1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:06,280 Speaker 1: A great tree by Zona Gale. I never had felt 2 00:00:06,280 --> 00:00:10,759 so much like Christmas, said Calliope Marsh, as I did 3 00:00:10,839 --> 00:00:15,839 that year. I wished, I says, when it got most time, 4 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:21,800 I wished I knew somebody to have a Christmas tree with. Well, 5 00:00:21,879 --> 00:00:27,039 Calliope Marsh says, Miss Postmaster Sykes, looking surprised on purpose 6 00:00:27,079 --> 00:00:31,120 the way she does. Ain't there enough poor and neglected 7 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:36,000 folks in this world to please anybody. I didn't say 8 00:00:36,039 --> 00:00:39,479 have a Christmas tree for, I says back at her, 9 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:44,240 I says, have one with I don't know what you 10 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:49,840 mean by that difference, she says. I'm sure I don't know. 11 00:00:50,479 --> 00:00:54,039 I says, as I know either, but there is a 12 00:00:54,159 --> 00:00:57,920 difference somewhere. I'd kind of like to have a tree 13 00:00:58,039 --> 00:01:01,759 with folks this year. Why don't you help on your 14 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:05,959 church tree, Miss Sikes asked me. They're going to spend 15 00:01:06,079 --> 00:01:10,079 quite a little money on theirs this year. I hate 16 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:14,640 to box Christmas up in a church, I says, why, 17 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:20,280 Calliopy Marsh, She says, shocked. I didn't want to hurt 18 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:23,560 her feelings. I ain't never one of those that likes 19 00:01:23,599 --> 00:01:26,719 to throw their IDs in folks faces and watch folks 20 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:30,359 jump back so I tried to talk about something else, 21 00:01:30,879 --> 00:01:33,640 but she went right on trying her best to help 22 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:37,480 me out. The ward schools is each going to have 23 00:01:37,519 --> 00:01:41,319 a tree this year, I hear, she says, why don't 24 00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:44,599 you go in on your ward Calliope and help out there. 25 00:01:45,319 --> 00:01:49,319 They'd be real glad of help. You know, I hate 26 00:01:49,319 --> 00:01:55,000 to divide Christmas off into wards. I says to her, Well, 27 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:58,200 then go in with a family, She says, any of 28 00:01:58,280 --> 00:02:01,719 us will be real glad to have you. She adds, generous, 29 00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:05,760 we would come to ours. We're going to have a 30 00:02:05,799 --> 00:02:09,840 great big tree for the children. I've been stringing popcorn 31 00:02:09,879 --> 00:02:12,120 and cutting the paper for it. Whenever I got an 32 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:15,759 odd minute. The hole combs they're going to have one too, 33 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:19,599 and Miss Uppers and Miss Merriman, and even the Hubblefwaits 34 00:02:19,639 --> 00:02:23,599 and Abigail Arnold for her little nieces. I never see 35 00:02:23,639 --> 00:02:26,639 a year when everybody was going to celebrate so nice. 36 00:02:27,159 --> 00:02:31,319 Come on with one of us, why don't you, well, 37 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:36,719 I says, maybe I will. I'll see. I don't know 38 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:40,120 yet what I will do. I told her, and I 39 00:02:40,199 --> 00:02:43,800 went off down the street. What I wanted to say 40 00:02:44,039 --> 00:02:47,520 was I hate to box Christmas up in a family, 41 00:02:48,479 --> 00:02:54,199 But I didn't quite dare yet. Friendship. Village ain't ever 42 00:02:54,280 --> 00:02:57,080 looked much more like Christmas to my notion than it 43 00:02:57,159 --> 00:03:01,759 did that December. Just the right snow had come and 44 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:05,599 no more, and just the right cold and no more. 45 00:03:06,919 --> 00:03:09,520 The moon was getting along stows about the night of 46 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:12,039 the twenty fifth, that was going to loom up big 47 00:03:12,159 --> 00:03:15,759 and gold and warm over the fields on the flats 48 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:18,879 where it always comes up in winter, like it had 49 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:22,159 just edged around there to get sort of a wide 50 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:26,039 front yard for its big show, where the whole village 51 00:03:26,039 --> 00:03:29,879 could have a porch seat. You know, when you live 52 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:32,599 in a village, you always know whether the moon is 53 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:35,639 new or to the full, or where it is and 54 00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:38,599 when it's going to be. But when you live in 55 00:03:38,639 --> 00:03:41,560 a city, you just look up in the sky some 56 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:45,840 night and say, oh, that's so, there's the moon, and 57 00:03:45,919 --> 00:03:49,960 go right on thinking about something else. Here in the 58 00:03:50,039 --> 00:03:54,599 village that December, everything was getting ready deliberate for a 59 00:03:54,639 --> 00:03:59,240 full moon Christmas, like long ago. The moon and the 60 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:03,560 cold and the snow and all them public things was 61 00:04:03,639 --> 00:04:08,719 doing their best together for our common Christmas, all but us, 62 00:04:09,879 --> 00:04:13,120 It seemed like all of us humans was working for 63 00:04:13,159 --> 00:04:18,000 it separate tramping along there in the snow. That night, 64 00:04:18,800 --> 00:04:22,160 I thought over what Miss Sykes had said, and about 65 00:04:22,199 --> 00:04:24,920 all the places she'd mentioned over was going to have 66 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:29,319 Christmas trees. And I looked along to the houses, most 67 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:32,560 of them lying right there on Daphney Street where they 68 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:35,720 were going to have them. I could see them all, 69 00:04:35,879 --> 00:04:40,319 one tree after another, lighted and streaming from house to house, 70 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:43,800 all up and down Daphney Street, just the way they 71 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:48,319 were going to look. And then there was the little 72 00:04:48,399 --> 00:04:52,519 back streets and the houses down on the flats where 73 00:04:52,560 --> 00:04:55,600 there wouldn't be any trees nor much of any Christmas. 