"There was fire in the stove because your father had
sent the coal. There was oatmeal mush on the table
because your father paid my mother's scot at your
father's grocer.
"But there was not much jollity in that house, and
there were no Christmas presents, but what your mother
had sent to Bruce and Ben and Flora, and even to the
baby. Still we kept up such courage as we could.
It was a terribly cold day, and there was a wet storm.
"All of a sudden a carriage stopped at the door, and
in came your father here. He came to say that that day's
mail had brought a letter from Dr. Wilder of the navy,
conveying the full certificate that William Chappell's
death was caused by exposure in the service. That
certificate was what my mother needed for her pension.
She never could get it, but your father here had sifted
and worried and worked. The `Macedonian' arrived
Thursday at New York, and had Dr. Wilder on board, and
Friday afternoon your father had Wilder's letter, and he
left his own Christmas dinner to make light my mother's
and mine. That was not all. Your father, as he came,
had stopped to see Mr. Birdsall, who was the Speaker of
the House. He had seen the Speaker before, and had said
kind things about me. And that day the Speaker told him
to tell me to come and see him at his room at the Capitol
next day.
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