Jimsy
The Christmas Kid
By
Leona Dalrymple
Author of "The Lovable Meddler," "Diane
of the Green Van," "Uncle Noah's
Christmas Party," etc.
Decorations by
Charles Guischard
New York
Robert M. McBride & Company
1915
Copyright, 1915, by
Robert M. McBride & Co.
Published October, 1915
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I | The Invasion | 9 |
| II | The Biscuit Link | 19 |
| III | The Chain Grows | 27 |
| IV | The Chain Clanks | 38 |
| V | The Proving | 46 |
| VI | The Triumph | 51 |
| VII | The Downfall | 55 |
| VIII | The Chain is Locked | 61 |
Jimsy
The Christmas Kid
I
THE INVASION
His name was Jimsy and he took it for granted that you liked him. Thatmade things difficult from the very start—that and the fact that hearrived in the village two days before Christmas strung to such aholiday pitch of expectation that, if you were a respectable,bewhiskered first citizen like Jimsy's host, you felt the cut-and-drieddignity of a season which unflinching thrift had taught you to pare ofall its glittering non-essentials, threatened by his bubbling air offaith in something wonderful to happen.[Pg 10]
He had arrived at twilight, just as the first citizen was about to readhis evening paper, and he had made a great deal of noise, yelling backat old Austin White, whose sleigh had conveyed him from the station tothe house, a "S'long, Uncle!" pregnant with the friendliness of aconversational ride. He had scraped away his snow-heels with a somewhatsustained noise, born perhaps of shyness, and now, as he stood in thecenter of the prim, old-fashioned room, a thin, eager youngster not toowarmly clad for the bite of the New England wind, Abner Sawyer felt witha sense of shock that this city urchin whom Judith had promised to"Christmas," detracted, in some ridiculous manner, from therespectability of the room. He was an inharmonious note in its