74 00:04:56,680 --> 00:04:59,680 Of course, as Miss Sykes had said, the poor and 75 00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:04,199 the ne neglected are always with us yet, but I 76 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:06,439 didn't want to pounce down on any of em with 77 00:05:06,519 --> 00:05:09,240 a bag of fruit and a box of animal crackers 78 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:12,800 and set and watch 'em. That wasn't what I meant 79 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:17,879 by having a Christmas with somebody. There ought to be 80 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:22,160 some place, I was beginning to think, when right along 81 00:05:22,199 --> 00:05:25,319 where I was by the market square, I come on 82 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:29,240 five or six children kicking around in the snow. It 83 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:32,360 was most dark, but I could just make 'em out. 84 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:39,079 Eddie Newhaven, Arthur Mills, Lily Dorin and two three more. Hello, folks, 85 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:43,800 I says, what you doing having a carnival? Because it's 86 00:05:43,839 --> 00:05:47,040 on the market square that carnivals and some little circuses 87 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:52,160 and things that belongs to everybody is usually celebrated. Little 88 00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:57,040 Arthur Mills spoke up. No, he says, we was just playing. 89 00:05:57,079 --> 00:06:02,199 We selling a load of Christmas trees. Christmas trees? I says, 90 00:06:02,319 --> 00:06:05,800 why that's so? This is where they always bring them, 91 00:06:05,839 --> 00:06:09,199 to sell, big load of them for everybody, ain't it. 92 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:13,720 They're going to bring an awful big load here this time, 93 00:06:14,079 --> 00:06:18,040 says Eddie Newhaven, big enough for everybody in town to 94 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:21,240 have one. Most of the fellows is going to have them, 95 00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:25,079 us and Ned Bachis and the cartwright, and Joe Tyrel 96 00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:29,639 and Lifty, all of them. My, I says, what a 97 00:06:29,759 --> 00:06:33,720 lot of Christmas trees? Why if they was set along 98 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:37,319 by the curbstone here on Daphney Street, I says, just 99 00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:40,120 to please the children and make a little talk with them, 100 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:43,399 why the line of them would reach all up and 101 00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:48,000 down the town? I says, wouldn't that be fun? Little 102 00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:52,480 Lily claps her hands. Oh yes, she cries, wouldn't that 103 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:56,360 be fun? With popcorn strings all going from one to 104 00:06:56,399 --> 00:07:00,600 the other. It would be a grand sight, says I, 105 00:07:01,279 --> 00:07:06,680 looking down across the market square there hanging all golden, 106 00:07:06,839 --> 00:07:10,560 quiet like it. Didn't think it amounted too much. Right 107 00:07:10,639 --> 00:07:13,480 over the big Cedar of Lebanon Looking Tree in the 108 00:07:13,519 --> 00:07:19,399 square was the moon crooked to a horn. Once, says 109 00:07:19,519 --> 00:07:23,199 Eddie Newhaven. When they were selling the Christmas trees here, 110 00:07:23,399 --> 00:07:26,360 they kept right on selling them after dark, and they 111 00:07:26,399 --> 00:07:28,560 stood them around here and put a little light in 112 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:32,639 each one. It was awful nice. Wouldn't it be nice 113 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:37,040 if they'd do that all over the square sometime? It 114 00:07:37,079 --> 00:07:41,360 would be a grand sighte says I again, but one 115 00:07:41,399 --> 00:07:44,199 that the folks in this town would never have time for. 116 00:07:46,319 --> 00:07:50,279 While I spoke, I was looking down across market Square again, 117 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:54,279 toward the moon hanging over the Cedar of Lebanon Looking Tree. 118 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:59,680 There's a pretty good looking tree there already, I says Idle. 119 00:08:00,879 --> 00:08:03,360 What a grand thing it would be, all lit up, 120 00:08:03,639 --> 00:08:07,279 says I, for not much of any reason, only to 121 00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:12,120 keep the talk going with the children. Then something went 122 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:15,720 through me, from my head to my feet. Why not 123 00:08:15,959 --> 00:08:20,160 light it some time? I says? The children set up 124 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:23,920 a little shout, part because they liked it, part because 125 00:08:23,959 --> 00:08:27,519 they thought such a thing could never be. I laughed 126 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:30,800 with them, and I went on up the street. But 127 00:08:31,079 --> 00:08:35,200 all the time something in me kept on saying something 128 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:39,840 all hurried and as if it meant it, and little 129 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:44,240 ends of ideas and little jagged edges of other ideas 130 00:08:44,879 --> 00:08:47,759 and plans part raveled out that you thought you could 131 00:08:47,799 --> 00:08:52,519 knit up again, and long sharp notions. A little something 132 00:08:52,639 --> 00:08:56,360 like light kept going through my head and going through 133 00:08:56,399 --> 00:09:00,559 it down to the next corner. I met be Cory 134 00:09:00,639 --> 00:09:03,919 that keeps the livery stable and sings bass to nearly 135 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:10,440 everybody's funeral and to other public occasions. Ben I says, excited, 136 00:09:10,919 --> 00:09:14,360 though I hadn't thought anything about this till that minute. 