CHRISTMAS EVE PLOTS.
Molly was not sorry to spend Christmas in Wellington this year. Numbers
of invitations had come to her, but even Mary Stewart could not tempt
her away from Queen's Cottage.
"Otoyo and I shan't be lonesome," she said. "We have a lot of work to do
before the mid-year exams. and by the time you come back, Otoyo's
adverbs are going to modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. You'll
see," she assured her friends cheerfully.
And when the last train-load pulled out of Wellington, and she trudged
back along the deserted avenue, there was a strange gladness in her
heart.
"I'm not homesick and I'm not lonesome," she said to herself. "I'm just
happy. Except for Otoyo's lessons, I'm going to give myself a holiday.
I'm going to read--poetry--lots of it, all I want, and to sit in the
library and think. I'm going to take long walks alone. It will be like
seeing the last of a dear friend, because Wellington will not be
Wellington to me when I am installed at O'Reilly's."
Hardly half a dozen girls remained at college that Christmas, and Molly
was glad that she knew them only by sight. She was almost glad that the
doctor and Mrs. McLean had taken Andy south. She could not explain this
unusual lack of sociability on her part, but she did not want to be
asked anywhere. It was a pleasure to sit with Otoyo at one end of the
long table in Queen's dining room, and talk about the good times they
had been having. As for the future, Molly hung a thick veil between
these quiet days and the days to come. Through it dimly she could see
the bare little room at O'Reilly's, sometimes, but whenever this vision
rose in her mind, she resolutely began to think of something else.
It would be time enough to look it in the face at the end of the
semester, when she must break the news to Nance and Judy and pack her
things for the move.
Most of the girls had left on Saturday, and it seemed to Molly that
Sunday was the quietest day of her whole life. Scarcely a dozen persons
appeared at the Chapel for Vespers and the responses had to be spoken,
the choir having departed for the holidays. Monday was Christmas Eve,
and on that morning Mrs. Murphy, kind, good-natured soul that she was,
carried Molly's breakfast to her room with a pile of letters from home.
Molly read them while she drank her coffee, and saw plainly through
their thinly veiled attempts at cheerfulness. It was evident that her
family's fortunes were at a low ebb. Her mother was glad that Miss
Walker had arranged for her to stay at college and she hoped Molly would
be happy in her new quarters.
Molly finished her dressing.
"If I could only _do_ something," she said to herself fiercely as she
pinned on the blue tam, buttoned up her sweater and started out for a
walk. Otoyo, that model of industry, was deep in her lessons as Molly
passed her door.
"I'll be back for lunch, Otoyo," she called as she hurried downstairs.
She had no sooner left the house than Queen's Cottage became the scene
of the most surprising activities. Little Otoyo leaped to her feet as if
she had unexpectedly sat on a hornet's nest and trotted downstairs as
fast as her diminutive legs could carry her.
"Mrs. Murphee, I am readee," she called.
There was no telling what plot they were hatching, these two souls from
nations as widely different as night from day. Boxes were pulled from
mysterious closets. Mrs. Murphy and one of the maids emerged from the
cellar with their arms full of greens and, stranger still, the dignified
Professor of English Literature actually made his appearance at the
kitchen door with a big market basket on one arm and--but what the
Professor carried under the other arm had been carefully concealed with
wrapping paper. These things he deposited with Mrs. Murphy.
"It's a pleasant sight, surely, to see you this Christmas Eve marnin',
Professor," exclaimed the Irish woman. "You're as ruddy as a holly
berry, sir, and no mistake."
"Well, Mrs. Murphy, I'm a Christmas Green, you know," answered the
Professor, and Mrs. Murphy laughed like a child over the little joke.
"As for the young Japanese lady, she is that busy, sir. You would niver
expect a haythen born to take on so about the birthday of our blessed
Lord. But she's half a Catholic already, sir, and she's bought a holy
candle to burn to-night."
"You're a good woman, Mrs. Murphy," said the Professor, standing beside
the well-laden kitchen table, "and whatever she learns from you will do
her good, too. She's a long way from home and I have no doubt she'll be
very thankful for a little mothering, poor child."
"Indade, and she's as cheerful as the day is long, sir. And so is the
other young lady, and she's used to a deal of rejicin' in her family,
too. I can tell by the way she loves the entertainin'. Her company
niver goes away hungry and thirsty, sir. It's tea and cake always and
more besides. 'Have you a little spare room in your oven so that I can
bake some muffins for some friends this mornin', Mrs. Murphy?' she'll
say of a Sunday. She's that hospitable and kind, sir. There's nobody
like her in Queen's. I'd be sorry ever to lose her."
"Should you call her hair red, Mrs. Murphy?" asked the Professor
irrelevantly.
"It's more red than anything else, sir, especially when the weather's
damp."
"And what color should you say her eyes were, Mrs. Murphy?"
"An' you've not seen her eyes, surely, sir, if you can be askin' me that
question. They're as blue--as blue, sir, like the skies in summer."
The Professor blinked his own brown eyes very thoughtfully.
"Well, good day, Mrs. Murphy, I must be off. Do you think you and Miss
Sen together can manage things?"
"We can, surely," said Mrs. Murphy. "She's as neat and quick a little
body as I've seen this side the Atlantic."
"My sister gets here at noon. Good day," and the Professor was off,
around the house, and across the campus, before Mrs. Murphy could take
breath to continue her conversation.
