BEASLEY'S CHRISTMAS PARTY

BY

BOOTH TARKINGTON

ILLUSTRATED BY
RUTH SYPHERD CLEMENTS


October, 1909.



TO

JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY




I


The maple-bordered street was as still as a country Sunday; so quiet
that there seemed an echo to my footsteps. It was four o'clock in the
morning; clear October moonlight misted through the thinning foliage to
the shadowy sidewalk and lay like a transparent silver fog upon the
house of my admiration, as I strode along, returning from my first
night's work on the "Wainwright Morning Despatch."