137 00:09:14,720 --> 00:09:18,759 Ben you getting up any Christmas Eve Christmas carols to sing? 138 00:09:18,840 --> 00:09:22,919 This year? He had a new string of sleigh bells 139 00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:26,399 over his shoulder, and he gave it a shift. I recollect, 140 00:09:26,759 --> 00:09:32,320 so's they all jingled? Well, he says, I did allow 141 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:35,240 to do it. But I've spoke to one or two 142 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:38,639 and they denotes they can do it. Some has got 143 00:09:38,639 --> 00:09:41,759 to sing to churches earlier in the evening, and they 144 00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:44,000 don't know as if they want to tune up all night. 145 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:47,639 And the most has got to be home for family Christmas. 146 00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:52,559 There ain't, I says, no manner of doubt about the 147 00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:55,960 folks that would be glad to listen? Is there provided 148 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:00,960 you had the singers? Oh? Sure, he says. Folk shines 149 00:10:01,039 --> 00:10:08,200 up to music considerable Christmas Eve. It sort of well it, yes, 150 00:10:08,759 --> 00:10:14,159 I says, I know it does, don't it? Well, ben Corey, 151 00:10:14,559 --> 00:10:17,679 you get your Christmas carol singers together in a caroling 152 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:21,159 and I'll undertake that there shan't nothing much stand in 153 00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:24,519 the way of their being out on Christmas Eve? Is 154 00:10:24,559 --> 00:10:28,879 it a bargain? His face lit up all jolly and harty. 155 00:10:29,919 --> 00:10:33,519 Why sure, it's a bargain, he says. I'll get em. 156 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:36,480 I wanted to only I didn't want to carol em 157 00:10:36,519 --> 00:10:40,080 any more than they wanted to be caroled. I'll get em, 158 00:10:40,519 --> 00:10:43,519 he says, and gives his bells a hunch that made 159 00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:46,960 him ring all up and down Daphney Street. That the 160 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:49,480 moon was looking down at just as if it was 161 00:10:49,559 --> 00:10:53,440 public property and not all made up of little private 162 00:10:53,519 --> 00:10:56,759 plans with just room enough for us four and no more, 163 00:10:57,360 --> 00:11:02,000 or figures to that effect. I don't know if you've 164 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:06,919 ever managed any kind of a revolution. There's two kinds 165 00:11:06,919 --> 00:11:11,320 of revolutions. One breaks off of something that's always been. 166 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:14,399 You pick up the broke piece and try to throw 167 00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:17,000 it away to make room for something that's growing out 168 00:11:17,039 --> 00:11:20,440 of the other part, and most everybody will begin to 169 00:11:20,519 --> 00:11:23,440 tell you that the growing piece ain't any good, but 170 00:11:23,559 --> 00:11:26,240 that the other part is the kind you've always bought, 171 00:11:26,799 --> 00:11:29,120 and that you'd better save it and stick it back on. 172 00:11:30,279 --> 00:11:33,879 But then there's the other kind of revolution that backs 173 00:11:33,919 --> 00:11:37,360 away from something that's always been and looks at it 174 00:11:37,399 --> 00:11:40,639 a little further off than it ever see it before, 175 00:11:41,279 --> 00:11:44,720 and says, let's move a little way around and pay 176 00:11:44,759 --> 00:11:48,879 attention to this thing from a new spot, and real often, 177 00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:52,559 if you put it that way, there's enough people willing 178 00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:55,600 to do that, because they know they can go right 179 00:11:55,639 --> 00:11:58,360 back afterward and stand in the same old place if 180 00:11:58,399 --> 00:12:03,039 they want to. Well, this last was the kind of 181 00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:06,840 a revolution I took charge of that week before Christmas. 182 00:12:07,399 --> 00:12:10,120 I got my plans and my ideas and my notions 183 00:12:10,159 --> 00:12:13,879 all planned and thought and budded, and then I presented 184 00:12:13,919 --> 00:12:18,879 them around abundant the very next morning, after I'd seen 185 00:12:18,919 --> 00:12:22,039 the children. I started out while I had kind of 186 00:12:22,080 --> 00:12:25,360 a glow to drape around the difficulties so's I couldn't 187 00:12:25,360 --> 00:12:29,360 see em. I went first to the store keepers, seeing 188 00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:32,480 Christmas always seems to hinge and hang on what they 189 00:12:32,519 --> 00:12:36,519 say and do. And I went to Eppleby Holcombe because 190 00:12:36,559 --> 00:12:39,320 I knew he'd see it like I'd done, and I 191 00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:42,080 wanted the brace of being agreed with like you do. 192 00:12:43,759 --> 00:12:47,360 Eppleby's store was all decorated up with green cut paper 193 00:12:47,759 --> 00:12:52,440 and tassels and turkey red calico poinsettias, and it looked 194 00:12:52,519 --> 00:12:56,320 real nice and tasty, and the store was full of 195 00:12:56,360 --> 00:12:59,679 the country trade. The little overhead track that took the 196 00:12:59,679 --> 00:13:03,000 bunny had broke down just at the wrong minute, and 197 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:06,720 old rich missus Wiswell's felt souls had got stuck halfway, 198 00:13:07,159 --> 00:13:09,960 and Eppleby himself was on top of a counter trying 199 00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:13,720 to rescue him for while. She made tart remarks below. 200 00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:17,399 When he'd fished him out and wrapped them up for 201 00:13:18,519 --> 00:13:22,120 appleb I says, would you be willing to shut up 202 00:13:22,159 --> 00:13:26,879 shop on Christmas Eve? Or wouldn't you? He looked kind 203 00:13:26,879 --> 00:13:31,279 of startled. It's a pretty good night for trade, you know, Calliope, 204 00:13:31,639 --> 00:13:37,679 says he doubtful. Why, yes, I says it is. But 205 00:13:37,799 --> 00:13:40,759 everybody that's going to give presents to people, will give 206 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:44,679 presents to people. And if the stores ain't open Christmas Eve, 207 00:13:45,279 --> 00:13:48,279 folks'll buy him when the stores is open. Is that 208 00:13:48,519 --> 00:13:52,799 sensor eat it? He knew it was, And when I 209 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:55,480 told him what I got hold of straight places in 210 00:13:55,559 --> 00:13:59,159 my head, he says, if the rest would shut, he'd 211 00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:03,279 shut and be glad of it. Abigail Arnold done the 212 00:14:03,279 --> 00:14:06,960 same about her home bakery and the Gecker Jackson two 213 00:14:07,039 --> 00:14:11,320 three more. But Silas Sykes that keeps the post office store. 