CHINA MAIL CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT
THE NIGHT BEFORE
THE
Richards
CHRISTMAS
sitting-room niece Lilian's first boy-friend!
Have a heart.
was, to put it plainly, in a frightful mess. It looked as if it had never know, one moment of order for months on end.
In one corner was a big screen. obviously quite out of its normal place, with the top of a Christ- mas-tree rising above it. On the floor, tables, chairs, wireless, desk and sofa, sweeping right. up to the hearth as on a rising tide. Size and were boxes of every shape, wrapping paper, used and unused string, tinsel, gold and · silver and scarlet and green rib- bons and mixed in with these helter-skelter were such odd ob- jects as a bowl of oranges, a roll- ed umbrella, dishes of sweets net Christmas stockings. cards, toys. and
an enormous waste-paper basket overflowing with trifles of china, leather, metal cardboard. satin, enamel wool-even a few books!
ner-
Anne Richards glanced vously at the clock, which said She pushed back the eleven. oranges, a pair of brass candle sticks and a set of Bridge scor- ers to make a few inches of space on the table. then she hunted wildly through the top drawer of the bureau for a pen and a stack of holly-printed cards, pushed from a chair a heap of holly and mistletoe-they were already tot-
to it tering-dropped on groaned.
Henry Spare your breath. I have made up my mind, woman! (Looks around him.) Lord, what? a welter! Well I suppose we're- rot to tackle it. What have you - got there?
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Anne: I was just starting to write the cards for the stockings. Henry: Are the stockings fill- ed2
Anne: Don't be silly. What chance have I had to fill
any stockings? I only managed to get the people to bed a few min- utes before you came in.
+}
Henry (picking up one of the ~· stockings he begins mechanically to stuff it with whatever comes first to his hand): Now did you get 'em all tucked away for the night? Twelve extra people are no joke. There were plenty al- ready without Lilian bringing her boy-friend
Anne (snatching stocking from Henry): For pity's sake. Henry, do it properly. Put an orange in
CONVERSATION OVERHEARD
of
some
the toe, then some of those wrap- ped up toffee, and then one those little favours and 2nd
nuts. When you've got them fill- ed so far we'll choose a suitable present and tie the card on.
The pen dropped too. and left an inky trail down her smart but dishevelled red skirt, but she was far too tired to care.
At the same moment. Henry Richards, her husband, cautious- ly opened the door from the hall tired and came in He was as and dishevelled as Anne, with his overcoat undone and his hat in his hand.
Henry (speaking cautiously): Oh, there you are!
Anne: What's left of me. (She rouses herself and picks up the find anything pen.) Did you
that would do?
Henry (taking off coat and hanging it and his hat on a stand- ard lamp): There wasn't a shop open except a chemist.
Anne: You might have brought him a packet of bi-carbonate of soda, he'll need it if he keeps on eating as much as he did at -din-
ner.
Henry: Yes, you are right. But I had a bright idea-we'll give him the necktie we bought for consin Perey, It's quite good. enough for him:
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Annie: Oh, no Henry! You own
Henry (gloomily): All right. Why do we have to have these confounded stockings, anyway?
Anne (unpleasantly): You don't seem to remember, Henry darling, that it's a quaint old cus- have 2 tom in your family to stocking for every member of the family-including the servants- hanging on the mantelpiece when they come downstairs on Christ- mas morning. Your mother says it wouldn't be Christmas without" them. And since we, and not she, are having the family blow-out this happy holiday, we, and not she, are, on so merrily and cheeri- ly, filling the row of, as you truth- lly call them, confounded stock- ings.
Henry.(still more gloomily, but Alling stockings like a madman): Well, it's all stuff and nonsense, and I'm going to tell mother so in the morning.
Anne (also packing): Oh no. you're not-she'd think I'd put you up to it.
Henry: Give me another stock- ing. (Slams an orange into it.)-
GREETINGS
I still don't understand how you Oh look, got them all to bed. Anne, I've busted that stocking! Anne: Never mind, I've got a couple of extra ones. Now, about - the beds. Your mother and your sister Louise have, our room : Henry: For heaven's sake. where are we going to sleep?
