Christ’s Mass

Mr. B. frequently comes out of school in the afternoons perturbed at his imprisonment rather than elated that the confinement is over for another day. Today he grumbled that he wished he didn’t have one more day until Christmas break began. But he does. Nevertheless, after delaying the start of his homework for so long that I began to think he’d given up on doing it, he pitched in and got it all done, including  his weekly book report and begging me to help him learn the twenty-five spelling words for tomorrow’s test. On the list were such toughies as Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and, lo and behold, Christmas. Surprisingly, he had the first two down cold, but he kept stumbling over the big C, spelling it c-h-i-r-s-t-m-a-s until I told him to remember that it was originally about a Roman Catholic mass for the birth of Jesus who was called the Christ, c-h-r-i-s-t, with mass at the end, minus one s. After that he got it. Thank goodness we both get a break from school after tomorrow.