214 00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:15,799 He was firm. If that ain't woman foolish, he says, 215 00:14:15,919 --> 00:14:19,440 I don't know what is. You ain't no more idea 216 00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:23,559 of business than so many cats. No, sir, I don't 217 00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:26,360 betray the public by cutting them off of one evening 218 00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:32,000 shopping like that. It made a nice little sentence to quote, 219 00:14:32,039 --> 00:14:36,720 and I quoted it considerable, and the result was the 220 00:14:36,759 --> 00:14:40,440 rest of them that knew. Silas head in heart finally says, 221 00:14:40,519 --> 00:14:43,360 all right, he could keep open if he wanted to 222 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:47,960 and enjoy himself and they'd all shut up. I honestly 223 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:51,600 think they kind of appreciated in a nice neighborly way, 224 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:57,480 making Silas feel mean when he'd ought to it was 225 00:14:57,559 --> 00:15:00,799 a little harder to make the Sunday school. Soon superintendents 226 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:04,480 see the thing that I had in my head. Of course, 227 00:15:04,519 --> 00:15:06,519 when a thing has been the way it's been for 228 00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:10,279 a good while, you can't really blame people for feeling 229 00:15:10,320 --> 00:15:14,120 that it's been the way it ought to be. Feeling 230 00:15:14,279 --> 00:15:19,200 seems made that way. Our superintendent has been our superintendent 231 00:15:19,279 --> 00:15:22,519 for most forty years, ever since the church was built, 232 00:15:23,279 --> 00:15:25,559 and of course his thought has kind of turned to 233 00:15:25,639 --> 00:15:30,919 bone in some places. Naturally. His name is Jerry Beamis, 234 00:15:31,559 --> 00:15:33,919 and he keeps a little harness shop next door to 235 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:37,919 the town Hall that's crossed from Market Square. When I 236 00:15:37,960 --> 00:15:40,879 went in that day, he was resting from making harnesses 237 00:15:41,480 --> 00:15:44,960 and he was practicing on his cornet. He can make 238 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:48,559 a bugle call real nice. You can often hear it 239 00:15:48,639 --> 00:15:51,960 going up and down Daphney Street in the morning, and 240 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:54,600 when I'm down doing my trading, I always like to 241 00:15:54,639 --> 00:15:57,840 hear it. It gives me kind of a nice old 242 00:15:57,919 --> 00:16:01,720 fashioned feeling, like when abbag Gail Arnold fries doughnuts in 243 00:16:01,759 --> 00:16:04,480 the back of the home bakery and we can all 244 00:16:04,559 --> 00:16:10,360 smell them out in the road. Jerry I says, how 245 00:16:10,440 --> 00:16:13,600 much is our Sunday School Christmas tree going to cost us. 246 00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:18,480 Jerry's got a wooden leg and he cannot remember not 247 00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:21,519 to try to cross it over the other one. He 248 00:16:21,639 --> 00:16:25,840 done that now and give it up. We calculate about 249 00:16:25,879 --> 00:16:30,840 twenty five dollars, says he. Proud. What we're going to 250 00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:36,279 do to celebrate well, he says, half speaking pieces. We 251 00:16:36,399 --> 00:16:40,320 got a program of twenty numbers already, says he pleased. 252 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:44,639 And a trim tree, and an orange and a bag 253 00:16:44,679 --> 00:16:49,879 of nuts and candy for every child, he says. All 254 00:16:49,919 --> 00:16:52,919 the other churches is going to do the same. I says, 255 00:16:53,679 --> 00:16:57,360 five trees and five programs and five sets of stuff 256 00:16:57,399 --> 00:17:01,039 all around, and all of them on Christmas Eve, when 257 00:17:01,080 --> 00:17:03,720 you'd think we'd all sort of draw together instead of 258 00:17:03,759 --> 00:17:09,400 setting apart and cleiks land, I says out that first 259 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:13,039 Christmas Eve, wouldn't the angels have stopped singing and wept 260 00:17:13,039 --> 00:17:15,160 in the sky if they could have seen what we'd 261 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:21,000 do to it? Hush calliope, says Jerry, Beamus shocked. They 262 00:17:21,039 --> 00:17:25,079 ain't no need to be sacrilegious? Is they not? A bit? 263 00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:29,359 Says I. We've been at so long already, worshiping around 264 00:17:29,400 --> 00:17:34,519 in sections like Hottentots. Well, now, I says, do you 265 00:17:34,599 --> 00:17:37,480 honestly think we've all chose the best way to go 266 00:17:37,559 --> 00:17:40,440 at Christmas Eve for the children, filling them up with 267 00:17:40,519 --> 00:17:45,559 colored stuff and getting their stomachs all upset. We had 268 00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:48,519 quite a little talk about it, back and forth, Jerry 269 00:17:48,519 --> 00:17:51,720 and me, and all of a sudden, while I was 270 00:17:51,759 --> 00:17:54,359 trying my best to make him see what I saw, 271 00:17:55,039 --> 00:17:59,799 I happened to notice his bugle again. There ain't no thrill, 272 00:18:00,119 --> 00:18:03,559 none of it, I was saying to him, not half 273 00:18:03,599 --> 00:18:06,519 so much, I says, as there is in your bugle. 274 00:18:07,319 --> 00:18:10,079 When I hear that go floating up and down the street, 275 00:18:10,759 --> 00:18:15,039 I always feel like it was announcing something. To my notion, 276 00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:19,200 I says, it could announce Christmas to the town far 277 00:18:19,279 --> 00:18:24,279 better than forty eleven little separate trimmed up trees. Why, Jerry, 278 00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:28,480 I says, out sudden, listen to what I've thought of. 279 00:18:30,319 --> 00:18:34,160 A little something had come in my head that minute, unexpected, 280 00:18:34,559 --> 00:18:38,039 that fitted itself into the rest of my plan, And 281 00:18:38,079 --> 00:18:41,440 it made Jerry say pretty soon that he was willing 282 00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:44,720 to go with me to see the other superintendents, and 283 00:18:44,799 --> 00:18:48,839 we done so that very day. Ain't it funny how 284 00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:53,680 big things work out by homely means, by homely means. 