42 IN WINTER. 



world more attractive. Not an old hollow tree, 

 even, in the treacherous swamps, but could now 

 be reached, and so the home of every owl, coon, 

 or opossum, was at every boy's mercy. What, 

 then, if it were cold ! Boots and overcoat were 

 equal to every need, and the wide and wild world 

 was before us. There was a skeleton in my 

 closet, nevertheless. Christmas was approach- 

 ing, but never a sign of it within the walls of the 

 old farm-house. For years it had come and gone 

 with scarcely a mention made of the fact ; and 

 now, having heard something of holiday festivi- 

 ties from city cousins, I vowed I would revolu- 

 tionize the family custom in one respect. But 

 how ? A hundred plans came as if by magic, 

 but each was handicapped by impracticability 

 a condition of affairs that is very common to 

 most men's maturer years. It must be a secret, 

 of course. The opposition would prove formi- 

 dable indeed if the matter were openly discussed. 

 Never a Christmas had been celebrated for a full 

 century in the old house, and why now ? But I 

 was determined, and so it came about that I had 

 a merry Christmas. 



It was a simple matter, after all ; and how 

 often it happens that, after days of puzzling over 

 the impossible, an easy solution of a difficulty 

 comes at the proper moment! When it was 

 time to act, all was plain enough. On one plea 



