than ever about Santa Claus. Brother planned what kind of a stocking he
would hang up. They talked about the tree and asked Mary Elizabeth what
she supposed Santa Claus would make as a tree surprise this year. At
these times, laughingly, Mary Elizabeth suggested that there would be
candles on the tree and that perhaps there would be tinsel. She said
that, maybe, Santa Claus would send all his Christmas to the little
French and Belgian children and not have much to make into a surprise
here at home. She told them stories about Santa Claus and the Santa
Claus Land. She played with them to keep them amused but she thought
all the time of the Mother Goose Contest and as time went on, she felt
less sure each day of having won. Once she passed by the ten cent store
and found a beautiful gold star and wanted to buy it. Then one day
Mary Elizabeth actually found a ten cent piece near a shop upon a busy
sidewalk in town. Her heart went thump at the sight of it. She asked
several persons if they had lost anything and they replied, “No.” So
Mary Elizabeth went straight to the ten cent store and bought a star,
right away.
All this time, Mary Elizabeth watched anxiously for the postman. The
time set for the close of the contest came and passed. No letter was
brought to Mary Elizabeth. She knew that she would have had a letter
if she had won any prize, of course. But Mary Elizabeth, with her heart
heavy as lead, wondered whether she had really ever believed she would
win. She admitted that she had. She was sure her work was right--that
is, all answers were correct. The writing was neat. There were no
blots. She had done her very best.
Mary Elizabeth was too soldierly to cry. She told nobody. She set
about planning how she would cut paper ornaments out of colored wall
papers and paste them together. She would make some paper dolls and
dress them like fairies with the tissue paper she had. She would make
wings with tissue paper, too. She would ask Mother to let her make
some gingerbread animals and men to use on the tree. She would gild
some nuts and pinecones maybe. There was the star. There was the box
of candles. Those were _something_! But if only she did have money,
she would trim her tree with the emblems of all the Allies and have a
really soldierly Christmas tree!
Mary Elizabeth went into her room and locked her door tight. She
took the key of her lower bureau drawer and sat down upon the floor
beside it and drew it out. In it lay all the Christmas tree things
with the box of candles and the star. As she looked at the bright
Christmas things, a tear dropped upon her lap--oh, it might have been
so different!
Why is it that when one is just in the midst of Christmas planning
somebody comes to the door and knocks? Did you ever spread all your
things out on a bed or a table or on the floor and fail to have
somebody come to knock at your door and demand to be let in right away?
There came a knock at Mary Elizabeth’s--but first, the latch had been
tried. “Let me in, Mary Elizabeth!” cried Brother.
“I can’t,” returned Mary Elizabeth.
“You can.”
Thump-thumpety-thump.
“Go ’way,” admonished Mary Elizabeth. “I shan’t let you in! You can’t
come in.”
“Well, you’ll be sorry,” said the muffled voice of Brother. “You’ll
be sorry,” but he left off knocking at the door and ran away. Mary
Elizabeth wondered if perhaps he suspected about the play of Santa
Claus. He was getting to be quite big. Maybe he knew about the tree.
Maybe he would have to be let into the fun of Christmas planning next
year--but was it fun? Wasn’t it dreadful to worry about the tree and
plan how to make it all new? No, it was not worry! No, it was not!
Mary Elizabeth denied this stoutly. It was part of the self-sacrifice
of Christmas to think about it as she had--and there would be a lovely
tree! Yes, there would, somehow; she’d manage to make a grand surprise
of it. Oh, yes, she would. Mary Elizabeth smiled and was ashamed of
that little hot tear. She put the Christmas tree things back into the
drawer one by one and she closed and locked the drawer. Then she went
to the window and looked out across the snow. She thought maybe some
cotton would look pretty and snowy on the tree like that. She heard
Brother at the door again but she wasn’t quite ready to let him in. She
wanted to be alone and think. She did not want to tell stories about
Santa Claus.
His little voice came plaintively, “Please, Mary Elizabeth, let me in.
I’ll tell you something nice, if you’ll let me in.” But Mary Elizabeth
was not ready to hear what Brother thought Santa Claus was going to
bring. She did not go to the door. Then she heard his soft little
footsteps trot away down the hall and she felt sorry. She opened the
door to run after him and there, where Brother had left it, there lay a
big square envelope with the name of the magazine upon it!
Mary Elizabeth gasped. She tore it open and read:
DEAR MARY ELIZABETH:
Your good work has merited the reward of the Second Prize of two
dollars offered in the Mother Goose Contest. The money is enclosed
and we hope that it will bring with it a Very Happy Christmas!
Happy Christmas! Hooray! Oh, how fine! Happy Christmas--why, _of
course_, Happy Christmas! Wasn’t it splendid! Wasn’t it a surprise!
Waving the letter, she hugged everybody that she met, Brother, Mother
and all the children. Something splendid had happened, they all
agreed. Everybody congratulated Mary Elizabeth. But only Mother really
guessed why Mary Elizabeth didn’t spend it all right then and there the
very first day in buying candy and peanuts. That was what Brother and
the little children suggested.
But next day, after vacation had really begun and when the little
children and Brother were safely out of the way, Mary Elizabeth with
her little red kid purse slipped out of the house and off to buy the
flags of the Allies to use for the Christmas tree.
Mary Elizabeth had decided, too, what the Christmas surprise was to be.
Yes, it should be a tree covered with flags and Old Glory should be
with the star at the top!
And then came tree-trimming! And the tree was--oh, oh, it was ever
so much more wonderful than any tree had ever been before. Everybody
said so! The little children said so. Brother said so! Mary Elizabeth
herself knew it was so! All the little poor children who came to the
tree said so!
It was Mother, however, who knew about the very soldierly Santa
Claus that had made the tree so lovely. “It honored the little
Christ Child’s Birthday, dear,” she said as she kissed Mary Elizabeth
good-night. “It is the tree of the soldiers who are fighting for all
that Christmas means.”
“The star was there,” replied Mary Elizabeth.
CONCLUSION
_The Last Leaf of the Surprise Book_
The last leaf of Marjorie’s Surprise Book was very, very thin. It did
not make Marjorie poke and feel and wonder what was inside its pocket.
It was marked to open at the Christmas tree. So the first thing that
she did was to pull its Christmas seals off and read what was written
inside:
“I hope you will always be happy--
As happy as you can be,
As happy as all the happy times
That you have shared with me.”
“I made that up,” said Dotty, proudly. “I did it all myself.” Really,
I think that Marjorie’s Surprise Book belonged to both little girls,
don’t you? But which one do you suppose liked it best? Was it Marjorie
or was it Dotty? What do you think? For myself, I think it was the one
who made it and gave it and thought it and planned it all. So, maybe,
there is somebody that you love to whom, you, too, would like to give a
Surprise Book like this of Marjorie’s.
And because I myself love all you children, I am giving _you_ the story
of a Surprise Book right here--now!
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Text in italics is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.