285 00:18:54,839 --> 00:18:58,160 So because the choir leader in one choir had resigned, 286 00:18:58,519 --> 00:19:01,039 because the base in that quo was the base in 287 00:19:01,079 --> 00:19:04,279 that choir, and so they didn't have anybody there to 288 00:19:04,319 --> 00:19:08,920 train their Christmas music. And so because another congregation was 289 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:12,079 hard up and was having to borrow its Christmas celebration 290 00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:15,720 money out of the Foreign Missionary Fund, we got them 291 00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:18,960 to see sense, and then the other two joined in. 292 00:19:20,440 --> 00:19:23,559 The schools were all right from the first, being built 293 00:19:23,599 --> 00:19:26,319 like they are on a basis of belonging to everybody, 294 00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:29,720 same as breathing in one to two other public utilities, 295 00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:34,799 and nothing dividing anybody from anybody. And I began to 296 00:19:34,920 --> 00:19:38,119 feel like life in the world was just one great 297 00:19:38,319 --> 00:19:42,640 bud longing to open so be it could get enough care. 298 00:19:44,519 --> 00:19:47,240 The worst ones to get weaned away from a perfectly 299 00:19:47,319 --> 00:19:51,519 selfish way of observing Christ's birthday was the private families 300 00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:57,119 land Land, I kept saying to myself them days, we 301 00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:00,880 all of us act like we was studying kindergarten mathematics. 302 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:05,279 We count up them, that's closest to us, and we can't. 303 00:20:05,319 --> 00:20:09,000 None of us seem to count much above ten, not 304 00:20:09,119 --> 00:20:12,680 all of them was that way though. Well, if it 305 00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:15,599 just happens that you live in any town whatever, in 306 00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:19,200 the civilized world, I think you'll know about what I 307 00:20:19,319 --> 00:20:22,839 had said to me. On the one hand, it went 308 00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:26,680 about like this from miss Timothy Toplady, and the Holcombs 309 00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:30,839 and the Hubblethwaites and a lot more. Well Land knows 310 00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:33,279 that it save us a lot of back aching work. 311 00:20:33,559 --> 00:20:39,359 But will the children like it? Like it? I says, 312 00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:43,799 try them, trust them without trying them if you want to, 313 00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:49,079 I would remember, I couldn't help adding. You like to 314 00:20:49,079 --> 00:20:51,440 be with the children a whole lot oftener than they 315 00:20:51,599 --> 00:20:54,920 liked to be with you. What they like is to 316 00:20:55,000 --> 00:21:00,960 be together. And well, do you honestly think it'll work? 317 00:21:01,519 --> 00:21:07,359 I don't see how it can anything so different? And well, 318 00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:09,920 they ain't no harm trying it one year, as I 319 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:13,440 can see. That can't break up the holidays as I 320 00:21:13,519 --> 00:21:17,680 know of. But the other side had figured it out, 321 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:22,799 just like the other side of everything always figures. Calliope, 322 00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:27,880 says miss Postmaster Sykes. Are you crazy headed? What's your id? 323 00:21:28,799 --> 00:21:34,319 Ain't things all right the way they've always been done? Well, 324 00:21:34,759 --> 00:21:39,960 says I conservative, not all of them, not wholesale. I 325 00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:44,720 wouldn't say. But you can't go changing things like this, 326 00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:51,039 She told me, what'll become of Christmas? Christmas? I says, 327 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:54,960 don't need you or me, Miss Sykes, to be its guardians. 328 00:21:55,839 --> 00:21:58,599 All Christmas needs is for us to get out of 329 00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:01,400 its way and leave it at express what it means. 330 00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:06,680 But the home Christmas, she says, most like a whale. 331 00:22:07,519 --> 00:22:11,680 Would you do away with that? Then I sort of 332 00:22:11,759 --> 00:22:16,160 turned on her. I couldn't help it. Who's home, I 333 00:22:16,319 --> 00:22:20,400 says stern. If it's your home you mean, or any 334 00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:23,400 of the thousands of others like it where Christmas is kept, 335 00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:27,799 then you know, and they all know that nothing on 336 00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:31,519 earth can take away the Christmas feeling and the Christmas 337 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:34,440 joy as long as you want it to be there. 338 00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:38,839 But if it's the homes you mean, and there's thousands 339 00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:43,359 of them where no Christmas ever comes, you surely ain't 340 00:22:43,440 --> 00:22:47,680 arguing to keep them the way they've been kept. But 341 00:22:47,799 --> 00:22:51,680 she continued to shake her head. You can do as 342 00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:55,799 you like, of course, she said, And so can everybody else. 343 00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:00,359 It's their privilege. But as for me, I shall trim 344 00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:04,599 my little tree here by our own fireside, and here 345 00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:09,119 we shall celebrate Christmas. Jetty and Nora, and father and me. 346 00:23:10,839 --> 00:23:15,000 Why can't you do both? I says, I wouldn't have 347 00:23:15,079 --> 00:23:17,839 you give up your fireside and of things for anything 348 00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:23,359 on earth, But why can't you do both? Miss Sykes 349 00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:26,559 didn't