"'Ya-a-as,' says I, 'I don't reckon but what that's true.'" III ST. NICHOLAS SCRAGGS "I have read some'ers," said Mr. Scraggs, "that some man whose name was a durned sight more important to him than it is to me, for I've plumb forgot it, said that he never begun nothin' unless he could see the end of it." "His wife's family must have owned real estate," suggested Red Saunders. "He didn't specify which end," excused Mr. Scraggs. "Maybe 'twas the front end he meant; then the proverb 'ud read that he never begun anythin' unless he could see the commencement of it; which is a wise and thoughtful statement, because had it been otherwise, and therefore essentially different, why, how could he?" "Of course not," assented Red. "I s'pose," said the visitor, "that you mean what you say and understand what you mean, but d----d if I do. Is there any right or left bower in this game?" "No," said Mr. Scraggs. "But this is the twenty-fourth of December, and I was thinkin' of another twenty-fourth of December. I began something then that come out rather different from what you'd naturally expect. That ain't so remarkable, for nothin' I ever had any hand in ever come out as anybody expected--barrin' Mrs. Scraggs, who, individuool, cool, calm, and collectively, always says, 'Just what I expected, exactly,' and any man that says any one or all of the Mrs. Scraggses bound to me by ties of matrimony by the Mormon Church, party of the first part, Mrs. Scraggs, party of the second part, and E. G. W. Scraggs, party of the third, last, and of no consequence whatsomever part--any man, I repeat, who says Mrs. Scraggs would lie is no friend of her'n and ought to be told so. But to restrain a nateral indignation at the hint of such a charge and to 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.