Speaker 1: Christmas Ants by Kate gannett Wells. The possession of relatives
at Christmas time is very desirable, provided they give you
the things you want. For there are three factors in
giving the gift itself, the personal regard of the giver
and the appreciation of the one who receives. Appropriateness constitutes
its charm, as to give without affection as a bore,
and to receive from one you dislike is hideous. Now,
Christmas ants as a link between parents who want to
give something and acquaintances who need not seem to fulfill
these conditions. Generally, they know what is wanted and have
a pride in their young relations who are not unwilling
to be grateful to them. It is character that makes
the Christmas Aunt what she is. She may give you
a bit of ribbon or a rope of pearls. In
either case it is her way of giving which makes
her Christmasy. She may be old fashioned or of the
modern committee type of hustler, or of tea gown, grace
and suavity, but through all the variation runs an adorable motherliness.
This is it which made the power of Missus Mary
a livermore and still creates the charm and resourcefulness of
Missus Julia Ward. How even if a Christmas aunt advises, scolds, praises,
or bosses her young people, she yet has an hereditary
pride in them, for they belong to her side of
the family. It is this belonging to somebody else besides
your parents, which is so dear. The mere fact that
parents ought to care for those whom they have brought
into the world gives to ants an investor of free royalty.
They care for you just because they need not. Even
if ants have children of their own, they do not
lose their prerogatives of grace to others. While the unmarried
aunt ranks next to a grandmother in delightfulness. These old
maids of our homes could have been married if they
want it to be. Any man or woman can be
of either wishes. The afterglow of tender romance always enshrines them.
Though they may lead lonely lives. Their range extends from
the poor woman whose home is her trunk to the
wealthy lady whose house is a shelter for others. Yet
both have in their hearts the Christmas feeling. Single life
may often be best, but in regard to marriage. It
is not the frequency of divorce that is the trouble,
but the self love, inordinate self respect, and ambition of
married life that most needs correction. Don't pity yourself, don't
cherish vain imaginings. Don't expect to get more than one
third of what you want, which usually is one half
more than you deserve. Are as good rules for married
as for single life. As civilization increases, people naturally will
find more difficulty in getting suited to each other. As
the spirit of religion grows, will ask more from themselves
than from each other, and in that asking will find
as much fullness of joy and of service in being
single as in being married. Say that the true companionship
of marriage with its children is a multiplied joy. Christmas
aunts know all of this. One of them, a wealthy
married woman, sent to her nephew who had a hard
time to get along a check, saying, you do for me,
I give to you. Doing and giving are like family ties.
Another aunt of the penurious, unmarried type, sent to her
niece a single carnation lying on a pair of garters
she had knit. And the niece thought of the many
solitary hours in which the yarn had been knitted, and
of the many economies lovingly practiced by means of which
the flower had been purchased. Still another aunt and a niece,
to whom fortune had alike been kind, gave each other
gifts of equal value. They were quits. Yet there is
a certain phase of Christmas giving that is more sentimental
than strengthening, the exchange of thoughts which are supposed to
have either religious or literary value. Such expressions may soothe
the nervous, or occupy the amateur, self conscious poser to
herself of superficial culture. Yet such sentiments are very different
from the praise of honest affection. But many of us
have not yet got rid of the old notion that
praise is dangerous. It may be when it is false,
but when true, it is an incentive to further effort.
It is so much better to praise another while she
is living than after she has died. All the same,
exchange of thoughts, literary or otherwise may be an invigorating process,
and may those who enjoy it continue its pastime. But
do not let the thoughts be tinged with self pity.
For courage and common sense help us to bear the
ills of life that beset us from one Christmas to another.
We can never say too often how grateful we are
for the Christmas fact. What would our daily life have
been if the first Christmas had not been born? Keeping
now the truth of that fact, we pour around it
the service of our daily lives. Never too poor, too lonely,
too sick to be useful to somebody. Thank God for
his Christmas gift of lowly usefulness. Thanks to Him also
for Christmas ants, for he has set the world in families.
Yet the trouble is that, as we do not want
Christmas to come but once a year, with all its
array of presents to get and to be answered, which
makes the day a heavy burden, we must carry along
its spirit from month to month and hour to hour,
in perpetual giving and receiving of service. Many persons already
prefer to make their gifts spasmodic rather than annual, just
because of the meaning of the day has become so
desecrated by gregarious giving. Simplicity in all things is to
be followed. Always. May the Christmas Aunt remain transfigured before
us as one who gives not because she must, but
because she loves to bring forth from her storehouses of
invention and affection Gifts New and old. End of Christmas
Ants by kate gannett Wells