12 THE ACORN rangements for the formal presentation of the cup will be completed in the very near future. The class having the winning team will he awarded the cup for one year, and will have its class numerals engraved upon it. The University of Utah is arranging for a Utah High School Debating League and is inviting all the High Schools of the State to enter. The Weber Academy has received its formal invitation, with instructions to make application for entrance to the league not later than December 15th. We have every reason to believe that this league will be a strong one, and therefore it will be to the special interest of every high school to enter and do its best. Debating is the only inter-scholastic rivalry based on truly intellectual ideals, and the school that carries off the final victory will establish itself the intellectual superior of the State, so far as high schools are concerned. If the students of the Academy are alive to their opportunities they will recognize here a rare chance for their individual development, and for winning special honors with which to proclaim the Academy champion in the arena of debates. Christmas Giving "Mother, do you know it is the week before Christmas, and I have not done a bit of my shopping yet? I only wish I knew what I could give the girls! They will have everything they want, and a great deal they would be better off without, but I must give them something." This was a source of no little worry to Carmine, so she appealed to her mother for suggestions. Carmine's family was one of the oldest and wealthiest in their town and many times Carmine had felt that she was receiving presents from girls who gave them only as a mere matter of form, and not with the true spirit of giving, which, when it accompanies a gift, however small, brings a great deal of happiness. "Well," said her mother, "Why do you give to the girls who already have everything? What ever you give them could do no more than show your good will, which they already know you have for them. "Carmine, you girls could do a great deal of good if you went about it in the right way. There are more poor families among us than we can guess. We often say we would help them if we knew where they were, but suffering can go on all around us, without our knowing anything of it. "Those who are comfortable and happy, think only of themselves, and of how to remain so, and those THE ACORN 13 who are wealthy, strive only to gain more wealth. But it is our duty to find out where these people are and help them. It is not enough that we do good only to those who come under our immediate observation, but as long as we are able, we should hunt out those who need our help. "Now, if each of you girls would hunt up even one poor family, and make up a little Christmas box for them, there would be eleven families made happy on Christmas day, that otherwise may be starving or suffering from cold and yearning for the love and charity that has never been shown them, mothers who have wept bitterly because their children could not be visited by Santa Claus, or because he is just going to bring them a single orange or a single stick of candy. "These mothers could make any sacrifice for themselves, or could bear any pain better than to know that their child is to have his hopes shattered, after living in a world of dreams, and lying awake nights thinking of the toys and candies and nuts good old Santa is to bring him. At least, Carmine, you can suggest this to the girls, and I am sure you will take far more pleasure in doing this than anything you could possibly arrange for each other." It happened that the next day the girl's club was to meet. When Carmine told the girls what her mother had suggested, they were all overjoyed. It did not take them long to find the eleven poor families and they set to work at once to make pretty things as well as useful ones, to put in the Christmas boxes. "And I think," said Barbara, "that if we have enough left after we do all that, it would be lovely if we should buy a lot of flowers and take to the sick patients at the hospital." This plan was also adopted and carried out with the greatest success. Late Christmas Eve, Ethelyn's brother drove them all around in his sleigh to deliver the boxes. If these girls could have known one-half the good they had done or one-half the happiness they had caused, they would truly have said: "It is a far, far, better thing to do than I have ever done; it is a far, far,better rest I go to, than I have ever known." Monra Reass, '11