iness. I believe the rangers all
felt the same way. Several days before Christmas they began to plan a
real "feed."

We had moved into our new house now, and it was decided to make a home
of it by giving a Christmas housewarming.

The rangers all helped to prepare the dinner. Each one could choose one
dish he wanted cooked and it was cooked, even if we had to send to
Montgomery Ward and Company for the makin's. Ranger Fisk opined that
turkey dressing without oysters in it would be a total loss as far as he
was concerned, so we ordered a gallon from the Coast. They arrived three
days before Christmas, and it was his duty to keep them properly
interred in a snow drift until the Great Day arrived.

Ranger Winess wanted pumpkin pies with plenty of ginger; White Mountain
thought roast turkey was about his speed. Since we would have that
anyway, he got another vote. This time he called for mashed turnips and
creamed onions. The Superintendent, Colonel White, being an Englishman,
asked plaintively if we couldn't manage a plum pudding! We certainly
managed one just bursting with plums. That made him happy for the rest
of the day.

I didn't tell anybody what I intended to have for my own special dish,
but when the time came I produced a big, rich fruit cake, baked back
home by my own mother, and stuffed full of nuts and fruit and ripened to
a perfect taste.

All the rangers helped to prepare the feast. One of them rode down the
icy trail to Indian Gardens and brought back crisp, spicy watercress to
garnish the turkey.

After it became an effort to chew, and impossible to swallow, we washed
the dishes and gathered around the blazing fire. Ranger Winess produced
his omnipresent guitar and swept the strings idly for a moment. Then he
began to sing, "Silent Night, Holy Night." That was the beginning of an
hour of the kind of music one remembers from childhood. Just as each one
had chosen his favorite dish, now each one selected his favorite
Christmas song. When I asked for "Little Town of Bethlehem" nobody
hesitated over the words. We all knew it better than we do "Star
Spangled Banner!" I could have prophesied what Colonel White would call
for, so it was no surprise when he swung into "God rest ye merry,
gentlemen, let nothing ye dismay." Fortunately, most of us had sung
carols in our distant youth, and we sang right with the Colonel.

Someone suggested that each one tell of the strangest Christmas Day he
or she had ever s