rightly seem to know, at least she didn't say, 350 00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:30,160 but she give me to understand that her mind run 351 00:23:30,319 --> 00:23:33,599 right along and the self same groove it had had 352 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:38,680 made for it cozy. Somehow, the longer I live, the 353 00:23:38,759 --> 00:23:42,599 less sense I seem to have. There's some things I've 354 00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:45,319 learned from twenty five to thirty times in my life, 355 00:23:45,759 --> 00:23:48,720 and yet I can't seem to remember them, no more 356 00:23:48,759 --> 00:23:51,519 than I can remember whether it's sul fight or sulfate 357 00:23:51,599 --> 00:23:55,119 of soda that I take for my quincy. And one 358 00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:59,680 of these is about taking things casual that night for 359 00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:02,119 an hours. Instance, when I come round the corner onto 360 00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:06,279 Daphney Street at half past seven on Christmas Eve, I 361 00:24:06,319 --> 00:24:08,599 thought I was going to have to waste a minute 362 00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:11,839 or two standing just where the billboard makes a shadow 363 00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:14,839 for the arc light, trying to get used to the 364 00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:17,920 idea of what we were doing, used to it in 365 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:21,640 my throat. But there wasn't much time to spend that 366 00:24:21,759 --> 00:24:24,559 way being there were things to do between then and 367 00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:27,039 eight o'clock when we'd told them all to be there. 368 00:24:27,839 --> 00:24:30,440 So I ran along and tried not to think about 369 00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:34,960 it except the work part, most always the work part 370 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:39,799 of anything. I'll steady you. The great Cedar of Lebanon 371 00:24:39,839 --> 00:24:43,000 looking tree standing down there on the edge of the 372 00:24:43,039 --> 00:24:46,160 market square and acting as if it had been left 373 00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:50,079 from some long ago forest on purpose, had been hung 374 00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:54,400 round with lines and lines of strung popcorn, the kind 375 00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:57,519 that no Christmas tree would be a Christmas tree without, 376 00:24:57,839 --> 00:25:01,160 because so many many folks a set up stringing at 377 00:25:01,279 --> 00:25:04,640 nights of Christmas week after the children was in bed, 378 00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:08,079 and has kept it careful in a box. So's it 379 00:25:08,119 --> 00:25:11,759 a doe for next year? We had all that from 380 00:25:11,759 --> 00:25:16,680 the churches Methodist and Presbyterian and Episcopal and Baptist and 381 00:25:16,759 --> 00:25:20,319 Catholic popcorn, and you couldn't tell them apart at all 382 00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:24,200 when you got them on the tree. The festoons showed 383 00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:28,319 ghostly white in the dark, and the folks showed ghostly black, 384 00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:33,279 hurrying back and forth doing the last things. And the 385 00:25:33,319 --> 00:25:37,200 folks was coming. You could hear them all along Daphney Street, 386 00:25:37,559 --> 00:25:40,359 tripping on the bad place that hadn't been mended, because 387 00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:43,119 it was right under the arc light, and coming over 388 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:46,839 the hollow sounding place by Graham's drug store, and coming 389 00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:50,359 from the little side streets and the dark back streets 390 00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:53,839 and the streets down on the flats. Some of them 391 00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:57,200 had Christmas trees waiting at home. The load had been 392 00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:00,279 there on the market square, just like we had let 393 00:26:00,279 --> 00:26:02,920 it be there for years, without seeing that the market 394 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:06,960 square had any other Christmas uses. And a good many 395 00:26:07,039 --> 00:26:11,000 had bought trees, but a good many more had decided 396 00:26:11,079 --> 00:26:14,480 not to have any, only just to hang up stockings 397 00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:18,039 and to let the great, big common Christmas tree stand 398 00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:21,640 for what it stood for, gathering most of that little 399 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:26,400 garland of Daphney Street trees up into its living heart 400 00:26:27,599 --> 00:26:30,119 over by the bandstand. I come on them. I'd been 401 00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:34,400 looking for Eddie Newhaven and Arthur Mills and Lily Dorin 402 00:26:34,799 --> 00:26:38,079 and Sarah and Molly and the cartwrights and lifty and 403 00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:43,279 six eight more. Hello, folks, I says, what you down 404 00:26:43,319 --> 00:26:48,759 here for? Why ain't you home? They answered altogether for 405 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:53,559 the big tree? Are you now? I says, Just to 406 00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:58,279 keep on a talking to them? Whose tree? I love 407 00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:02,359 to remember the way? They answered? It was Eddy Newhaven 408 00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:06,359 that said it. Why all of us is? He said, 409 00:27:08,079 --> 00:27:11,640 all of us is? I like to say it over 410 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:15,200 when they get to saying mine, And there's too hard 411 00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:19,519 where I am. When it was eight o'clock and there 412 00:27:19,599 --> 00:27:22,559 was enough gathered on the square, they'd done the thing 413 00:27:22,599 --> 00:27:25,799 that was going to be done. Only nobody had known 414 00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:29,279 how well they were going to do it. They touched 415 00:27:29,279 --> 00:27:32,720 the button, and from the bottom branch to the tip 416 