SOME NEW CHRISTMAS STORIES.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 98, 18 April 1885, Page 5

SOME NEW CHRISTMAS STORIES.

<( f i. — Undeb the Mistletoe. They were sweethearts. He had loved Jier for years, and believed that his love was> returned. One day he saw her with another fellow. He never said a word, but went home and broke his heart. On Christmas Day he called at the^ faithless one's house. "Darling," he aaid, "one kiss, one little .kiss, under the mistletoe," She , Bmiled, . and went under the bough without "a moment's hesitation. She didn't think that he knew of the other fellow. He (not the other fellow) put his arms round ,her neck, pressed one passionate kiss upon her lips, and then, drawing a revolver from his pocket, shot' her dead. Then he ehot himself. The other fellow called later on, and almost fainted at the appalling spectacle which met his eyes. "Both dead!" he cried. " No," exclaimed the lover in a faint voice ; '■' I havo a little life in me still." With a de?porate effort he raised his revolver and fired, and tho other fellow fell without a groan. Three dead bodies lay under the mistletoe on that Christmas Day. When tho girl's mother came home from a party and saw what had happened, she sent the bodies to the mortuary in a four-wheeled cab, and was summoned at Bow-street on Boxing Day for refusing to pay the cabman his lawful fare.

11. — TOTTT AND TIIK ANGEL. A poor little golden-haired girl sat crying on a doorstep on Christmas Eve. " Why do you cry, dear?" said a kind old gentleman. The child looked up with her blue eyc3 and murmured, "Mother— Angel." " Poor ljttlo lassie," said the kind old gentleman ; " her mother is doad— gone to be a angel." Then he stooped down and said, " And your father, deai ? " " Angel," murmured the child again, "Father an angel too — dear, dear ! a poor little orphan alone on Christmas Eve, and well brought up, too, for she believes that her parents aro angels." Then ho took the littlo one gently by the hand. " Come to my house, my pot," ho said ; " my good wifo will let you warm yourself at the fire, and gi* r e you cake and tea." So he trotted up the stroet, holding the child's red little hands in his, happy in the idea that ho was about to relieve at least one case of misery this happy Christmas time. And just as he turned the corner he felt a tug at his coat-tails, and a woman's rough voice cried. " Now, then, where are ye takin' the kid to ? Can't me and her father go and 'aye arf a pint, but you must make off with the young un ? Goin' to steal her does, warn't ye?" And the old gentleman let go the little one's hand with a gasp of horror at the suspicion. Totty was crying because* her father and mother had left her while they had a drink at the Angel, Islington. It was Christmas time, and he thought of his mother and tho dear old days at home. Softly he sang to the passerf-by, and the good citizens behind the parlour blinds. " God rest you, merry gentlemen, Jet nothing you dipmay."" Then ho dropped a bag of dynamite under London Bridge, and blew it up. That was not suiting the action to the word.