o proceed: I want to say that this
particular twenty-fourth of December I'm talkin' about came out so
much entirely different from what I expected that I can't seem to
forget it.

"There's something about Christmas that warms the heart and makes
the noblest and best of our sentiments to come to the surface for a
breath of fresh air. Yes, sir, there is, and they passed it around
in Peg-leg's place that afternoon so hot, sweet, and plentiful that
I hadn't been there more'n two hours before my feelin's had rose to
such a pitch that I went out and bought each' and every Mrs.
Scraggs a pair of number ten rubber boots, a pound of raisins, and
an accordion. The boots was useful; the raisins, of course, stood
for Christmas cheer; but what in thunder I bought the accordions
for I never knew afterward. I'd give a ten-dollar bill this minute
to know. It was a tremenjus idee at the time, but that's all I
recall of it. I sent the hull shootin'-match around to the house
by a small boy with a hand sleigh and a card sayin' 'Peace on
Earth' on top of it.

"After this, havin' done my duty by my fambly, as I saw it at the
time, I wandered into Mr. George Hewlitt's emporium of chance,
armed with six iron dollars and a gold collar-button. They took my
six dollars away from me as though I wasn't fit to be trusted with
'em, and then I sprung my collar-button for another stack. As far
as I could see, that collar-button was all that stood between me
and a long, wide, thick, and cold winter. Hows'mever, there was no
unmanly tears in the eyes of the support of the noble house of
Scraggs when he plunked the lot on the corner.

"'Slave,' says I to the dealer in the language I learned shiftin'
scenes for a week, back in old St. Looey. 'Slave!' says I. 'I've
stacked my life agin the cast in your eye, and I will stand the
razzle of your dyestuff. Shoot! You're faded!'

"And he was, too. I caught that turn and about every other in the
deal; split him in half on the last card, and from that on I ripped
him up the back and knocked chunks off'n him until everybody got
interested.

"The game grew too small for both of us. I had four hundred
dollars in checks before me, and my original collar-button. I
asked him for his limit. He replied that notwithstandin' the
enormous and remarkable growth of institutions of learning
throughout the country and the widespread interest in arithmetic,
it hadn't been figured out yet.

"'Make good,'