CHAPTER II: THE DINNER AT HEART’S DESIRE: THIS CONTINUING THE RELATION OF CURLY, THE CAN OF OYSTERS, AND THE GIRL FROM KANSAS; AND INTRODUCING OTHERS
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THERE WERE NO STOCKINGS HUNG up in Heart’s Desire that Christmas Eve, for all the population was adult, male, and stern of habit. The great moon flooded the street with splendor. Afar there came voices of rioting. There were some adherents to the traditions of the South in regard to firecrackers at Yuletide, albeit the six-shooter furnished the only firecracker obtainable. Yet upon that night the very shots seemed cheerful, not ominous, as was usually the case upon that long and crooked street, which had seen duels, affairs, affrays,—even riots of mounted men in the days when the desperadoes of the range came riding into town now and again for love of danger, or for lack of aguardiente. It was so very white and solemn and content,—this street of Heart’s Desire on Christmas Eve. Far across the arroyo, as Curly had said, there gleamed red the double windows of the cabin which had been preempted by the man from Leavenworth. To-night the man from Leavenworth sat with bowed head and beard upon his bosom.
Christmas Day dawned, brilliant, glorious. There was not a Christmas tree in all Heart’s Desire. There was not a child within two hundred miles who had ever seen a Christmas tree. There was not a woman in all He