, as well he might. The first +citizen stood in the doorway, his mouth set. + +"Jimsy," he said, clearing his throat. "Get your sled, my boy. We'd +better try it out before dinner." + +It was a challenge to the Middletons, of course, but afterwards, in a +wild moment of panic, Abner Sawyer felt that he would have retracted at +any cost had it not been for the wonderful glow in Jimsy's face. He felt +a little sick.... God help him, he liked Jimsy! He wanted to please +him! + + + + +[Illustration] + +VII + +THE DOWNFALL + + +The Lindon hill was full of watchers. That in itself was disconcerting. +Wild spirits gather in the snow on Christmas morning. And it was, of +course, like Jimsy to fling himself suddenly upon his sled with a whoop +and go flying down the hill through the snow fleet, yelling wildly, but +Abner Sawyer wished he had made his debut a trifle less conspicuously. +For it brought all eyes to Abner Sawyer himself standing stiffly upon +the hill-top not quite sure of his ground. A neighbor or so eyed him in +polite surprise and nodded; a child fastened round eyes upon his silk +hat and he wished he had left it at home. But Christmas was no more +Christmas than Sunday was Sunday without this formal head-piece, and +besides, it had been his sole concession to the horrified stir of +dignity within him when Jimsy had appeared upon the walk beside him +dragging his sled. What on earth was he doing here anyway in the rough +and tumble sport of a Christmas morning! + +Yells of greeting followed Jimsy's meteoric flight down the hillside. +Everybody seemed to know and like him, and Jimsy, as ever, was noisily +responsive. Yes, he was more a part of this village of Lindon than the +first citizen himself standing aloof upon the hill-top, and the first +citizen had spent his life in Lindon. Abner Sawyer felt hurt and alone. +He had slipped in an unwary moment from his wound-proof armor of +conscious superiority and in this world of friends outside it, there was +more room for Jimsy than there was for him. Small comfort, after all, +the solitude of greatness! + +[Illustration] + +The first citizen frowned impatiently. What was it all about, anyway, he +wondered hopelessly. Did he want to be one of that yelling, shoving, +jostling crowd? Surely not! His dignity rose in revolt at the very +thought of it. Did he hunger for Jimsy's supreme gift of adaptability? +Why should this fierce new hunger for one friendly, honest, +heart-warming smile of liking and welcome gnaw at his heart?... Why--God +help him!--why was he a stranger in his own town? + +[Illustration] + +"The world is all wrong," said Abner Sawyer, a little white; "I am not +myself." And for a wild moment his sore heart flamed again at Jimsy's +revolutionizing intrusion into the quiet smugness of his life. + +Jimsy's quick, eager little smile of greeting as he came up the hill +again warmed the pang away--it was so full of good-fellowship and +understanding. + +"Ever go belly-whopper, Uncle Ab?" he demanded radiantly. + +"I--I scarcely think so," said the first citizen. + +"I--I don't like to belly-whop down the hill with you standin' up here +alone," said Jimsy shyly. "Why don't ye go down just once with me, Uncle +Ab? Then if ye like it, we'll just have one thump-walloper of a time!" + +"No, no, Jimsy," said the first citizen. "I--I can't do that--" and then +for the first time he met the amused eyes of Hiram Middleton and +Specks. + +[Illustration] + +So they had followed to the hill--incredulous and curious! A wave of +anger swept Abner Sawyer into indiscretion. + +"I--I'll go with you once, Jimsy," he said, and Jimsy's round little +face glowed. + +So the first citizen seated himself stiffly on the sled behind Jimsy, +wondering what on earth to do with his legs. They seemed to have +lengthened mysteriously and they looked astonishingly thin. Jimsy gave a +wild Indian whoop of warning and the sled hurtled off down the hill, +with the first citizen, unbelievably stiff-legged and frightened, +clinging to his hat. + +His emotions were panoramic. There was panic first at his lost +dignity--then wonder at their speed, but most of all his legs bothered +him--his legs and his hat. He wished Jimsy would quit yelling. Yet for +all he tried he could not bring himself to say so. + +"Ki-yi-yi-yi-whoop!" sang Jimsy, steering. Abner Sawyer gulped. +Everybody on the hill, of course, was staring; his coat-tails were +flying dizzily behind him. There would be a scandal and the directors +of the Lindon Bank might even meet and call him to account. Small +blame to them. Abner Sawyer mentally sketched a caricature of +himself--coat-tails, legs and all--and Heaven help him!