Musaicum Books presents the Musaicum Christmas Specials. We have selected the greatest Christmas novels, short stories and fairy tales for this joyful and charming holiday season, for all those who want to keep the spirit of Christmas alive with a heartwarming tale. Table of Contents: Christmas Every Day Turkeys Turning the Tables The Pony Engine and the Pacific Express The Pumpkin Glory Butterflyfutterby and Flutterbybutterfly
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William Dean Howells. The Pumpkin Glory & Other Christmas Stories
The Pumpkin Glory & Other Christmas Stories
Table of Contents
Christmas Every Day (William Dean Howells)
Turkeys Turning the Tables (William Dean Howells)
The Pony Engine and the Pacific Express (William Dean Howells)
The Pumpkin Glory (William Dean Howells)
Butterflyfutterby and Flutterbybutterfly (William Dean Howells)
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William Dean Howells
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After a while turkeys got to be awfully scarce, selling for about a thousand dollars apiece. They got to passing off almost anything for turkeys--even half-grown hummingbirds. And cranberries--well they asked a diamond apiece for cranberries. All the woods and orchards were cut down for Christmas trees. After a while they had to make Christmas trees out of rags. But there were plenty of rags, because people got so poor, buying presents for one another, that they couldn't get any new clothes, and they just wore their old ones to tatters. They got so poor that everybody had to go to the poorhouse, except the confectioners, and the storekeepers, and the book-sellers, and they all got so rich and proud that they would hardly wait upon a person when he came to buy. It was perfectly shameful!
After it had gone on about three or four months, the little girl, whenever she came into the room in the morning and saw those great ugly, lumpy stockings dangling at the fireplace, and the disgusting presents around everywhere, used to sit down and burst out crying. In six months she was perfectly exhausted, she couldn't even cry anymore.