Now Muggs, though he carried upon his shoulder a ridiculous pair of
elfin skates, was much too small a boy, his brother thought, to embark
upon the ice, wherefore he stood like a sentinel upon the shore and
drummed and ate incessantly, until an orange catapulted from an
overcrowded pocket, when he pursued it with a roar.
The peal of the village town-clock striking twelve came all too soon,
but homing was no task with a turkey at the end. Muggs, still wrapped in
mysterious silence, knew the very spot where Christmas odors began to
permeate the frosty air and redoubled the speed in his drumming arm, but
when after a vigorous scrubbing his glistening eye fell upon the
holly-bright table and an enormous turkey by the Doctor's plate, only a
frosty menace in Mike's eye, it seemed, restrained another
blood-curdling shriek of delight. There was paralyzing apology in his
eyes as Mike's lips formed the soundless threat--"Mom Murphy!"
"He's holdin' himself in," said Annie, "Mister Muggs, give me the drum!
Ye'll not crowd into the chair with that upon your shoulder!"
It seemed that Mister Muggs would. He began to swell. He began to drum.
He carried his point and crammed himself and his drum into his chair at
the table.
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