{"product_id":"2940013191150","title":"A CHRISTMAS ACCIDENT AND OTHER STORIES","description":"AT first the two yards were as much alike as the two houses, each house\u003cbr\u003ebeing the exact copy of the other. They were just two of those little\u003cbr\u003ered brick dwellings that one is always seeing side by side in the\u003cbr\u003eoutskirts of a city, and looking as if the occupants must be alike too.\u003cbr\u003eBut these two families were quite different. Mr. Gilton, who lived in\u003cbr\u003eone, was a pretty cross sort of man, and was quite well-to-do, as cross\u003cbr\u003epeople sometimes are. He and his wife lived alone, and they did not have\u003cbr\u003emuch going out and coming in, either. Mrs. Gilton would have liked more\u003cbr\u003eof it, but she had given up thinking about it, for her husband had said\u003cbr\u003eso many times that it was women's tomfoolery to want to have people,\u003cbr\u003ewhom you weren't anything to and who weren't anything to you, ringing\u003cbr\u003eyour doorbell all the time and bothering around in your\u003cbr\u003edining-room,--which of course it was; and she would have believed it if\u003cbr\u003ea woman ever did believe anything a man says a great many times.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the other house there were five children, and, as Mr. Gilton said,\u003cbr\u003ethey made too large a family, and they ought to have gone somewhere\u003cbr\u003eelse. Possibly they would have gone had it not been for the fence; but\u003cbr\u003ewhen Mr. Gilton put it up and Mr. Bilton told him it was three inches\u003cbr\u003etoo far on his land, and Mr. Gilton said he could go to law about it,\u003cbr\u003eexpressing the idea forcibly, Mr. Bilton was foolish enough to take his\u003cbr\u003eadvice. The decision went against him, and a good deal of his money went\u003cbr\u003ewith it, for it was a long, teasing lawsuit, and instead of being three\u003cbr\u003einches of made ground it might have been three degrees of the Arctic\u003cbr\u003eCircle for the trouble there was in getting at it. So Mr. Bilton had to\u003cbr\u003estay where he was.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was then that the yards began to take on those little differences\u003cbr\u003ethat soon grew to be very marked. Neither family would plant any vines\u003cbr\u003ebecause they would have been certain to heedlessly beautify the other\u003cbr\u003eside, and consequently the fence, in all its primitive boldness, stood\u003cbr\u003eout uncompromisingly, and the one or two little bits of trees grew\u003cbr\u003ecarefully on the farther side of the enclosure so as not to be mixed up\u003cbr\u003ein the trouble at all. But Mr. Gilton's grass was cut smoothly by the\u003cbr\u003eman who made the fires, while Mr. Bilton only found a chance to cut his\u003cbr\u003ehimself once in two weeks. Then, by and by, Mr. Gilton bought a red\u003cbr\u003egarden bench and put it under the tree that was nearest to the fence. No\u003cbr\u003eone ever went out and sat on it, to be sure, but to the Bilton children\u003cbr\u003eit represented the visible flush of prosperity. Particularly was Cora\u003cbr\u003eCordelia wont to peer through the fence and gaze upon that red bench,\u003cbr\u003ethinking it a charming place in which to play house, ignorant of the\u003cbr\u003efact that much of the red paint would have come off on her back. Cora\u003cbr\u003eCordelia was the youngest of the five. All the rest had very simple\u003cbr\u003enames,--John, Walter, Fanny, and Susan,--but when it came to Cora\u003cbr\u003eCordelia, luxuries were beginning to get very scarce in the Bilton\u003cbr\u003efamily, and Mrs. Bilton felt that she must make up for it by being\u003cbr\u003elavish, in one direction or another. She had wished to name Fanny, Cora,\u003cbr\u003eand Susan, Cordelia, but she had yielded to her husband, and called one\u003cbr\u003eafter his mother and one after herself, and then gave both her favorite\u003cbr\u003enames to the youngest of all. Cora Cordelia was a pretty little girl,\u003cbr\u003eprettier even than both her names put together.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter the red bench came a quicksilver ball, that was put in the middle\u003cbr\u003eof the yard and reflected all the glory of its owner, albeit in a\u003cbr\u003esomewhat distorted form. This effort of human ingenuity filled the\u003cbr\u003eBilton children with admiration bordering on awe; Cora Cordelia spent\u003cbr\u003ehours gazing at it, until called in and reproved by her mother for\u003cbr\u003eadmiring so much things she could not afford to have. After this, she\u003cbr\u003eonly admired it covertly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSmall distinctions like these barbed the arrows of contrast and\u003cbr\u003ecomparison and kept the disadvantages of neighborhood ever present.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen, it was a constant annoyance to have their surnames so much alike.\u003cbr\u003eMatters were made more unpleasant by mistakes of the butcher, the\u003cbr\u003egrocer, and so on,--Gilton, 79 Holmes Avenue, was so much like Bilton,\u003cbr\u003e77 Holmes Avenue. Gilton changed his butcher every time he sent his\u003cbr\u003edinner to Bilton; and though the mistakes were generally rectified,\u003cbr\u003eneither of the two families ever forgot the time the Biltons ate,\u003cbr\u003epositively ate, the Gilton dinner, under a misapprehension.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47073550991600,"sku":"2940013191150","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013191150_p0.jpg?v=1763578033","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013191150","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}