said! But it never give me the all-overs like it does now, some way.

Guess I'll gether up a' armful o' wood, an' try to act unconcerned--an'
laws-a-mercy me! Ef--to-day--ain't--been--Christmas! My! my! my! An' it
come an' gone befo' I remembered!

I'll haf to lay this wood down ag'in _an' think_.

I've had many a welcome Christmas gif' in my life, but the idee o' the
good Lord a-timin' _this_ like that!

Christmas! An' a boy! An' she doin' well!

No wonder that ol' turkey-gobbler sets up on them rafters blinkin' at me
so peaceful! He knows he's done passed a critical time o' life.

You've done crossed another bridge safe-t, ol' gobbly, an' you can
_afford_ to blink--an' to set out in the clair moonlight, 'stid o'
roostin' back in the shadders, same ez you been doin'.

You was to 've died by ax-ident las' night, but the new visitor thet's
dropped in on us ain't cut 'is turkey teeth yet, an' his mother--

Lord, how that name sounds! Mother! I hardly know 'er by it, long ez
I been tryin' to fit it to 'er--an' fearin' to, too, less'n somethin'
might go wrong with either one.

I even been callin' him "it" to myself all along, so 'feerd thet ef I
set my min' on either the "he" or the "she" the other one might take a
notion to come--an' I didn't want any disappointment mixed in with the