--lost his hat. +He emitted a feeble croak of dismay. Jimsy looking back steered into a +snow-bank and dumped the president of the Lindon Bank out upon the hill. + +"Gosh Almighty, Uncle Ab," he yelled, "I'm awful sorry. I seen your lid +go--" + +"Never mind, Jimsy," said the first citizen, sitting up, "never +mind--I--I really shouldn't have worn such a wind-catcher to--to +belly-whop in--" + +He sat very stiff amid the ruins of the snow-bank. Jimsy grinned. + +"Ye ain't really done no belly-whoppin' yet," he said. + +[Illustration] + +And now for the first time Abner Sawyer realized that everybody on the +hill had come running at Jimsy's yell to see if he was hurt.... One was +brushing him off ... another had rescued his hat with a horrible +un-first-citizen dent in it and a lump of snow on the brim ... and they +weren't shocked ... they weren't laughing.... Why on earth should there +be friendliness now in their gaze when he had seemed so far away from +them standing up there on the hill? No scandalized amazement here at the +downfall of Lindon's pride ... he was somehow closer to them all. + +It was Aunt Polly Magee, the self-appointed mother of the village, who +finally stood the first citizen upon his feet and brushed the snow from +his back. + +"Dear me," she said, "that was a spill. When ye went down ye seemed +'mos' as leggy as a spider. Next time ye go coastin', Ab, ye'd better +not wear your Sunday hat. 'Tain't no better'n a kite when it comes to +wind." + +Abner Sawyer's smile was vague and apologetic, but there was a fierce, +wild joy in his heart that he didn't try to understand. He was glad he +had lost his hat--he was glad he had fallen into the snow-bank--and he +was glad Aunt Polly Magee had called him Ab for the first time in thirty +years! + + + + +[Illustration] + + +VIII + +THE CHAIN IS LOCKED + + +Like a rainbow blur fled the Sawyer Christmas, punctuated with the yells +and bangs of boyhood. From dawn to bed it was a triumph. + +"Jimsy," said the first citizen at dusk, "has it--has it been what you'd +call a--a walloper-thump--" + +"Thump-walloper," corrected Jimsy. + +"Thump-walloper of a day?" + +Jimsy's reply was ecstatic. + +"I 'mos' always forget," he added ruefully. "Aunt Judith said I mustn't +call ye Uncle Ab. Which d'ye like best, Uncle Ab? Mister Sawyer or Uncle +Ab?" + +"I--I think," said the first citizen with a gulp, "that I like Uncle Ab +a little better." + +"So do I," said Jimsy. + +With a wind-beaten flutter of wings, Jimsy's Christmas fled at +midnight. Dawn grayed bleakly over the Sawyer home, and there came an +hour when Peggy waited to carry Jimsy to the station. Nervous and +irritable--why he did not know save that time was crowding and he must +deliver Jimsy to the minister in time for the 8.32, Abner Sawyer strode +resolutely to the kitchen door. But he did not summon Jimsy. Instead he +turned a little white. + +[Illustration] + +It was a common enough sight--a woman clinging to a child and +crying--but Abner Sawyer was conscious of a swelling mutiny in his +throat and a blur to his vision. + +"Do-o-o-on't cry, Aunt Judith!" gulped Jimsy courageously. "I'll be as +good as I know how. An' you'll be awful good to Stump, won't ye, Aunt +Judith? He's lame an'--an' he's had a fierce life." + +"Yes--yes--" + +"An' tell Uncle Austin White I sent him good-by." + +"Yes, Jimsy." + +"An'--an' write me every week 'bout ol' Peggy an' Uncle Ab an'--an' you, +Aunt Judith. Don't forget--" + +"Everything, dear!" + +"Go-o-o-oby, Aunt Judith!" + +"Oh, Jimsy! Jimsy!" + +Abner Sawyer fled to his wagon with his hands upon his ears. It was the +wildest sobbing he had ever heard. When Jimsy came, at last, looking +very red and swollen, the first citizen was staring straight ahead. + +[Illustration] + +Peggy finished at the station almost neck and neck with the train. The +minister spoke to Mr. Sawyer and rushed Jimsy up the steps. A bell +clanged. There was much noise and puffing and the train was under way. +Jimsy, wildly remembering his good-by to Uncle Ab, flung up the train +window and waved a frantic hand. + +Then something happened. + +A shaking hand touched the baggage-master. + +"Stop the train!" said Abner Sawyer harshly. He was deathly white. +"It--it is important. I will pay if necessary." + +It was unprecedented, but, thoroughly rural in his taste for sensation, +the baggage-master leaped to the bottom step of the nearest car and +spoke to a brakeman. The brakeman glanced at the first citizen with +respect. There was a hissing noise and a jerk. When the train rumbled to +a stop again under the startled eyes of Lindon, Abner Sawyer was already +striding up the aisle. With the intelligent eyes of the young minister +upon him, he snatched Jimsy roughly from the seat, carried him down the +aisle--down the steps--and over the platform to Peggy. + +"W-what is it, Uncle Ab?" faltered the boy. "Did I--did I forget +something?" + +Abner Sawyer felt the boy's warm young cheek against his face and a +great lump welled up in his throat. Something hot stung his eyes. The +clasp of his arms tightened. + +"Jimsy," he said huskily, "you said I ought to give Aunt Judith a +Christmas present, and I'm going to give her--_you_!" + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jimsy, by Leona Dalrymple + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JIMSY *** + +***** This file should be named 28110.txt or 28110.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/1/1/28110/ + +Produced by Annie McGuire + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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