Bloomington High School, The Gothic, 1912, Page 46

Description:	In after days bright Sophie raysIn part dispelled his mental haze.Chased off the maze of Freshman days,Lit up for him the passage-ways.He learned to patter gliblyOf Alexanders wars;And to recognize his class room-By the figures on the doors!EDW. S. JOHNSTON, 11 AEbenezers ChristmasIsnt it just too queer, began Truth, that we havenever heard of him before? Now we have never thosethings at Christmas time that Mrs. Ferrington told us of.Perhaps, answered her brother, perhaps our peoplenever heard of him, and of little fir trees, dressed up, andof having all kinds of good things at Christmas time.A sudden thought came into Truths mind and she be-gan to explain it to Ebenezer.Come on, hurry up, and well tell them all about it, andthen perhaps it may not be too late to cut down a small firtree beyond the stockade and dress it up. Oh Eben, youare always falling, do hurry up.Eben hurried on as fast as his sturdy legs could carryhim. He and Truth had been to visit Mrs. Ferrington, ayoung matron, newly arrived from Virginia, whose gayclothes and polished manners had excited the suspicion andhatred of her stern neighbors. The children were not al-lowed to visit her, as she was supposed to have an evil in-fluence over them. However, they often accidently wentnear her house and then of course when she asked themthey had to go in.On this particular day Mrs. Ferrington had told themall about the Christmas customs of Virginia, and her storyhad impressed her young hearers greatly. The childrenfinally arrived home, cold and out of breath. Their fatherwas seated before the fireplace and their mother was spin-ning some flax. The children burst into the room and be-gan to tell about their plan in an excited way. The horrorand astonishment of their father was beyond description.However, the outcome of the matter was that they had fivepages of the catechism to learn and might never speak toMrs. Ferrington again. The father would see that she wasbrought before the next meeting. Their mother was alsogreatly displeased with them and sent them to gather cran-berries in the marsh just outside the stockade.Truth and Ebenezer gulped down their grief and mourn-fully made their way to the gates. The world was a soberplace for children those days, and they often had more thantheir share of its sorrows.They walked down the narrow cow path. There wasno snow but it was a very cold day. The trees, stripped oftheir leaves, looked like gaunt scarecrows against the fastreddening sky. Truth shivered and buttoned her cloakmore closely about her. Finally they came to the marshand began to pick the berries. They picked until their fin-Page Forty-six
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloom/id/1116
Collection:	Bloomington High School

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