00:27:32,759 --> 00:27:36,599 top little cone, the big old tree came a light, 417 00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:40,319 just like it knew what it was all about, and 418 00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:43,200 like it had come out of the ground long ago 419 00:27:43,279 --> 00:27:48,799 for this reason, only we'd never known. Two hundred little 420 00:27:48,839 --> 00:27:53,319 electric lights there were colored and paid for private, though 421 00:27:53,319 --> 00:27:55,559 I'd done my best to get the town to pay 422 00:27:55,599 --> 00:27:58,160 for them, like it ought to do for its own tree. 423 00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:04,079 But they was paid for. Yet it made a little 424 00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:08,839 oh come in the crowd and run around. It was 425 00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:13,720 so big and beautiful, standing there against the stars, like 426 00:28:13,759 --> 00:28:16,119 it knew well enough that it was one of them, 427 00:28:16,599 --> 00:28:19,960 whether we knew it or not. And coming up across 428 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:24,559 the flats, big and gold and low, was the moon, 429 00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:31,920 most full like it belonged to, and glory shone around, 430 00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:36,440 I says to myself, And I stood there feeling the 431 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:42,200 glory outside and in. Not my little celebration and your 432 00:28:42,359 --> 00:28:47,359 little celebration and their little celebration private that was costing 433 00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:50,759 each of us more than it ought to, but our 434 00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:56,319 celebration paying attention to the message that Christ paid attention to. 435 00:28:58,599 --> 00:29:00,759 I was so full of it that I didn't half 436 00:29:00,799 --> 00:29:04,400 see ben Corey and his carrollers come racing out of 437 00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:08,599 the dark. They was all fixed up in funny pointed 438 00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:13,200 hoods and in cloaks and carrying long staves with everybody's 439 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:16,720 barnyard lanterns tied on the end of them. And they 440 00:29:16,799 --> 00:29:19,559 run out in a line down to the tree, and 441 00:29:19,599 --> 00:29:23,319 they took hold of hands and danced around it, singing 442 00:29:23,319 --> 00:29:27,039 to their voices top a funny old tune, one of 443 00:29:27,079 --> 00:29:30,480 them tunes that, whether you've ever heard it before or not, 444 00:29:31,279 --> 00:29:33,960 kind of makes things in you that's older than you 445 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:39,079 are yourself. Wake up and remember real plain And Jerry 446 00:29:39,119 --> 00:29:43,400 Beemas shouted out at him, sing it again, sing it again, 447 00:29:44,279 --> 00:29:48,119 and pounded his wooden leg with his cane, sing it again. 448 00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:51,079 I tell you, I ain't heard anybody sing that for 449 00:29:51,279 --> 00:29:56,039 going on forty years. And everybody laughed, and they sung 450 00:29:56,119 --> 00:29:59,319 it again for him, and some more songs that had 451 00:29:59,319 --> 00:30:01,839 come out of the old country, that a little bit 452 00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:06,200 of it was living inside everybody that was there. And 453 00:30:06,279 --> 00:30:08,960 while they were singing, it came to me all of 454 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:13,279 a sudden, about another night, most three hundred years before, 455 00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:17,920 when on American soil, that lonesome English heart up there 456 00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:22,160 in Boston had dreamed ahead to a time when Christmas 457 00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:29,200 would come here. But faith unrolls the future scrolls Christmas 458 00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:33,759 shall not die, nor men of English blood and speech 459 00:30:34,039 --> 00:30:39,480 forget their ancestry or any other blood or any other 460 00:30:39,599 --> 00:30:42,480 speech that has in it the spirit of what Christ 461 00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:47,359 came to teach. And that's all of us. And it 462 00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:50,519 fell to me as if now we were only just 463 00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:55,839 beginning to take out our little, single, lonely tapers and 464 00:30:56,039 --> 00:31:01,680 carry them to light a great tree. Then just after 465 00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:05,359 the carols died down, the thing happened that we'd plan 466 00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:09,480 to happen. Over on one side, the choirs of all 467 00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:13,160 the churches that I guess had never sung together in 468 00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:16,880 their lives before, though they'd been singing steadily about the 469 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:20,880 self same thing since they was born. Choirs begun to 470 00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:29,000 sing Silent Night, Holy Night. Think of it down there 471 00:31:29,079 --> 00:31:32,799 on the Market Square that had never had anything sung 472 00:31:32,839 --> 00:31:38,000 on it before except carnival tunes and circus tunes all 473 00:31:38,079 --> 00:31:41,680 up and down Daphney Street. It must have sounded, only 474 00:31:41,759 --> 00:31:45,160 there was hardly anybody far off to hear it, the 475 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:47,920 most of them being right there with all of us. 476 00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:52,240 They sung it without anybody playing it for him, and 477 00:31:52,279 --> 00:31:57,759 they sung it from first to last, and then they 478 00:31:57,799 --> 00:32:01,480 slipped into another song that isn't a Christmas carol exactly, 479 00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:05,519 nor not any song that comes in the book under Christmas, 480 00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:09,319 but something that comes in just as natural as if 481 00:32:09,319 --> 00:32:13,759 it was another name for what Christmas was. Nearer my 482 00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:18,599 God to thee, and lead kindly light and some more. 483 00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:22,160 And after a bar or two of the first one, 484 00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:27,519 the voices all around begun kind of mumbling and humming 485 00:32:27,599 --> 00:32:31,960 and carrying the tunes along in their throats, without anybody 486 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:35,400 in particular starting him there. And then they all just 487 00:32:35,599 --> 00:32:40,559 naturally burst out and sung too. And so I don't 488 00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:43,599 know who done it, whether the choirs had planned it 489 00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:46,559 that way, or whether they just thought of it then, 490 00:32:46,799 --> 00:32:50,240 or whether somebody in the crowd struck it up unbeknownst 491 00:32:50,279 --> 00:32:53,960 to himself, or whether the song begun to sing itself. 