Peace on Earth, Good-will to Dogs | Page 7

in your life
know any one who had ever spent Christmas just the way he wanted
to?"
"Why ... no, I don't know that I ever did," considered her Father. With
his elbows on the arms of his chair, his slender fingers forked to a
lovely Gothic arch above the bridge of his nose, he yielded himself
instantly to the reflection. "Why ... no, ... I don't know that I ever did,"

he repeated with an increasing air of conviction.... "When you're young
enough to enjoy the day as a 'holler' day there's usually some blighting
person who prefers to have it observed as a holy day.... And by the time
you reach an age where you really rather appreciate its being a holy day
the chances are that you've got a houseful of racketty youngsters who
fairly insist on reverting to the 'holler' day idea again."
"U--m--m," encouraged Flame.
--"When you're little, of course," mused her Father, "you have to spend
the day the way your elders want you to!... You crave a Christmas Tree
but they prefer stockings! You yearn to skate but they consider the
weather better for corn-popping! You ask for a bicycle but they had
already found a very nice bargain in flannels! You beg to dine the
gay-kerchiefed Scissor-Grinder's child, but they invite the Minister's
toothless mother-in-law!... And when you're old enough to go
courting," he sighed, "your lady-love's sentiments are outraged if you
don't spend the day with her and your own family are perfectly furious
if you don't spend the day with them!... And after you're married?"
With a gesture of ultimate despair he sank back into his cushions. "N--o,
no one, I suppose, in the whole world, has ever spent Christmas just
exactly the way he wanted to!"
"Well, I," triumphed Flame, "have got a chance to spend Christmas just
exactly the way I want to!... The one chance perhaps in a life-time, it
would seem!... No heart aches involved, no hurt feelings, no
disappointments for anybody! Nobody left out! Nobody dragged in!
Why Father-Funny," she cried. "It's an experience that might
distinguish me all my life long! Even when I'm very old and crumpled
people would point me out on the street and say 'There's some one who
once spent Christmas just exactly the way she wanted to'!" To a
limpness almost unbelievable the eager little figure wilted down within
its blanket-wrapper swathings. "And now ..." deprecated Flame,
"Mother has gone and wished me on Aunt Minna instead!" With a
sudden revival of enthusiasm two small hands crept out of their big
cuffs and clutched her Father by the ears. "Oh Father-Funny!" pleaded
Flame. "If you were too old to want it for a 'holler' day and not quite

old enough to need it for a holy day ... so that all you asked in the world
was just to have it a holly day! Something all bright! Red and green!
And tinsel! and jingle-bells!... How would you like to have Aunt Minna
wished on you?... It isn't you know as though Aunt Minna was a--a
pleasant person," she argued with perfectly indisputable logic. "You
couldn't wish one 'A Merry Aunt Minna' any more than you could wish
'em a 'Merry Good Friday'!" From the clutch on his ears the small
hands crept to a point at the back of his neck where they encompassed
him suddenly in a crunching hug. "Oh Father-Funny!" implored Flame,
"You were a Lay Reader once! You must have had very amorous eyes!
Couldn't you please persuade Mother that..."
With a crisp flutter of skirts Flame's Mother, herself, appeared abruptly
in the door. Her manner was very excited.
"Why wherever in the world have you people been?" she cried. "Are
you stone deaf? Didn't you hear the telephone? Couldn't you even hear
me calling? Your Uncle Wally is worse! That is he's better but he
thinks he's worse! And they want us to come at once! It's something
about a new will! The Lawyer telephoned! He advises us to come at
once! They've sent an automobile for us! It will be here any minute!...
But whatever in the world shall we do about Flame?" she cried
distractedly. "You know how Uncle Wally feels about having young
people in the house! And she can't possibly go to Aunt Minna's till
to-morrow! And...."
"But you see I'm not going to Aunt Minna's!" announced Flame quite
serenely. Slipping down from her Father's lap she stood with a round,
roly-poly flannel sort of dignity confronting both her parents. "Father
says I don't have to!"
"Why, Flame!" protested her Father.
"No, of course, you didn't say it with your mouth," admitted Flame.
"But you said it with your skin and bones!--I could feel it working."
"Not go to your Aunt Minna's?" gasped