Anne- Henry, you're the world's brightest optimist. Can you look at what we've got to do to-night and expect to go to sleep anywhere? →
Henry I wish we'd engaged somebody to deal with all this junk
in
Anne: Well, we haven't! Now, your mother and Louise are our room, and 1 put Mabel and Theodore Parsons, the baby, and their little, Edna all in the spare
TOOL
Mabel said Theodore wouldn't like haring the children in the same room with him, but I told her in my best and most hearty manner that Christmas comes but once a year and Theo- dore must enter into the spirit of it
Henry: I don't want to say any- thing about
your sister and brother-in-law, but when anyone comes to stay who brings three children, they ought to
Anne: Oh, Henry, that reminds. me-please, please don't start any discussion about banks sand bank- to-morrow, ing with Theodore you both get so excited and it makes everything so tiresome.
Henry Now listen, Anne, all I ever do is to correct Theodore's. igorance. For a man who is really quite well-informed on some subjects he knows less about bank- ing I say, where's his present? He's next on the list.
Anne:--I didn't know what to get him so I bought him a book He likes reading.
Henry: What's the
book? (Reads title). Emerson's Essays! Good: Lord, Anne, why didn't you, get him a good detective story?
Anne (snappily): Because good and detective stories cost seven expect
sixpence and this was half-a- crown. He could do with reading something solid. Do him good.
Henry: Did you ever read Em- erson's Essays? (Hangs up stock- ing).
some slight inconvenience: They're very casual with their children. anyway, it will do 'em good to get to know them better. But I say, what about Teddy Parsons?
Anne: Teddy and our child and Lilian's boy-friend. Mr. Tyndall, ́ are all very cosy and comfy campbeds in the attic.
on
Henry: But where's Cousin Paul and Fay? Where's our own Pat- sy? Where's Aunt Amy? Where's Lilian? Gosh, this house is sim- ply crawling with family, isn't it?
Anne: Cousin Paul and Fay have Patsy's room, and Aunt Amy has Henry's, and I made up the couch in the dining-room for Li- lian. Incidentally, I've used every sheet, every pillow-case, blanket and bedspread in the linen cup- board, I hate to think of what the laundry bill will be next week.
Henry: This whole bust is go- ing to cost the earth. And what does it all amount to! Look, that's the last stocking.
Anne: All right, now for the presents. That lip-stick and com- pact are for Lilian, and so's that sweet little stamp-box I'll like to keep it myself. I'll write the card and that one will be done and we can hang it up. j
More Henry (with sarcasm): lip-stick for that silly little thing she uses too much now. Hop- estly, those fappers: get on my nerves. Not one of 'em has a brain in her head. Give me that necktie and I'll finish the stock- ing for the boy-friend that Lilian has dragged into this party with- out asking.
Anne: You mean he gate-crash- ed, dear.
Henry: Something's going to crash on him if he trots out any more childish ideas about world politics to me. (Hangs filled stock- ing on to mantelpiece with vin-
dictive gestures).
Anne: No. and I never read Carlyle's Sartor Resartus, either, nor Milton's Paradise Lost. But they're all classics. Put some of these cigarettes in, too, and 2 box of fancy matches. After all, these are just little stocking gifts, the real gifts will all be tied up and laid at the foot of the Christ- mas-tree.
Henry: I hope they're ready. I'm tired as a dog. This Christ- mas business is getting me down..
Anne: Not one of them is tied up, we've got to do them after we've finished the stockings. This holly and mistletoe has to be pût up, too.
Henry: It's not humanly pos- sible: (Wails). Annn, we can't! » Anne (grimly): We've got to. Henry: I'm all in now. I say, Anne, what did you finally get for mother?
?
» Anne (avoiding his gaze): Ι got a lavender cardigan.
Now don't say a word, Henry, it's per fectly lovely, hand-knitted, mark- ed down from two guineas to twenty-two and six; j,
:
Henry: But you know mother. hates cardigans, and she hates the colour. She always has. She says it's so old-ladyish. Why didn't you get a blue one or a nice bright pink?
Anne: Because there weren't- any. unless I could pay the full (Continued on Page 4)
DRINK
RICKSHA TEA
BRAND