PIKE COUNTY, Mo. — Robertus Love had a magical way of telling a story, and few were as enchanting as “A Pike County Christmas Tree.”

The tale uses country vernacular and spellings to tell how compassionate friends of the “poorest kid in Pike” received a windfall from a Scrooge-like cad who had a change of heart. Love narrates as he and Minky Peters and Joe and Ike Bowers set things in motion. As they had for more than a decade, the four chopped a cedar and put it up at church.

“There was popcorn balls and candy bags for Jim and Jess and Nell

And Mother Goose’s poetry for kids that couldn’t spell,

And skates and tops and jumpin’-jacks, and dolls and hoods and caps.

With here and there a Testament for solemn little chaps.”

The congregation joined in decorating. Joe Bowers dressed as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and distributed presents hidden in the tree to kids.  The girl that always caught the attention of Love and his buddies was Jennie Kerr. She was the granddaughter of old man Simpson, who owned a store and a bank. The mother had eloped with Jennie’s father years earlier. He eventually left them, and Simpson vowed never to support his daughter. Love found the whole thing frustrating because Simpson had “money to incinerate.” Back at the church, the gift distribution quickly turned the sanctuary into “a holy mess,” with candy smeared on hymn books and pew cushions. But amid all the cheer it seemed Love and his pals had forgotten about Jennie because there was nothing left on the tree.

“So, I winked at Minky Peters, and he winked at Santy Claus,

And Santy winked at Isaac, who enlisted in the cause.

We-alls went behind the scenery and held a short confab.
The result of which my aim on this occasion is to blab.”

While Joe Bowers stayed behind to provide the congregation with “some most amusin’ antics and some edifyin’ slang” about “chimney-tops and reindeers and Kris Kringle and his packs,” the “rest of us for Christmas goods to Simpson’s store made tracks.” Simpson “hung his ornery head” when told of the mission, and handed the three a letter.

“We-alls was somewhat doobious, but we tuck the letter in

And sneaked it on the Christmas tree, while Bowers drowned the din

And read the name of Jennie Kerr, who toddled down the aisle

As gay as any young’un there, though somewhat out of style.”

Jennie took the letter to her mother, who, upon reading it, fainted “as if she’d swallered dope.” Minky gave the stink eye to Love, who gave it right back. Love noted that the Christmas chums were about to go back and teach Simpson a lesson when Bowers “called us back” and “likewise called us several names – in language that I lack.”

“Was it an insult to the kid? Not on your liver-pads!

He’d sent that little gal his check for twenty thousand scads!”

 That kind of money would be worth more than $550,000 today. Love, who spent part of his youth in Pike County, wrote other books, including one about famous Missouri outlaw Jesse James. Love later became editor of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. He died at 63 on May 7, 1930.

“Poems All the Way From Pike,” which also contains “The Boy Who Has No Santa Claus,” can be read at www.archive.org.

CUTLINE FOR PHOTO:

A signed copy of “Poems All the Way From Pike” is held in the library at the Champ Clark home in Bowling Green.