492 00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:58,920 But it come from somewhere strong and clear and real, 493 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,519 the song that the children had been learning in school 494 00:33:02,559 --> 00:33:05,160 and has been teaching the town for a year or 495 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:10,480 two now, sung to the tune of vogdum Rhine, the 496 00:33:10,559 --> 00:33:17,640 crest and crowning of all good. Life's common goal is brotherhood. 497 00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:24,160 And then everybody sung, because that's a piece you can't 498 00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:29,400 sing alone. You cannot sing it alone. All over the 499 00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:32,319 market square they took it up. And the folks that 500 00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:35,559 couldn't sing, and me that can't sing a note except 501 00:33:35,599 --> 00:33:38,440 when there's nobody around that would recognize me if they 502 00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:42,680 saw me again, we all sung together there in the dark, 503 00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:48,079 with the tree in the midst and we seemed long 504 00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:51,559 and long away from the time when the leader in 505 00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:54,440 one of them singing choirs had left the other choir 506 00:33:54,799 --> 00:33:57,240 because the bass in the other choir was the bass 507 00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:00,559 in the other choir. And it was like the way 508 00:34:00,599 --> 00:34:05,079 things are had suddenly spoke for a minute there, and 509 00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:08,800 the singing choirs come out of their separate lofts, and 510 00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:12,519 in all the singing folks and in all of us, 511 00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:19,079 all of us then up hopped Eppleby Holcombe onto a 512 00:34:19,119 --> 00:34:21,679 box in front of the tree, and he calls out 513 00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:29,280 Mary Christmas, Merry Christmas on the first annual outdoor Christmas 514 00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:37,559 Tree celebration of Friendship Village. When he said that, I felt, well, 515 00:34:37,599 --> 00:34:40,519 it don't make any difference to anybody how I felt. 516 00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:43,320 But what I'd done was to turn and make for 517 00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:45,840 the edge of the crowd just as fast as I could, 518 00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:50,639 And just then there come what Elbelebee's words was the 519 00:34:50,679 --> 00:34:54,639 signal for and out on the little flagstaff balcony of 520 00:34:54,679 --> 00:34:59,199 the town hall. Jerry Beamus stepped with his bugle and 521 00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:02,519 he blew it to shrill and clear, so that it 522 00:35:02,639 --> 00:35:08,079 sounded all over the town once, twice, three times a 523 00:35:08,159 --> 00:35:12,320 bugle call to say it was Christmas. We couldn't wait 524 00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:15,760 till twelve o'clock. We are all in bed long before 525 00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:19,960 that time in Friendship Village, Holiday or not. But the 526 00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:24,400 bugle call said it was Christmas, just the same think 527 00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:28,000 of it the bugle that used to say it was war. 528 00:35:29,199 --> 00:35:32,719 And the same minute the big tree went out, all 529 00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:36,280 still and quiet, but to be lit again next year, 530 00:35:36,800 --> 00:35:41,199 and to stay a living thing in between. When I 531 00:35:41,239 --> 00:35:44,440 stepped on to Daphney Street, who should I come face 532 00:35:44,519 --> 00:35:49,119 to face with but miss Postmaster Sykes. I was feeling 533 00:35:49,199 --> 00:35:52,360 so glorified over that I never thought of its being 534 00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:55,960 strange that she was there. But she spoke up, just 535 00:35:56,039 --> 00:35:59,239 the same as if I'd said, why I thought you 536 00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:04,719 wasn't coming. The children was bound to come, she says, 537 00:36:05,199 --> 00:36:10,679 so I had to bring em. Yes, I thought to myself, 538 00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:17,360 the children know, they know. And I even couldn't feel 539 00:36:17,360 --> 00:36:20,599 bad when I passed the post office store and see 540 00:36:20,639 --> 00:36:25,320 Silas sitting there, all soul alone, the only lit store 541 00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:28,760 in the street. I knew he'd be on the market 542 00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:34,039 square the next year. They went singing through all the 543 00:36:34,079 --> 00:36:39,039 streets that night, ben Corey and his carollers Silent Night, 544 00:36:39,159 --> 00:36:41,760 Holy Night, come from my front gate. When I was 545 00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:45,880 most asleep. It was like the whole town was being 546 00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:50,400 sung to by something that didn't show. And when the 547 00:36:50,480 --> 00:36:53,880 time comes of this, something speaks clear all the time. 548 00:36:55,199 --> 00:36:58,960 Well it ain't a very far off time, you know. 549 00:37:02,159 --> 00:37:05,559 End of a Great Tree by Zona Gale