Just 'Fore Christmas

The Mighty Hunter

(who hunts pop cans)

Our son and grandson were out last week for the funeral of a friend. Afterwards, they came back to the house before heading home to the Twin Cities. Our grandson had time to shoot his BB gun at a few pop cans.

When talking about Christmas, this little guy and I got into a discussion about the people who aren't having such a wonderful Christmastime this year. I explained about the people in the Philippines who were homeless because of the great typhoon. I explained about Samaritan's Purse*, an organization that helps poor people around the world. He got a sudden pang of conscience and remembered his little Ziploc bag of pennies he'd laid on the kitchen table. A pensive look came over his sweet face, and after a few minutes he said,

'Grandma, maybe I can give some money to the poor.'

........LONG PAUSE.........

Then, with furrowed brow,

'Let me think on it.'

I love that child, and he totally cracks me up! :-)

 ***

According to CharityNavigator.org:

* 87.7%  (Percent of Samaritan's Purse budget spent on the programs and services it delivers)
   69.8% (Percent of Heifer Project International budget spent on the programs and services it delivers)

***

The photo above reminds me of the poem, 'And jest 'fore Christmas, I'm as good as I can be.'

Jest 'Fore Christmas

by Eugene Field

1850-1895

(From my 1949 set of Childcraft)

Father calls me William, sister calls me Will,
Mother calls me Willie, but the fellers call me Bill!
Mighty glad I ain't a girl---ruther be a boy,
Without them sashes, curls, an' things that 's worn by Fauntleroy!
Love to chawnk green apples an' go swimmin' in the lake---
Hate to take the castor-ile they give for bellyache!
'Most all the time, the whole year round, there ain't no flies on me,
But jest 'fore Christmas I 'm as good as I kin be! 

Got a yeller dog named Sport, sic him on the cat;
First thing she knows she doesn't know where she is at!
Got a clipper sled, an' when us kids goes out to slide,
'Long comes the grocery cart, an' we all hook a ride!
But sometimes when the grocery man is worried an' cross,
He reaches at us with his whip, an' larrups up his hoss,
An' then I laff an' holler, "Oh, ye never teched me!"
But jest 'fore Christmas I 'm as good as I kin be! 

Gran'ma says she hopes that when I git to be a man,
I 'll be a missionarer like her oldest brother, Dan,
As was et up by the cannibuls that lives in Ceylon's Isle,
Where every prospeck pleases, an' only man is vile!
But gran'ma she has never been to see a Wild West show,
Nor read the Life of Daniel Boone, or else I guess she 'd know
That Buff'lo Bill an' cowboys is good enough for me!
Excep' jest 'fore Christmas, when I 'm good as I kin be! 

And then old Sport he hangs around, so solemnlike an' still,
His eyes they seem a-sayin': "What's the matter, little Bill?"
The old cat sneaks down off her perch an' wonders what's become
Of them two enemies of hern that used to make things hum!
But I am so perlite an' tend so earnestly to biz,
That mother says to father: "How improved our Willie is!"
But father, havin' been a boy hisself, suspicions me
When, jest 'fore Christmas, I 'm as good as I kin be! 

For Christmas, with its lots an' lots of candies, cakes, an' toys,
Was made, they say, for proper kids an' not for naughty boys;
So wash yer face an' bresh yer hair, an' mind yer p's and q's,
An' don't bust out yer pantaloons, and don't wear out yer shoes;
Say "Yessum" to the ladies, and "Yessur" to the men,
An' when they 's company, don't pass yer plate for pie again;
But, thinkin' of the things yer 'd like to see upon that tree,
Jest 'fore Christmas be as good as yer kin be!

 The Cousins
Summer, 2013
That's a lot of boy!! 

***

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