Produced by Annie McGuire 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 [Illustration] I THE INVASION His name was Jimsy and he took it for granted that you liked him. That made things difficult from the very start--that and the fact that he arrived in the village two days before Christmas strung to such a holiday pitch of expectation that, if you were a respectable, bewhiskered first citizen like Jimsy's host, you felt the cut-and-dried dignity of a season which unflinching thrift had taught you to pare of all its glittering non-essentials, threatened by his bubbling air of faith in something wonderful to happen. He had arrived at twilight, just as the first citizen was about to read his evening paper, and he had made a great deal of noise, yelling back at old Austin White, whose sleigh had conveyed him from the station to the house, a "S'long, Uncle!" pregnant with the friendliness of a conversational ride. He had scraped away his snow-heels with a somewhat sustained noise, born perhaps of shyness, and now, as he stood in the center of the prim, old-fashioned room, a thin, eager youngster not too warmly clad for the bite of the New England wind, Abner Sawyer felt with a sense of shock that this city urchin whom Judith had promised to "Christmas," detracted, in some ridiculous manner, from the respectability of the room. He was an inharmonious note in its staid preciseness. Moreover, it was evident from the frank friendliness of his dark, gray eyes that he was perniciously of that type who frolic through a frosty, first-citizen aura of informality and give and accept friendship as a matter of course. [Illustration] "What--what is your name?" asked the first citizen, peering over his spectacles. He wished that Judith's Christmas protege was not so thin and a trifle larger. [Illustration] "Jimsy," answered the boy. "An' Specks, he's me chum; he goes to Mister Middleton's, next door." Specks and Jimsy! The first citizen helplessly cleared his throat and summoned Judith.