"Ade, George - To Make a Hoosier Holiday" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ade George)

almost immediately make announcement of a rummage party or an old people's
concert. The Campbellites had their Sunday-school in the morning, preceding the
regular service, and the Methodists had theirs in the afternoon. The attendance
records and missionary collections were zealously compared. Unusual inducements
were offered to the growing youth of Musselwhite to memorize the golden text and
fight manfully for the large blue card which was the reward for unbroken
attendance. In Musselwhite, as in many other communities, there were parents who
believed in permitting the children to attend two religious services every
Sunday, thereby establishing a good general average for the family, even if the
parents remained at home to read the Sunday papers. The children found no fault
with this arrangement. The morning Sunday-school was a sort of full-dress
rehearsal for the afternoon service, to which the children flocked in confident
possession of those hidden meanings of the Scripture which can always be
elucidated by a hardware merchant who wears dark clothes once a week.
At Christmas time the "scholars" found themselves in a quandary. Each church had
exercises Christmas Eve. A child can not be in two places at the same time, no
matter HOW busy his effort or how earnest his intention. And so it came about
that the congregation offering the more spectacular entertainment and the larger
portion of mixed candy drew the majority of the lambkins. The rivalry between
the Methodists and the Campbellites touched perihelion on Christmas Eve. An
ordinary Christmas tree studded with tapers, festooned with popcorn, and heavy
with presents no longer satisfied the junior population, for it had been
pampered and fed upon novelty. The children demanded a low-comedy Santa Claus in
a fur coat. They had to be given star parts in cantatas, or else be permitted to
speak "pieces" in costume. One year the Campbellites varied the programme by
having a scenic chimney-corner erected back of the pulpit. There was an open
fireplace glowing with imitation coals. In front of the fireplace was a row of
stockings, some of which were of most mirth-provoking length and capacity, for
the sense of humor was rampant in Musselwhite. A murmur of impatient and
restless curiosity rather interfered with the recitations and responsive
readings which opened the programme. It rose to a tiptoe of eager anticipation
when Mr. Eugene Robinson, the Superintendent of the Sunday-school, arose and,
after a few felicitous remarks, which called forth hysterical laughter, read a
telegram from Kriss Kringle saying that he would arrive in Musselwhite at 8:30
sharp. Almost immediately there was heard the jingle of sleighbells. The older
and more sophisticated boys identified the tone as coming from a strand of bells
owned by Henry Boardman, who kept the livery barn, but the minds of the younger
brood were singularly free from all doubt and questioning. A distinct "Whoa!"
was heard, and then the Saint, swaddled in furs and with a most prodigious
growth of cotton whiskers, came right out through the fireplace with his pack on
his back and asked in a loud voice, "Is this the town of Musselwhite?" His
shaggy coat was sifted with snow, in spite of the fact that the night was rather
warm and muggy, and his whole appearance tallied so accurately with the pictures
in the books that the illusion was most convincing until "Tad" Saulsbury, aged
twelve, piped in a loud voice: "I know who it is. It's Jake Francis."
His mother moved swiftly down the aisle and "churned" him into silence, after
which the distribution of presents proceeded with triumphant hilarity.
It was generally conceded that the Campbellite chimney-corner entertainment
rather laid over and topped and threw into the shade any other Christmas doings
that had been witnessed in Musselwhite. That is why the Methodists were spurred