Bret Harte 
Dick Spindler’s Family Christmas 

There was surprise and some disappointment in Rough and Ready when it was known that Dick Spindler intended to give a ‘Family’ Christmas party at his own house. That he should take an early opportunity to celebrate his good fortune and show hospitality was only expected from the man who had just made a handsome ‘ strike ‘ on his claim ; but that it should assume so conservative, old-fashioned, and respectable a form was quite unlocked-for by Rough and Ready, and was thought by some a trifle pretentious …