In the meantime, Molly was hastening through the pine woods to a grove
where she had once seen some holly bushes. In the pocket of her sweater
were a pair of scissors and a penknife.
"We must have a little holiday decoration, Otoyo and I," she said to
herself. "And it's lots nicer to gather it than buy it at the grocery
store. I suppose my box from home will reach here to-night. I'll ask Mr.
and Mrs. Murphy up to-morrow and give a party. There'll be turkey in it,
of course, and plum cake and blackberry cordial--it won't be such a bad
Christmas. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy are dears--I must do up their presents
this afternoon. I hope Otoyo will like the little book. She'll be
interested to know that Professor Green wrote it."
As she hurried along, breathing in the frosty air, like Pilgrim she
spied a figure a great way off coming toward her.
"Another left-over," she thought and went on her way, her steps keeping
time to a poem she was repeating out loud:
"'St. Agnes' Eve--ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl for all his feathers was a-cold;
The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass
And silent was the flock in woolly fold----'"
Molly had just repeated the last line over, too absorbed to notice the
advancing figure through the pine trees, except sub-consciously to see
that it was a girl.
"Ah, here's the holly," she exclaimed.
"'Numb were the beadsman's fingers----'"
She knelt on the frozen ground and began cutting off branches with the
penknife.
"I suppose you are rather surprised to see me, aren't you?"
Molly looked up. It was Judith Blount.
"Why, where did you come from, Judith?" she asked. "Didn't you go up to
New York Friday, after all?"
"I was supposed to, but I didn't. I am staying down in the village at
the Inn. I may go this afternoon. I haven't decided yet. To tell the
truth, I am not very anxious to see my family. Papa--isn't at home and
Richard and mamma are rather gloomy company. I think I'd rather spend
Christmas almost anywhere than with them, this year."
"But your mother, Judith," exclaimed Molly, shocked at Judith's lack of
feeling, "doesn't she need you now more than ever?"
"Why?" demanded Judith suspiciously. "What do you know of my affairs?"
"I happen to know a great deal," answered Molly, "since they have a good
deal to do with my own affairs."
"Why, what do you mean?"
"Now, Judith," went on Molly, "this is Christmas and we won't quarrel
about our misfortunes. Whatever mine are, it's not your fault. I'm
gathering some holly to decorate for Otoyo and me. Won't you help me?"
"No, thanks," answered the other coldly. "I don't feel much like
Christmas this year," she burst out, after a pause. "I'm seeing my last
of college now, unless I choose to stay under certain conditions--and I
won't--I won't," she repeated, stamping her foot fiercely on the frozen
earth, which gave out a rhythmic sound under the blow. "Queen's is bad
enough, but if I am to descend to a room over the post-office after this
semester, I'd--I'd rather die!" she added furiously.
"We're in the same box," thought Molly. "I can appreciate how she feels,
poor soul. I was just about as bad myself at first."
"Do you blame me?" went on the unhappy Judith. "Through no fault of mine
I've had troubles heaped on me all winter--first one and then another. I
have had to suffer for another person's sins; to be crushed into a
nobody; taken from my rightful place and shoved off first into one
miserable little hole and then another. I tell you I don't think it's
fair--it's unkind--it's cruel!"
Molly was not accustomed to hear people pity themselves. She had been
brought up to regard it as an evidence of cowardice and low breeding.
"I've just about made up my mind," continued Judith, "to chuck the whole
thing and go on the stage. I can sing and dance, and I believe I could
get into almost any chorus. Richard, of course, wouldn't hear of my
taking part in his new opera and he could arrange it just as easily as
not, but he doesn't approve and neither does mamma. But it would be less
humiliating than this." She pointed to Wellington.
"But Judith, it would be a great deal more humiliating," ejaculated
Molly. "You would be fussed with and scolded, and you'd hear horrid
language, and live in wretched hotels and boarding houses a great deal
worse than the rooms over the post-office!"
It was very little Molly knew about chorus girl life, but that little
she now turned to good account.
"You would have to travel a lot on smoky, uncomfortable trains and stay
up late at night, whether you wanted to or not. You wouldn't be treated
like a lady," she added innocently, "and you'd have to cover your face
with grease and paint every night."
"I don't care," answered Judith. "Anything would be better than being
banished from Wellington and living in a room next to that talkative
little southern girl who does laundry work."
"Judith," exclaimed Molly, "I'm being banished from Wellington, too.
I've taken a room at O'Reilly's. I've been through all the misery you're
going through, and I know what you are suffering. I was almost at the
point of going home once. But Judith, don't you see that it's rather
cowardly to enjoy prosperity and the good things that come in time of
peace, and then run away when the real fight begins? And it wouldn't do
any good, either. It would only make other people suffer and we'd be
much worse off ourselves. Don't you think Judith Blount, B. A., would
be a more important person than Judith Blount, Chorus Girl?"
Judith began picking the leaves off a piece of holly. Almost everything
she did was destructive.
"I suppose you're right," she said at last. "Mamma and Richard would
have a fit and the chorus girl role wouldn't suit me, either. I'm too
high-tempered and I can't stand criticism. But you're going to
O'Reilly's? That puts a new face on it. I'll change to O'Reilly's, too."
Molly groaned inwardly. She would almost rather live next to a talking
machine than a firebrand.
"They aren't such bad rooms," she said quietly. "When we get our things
in, they'll be quite nice."
"And now, I'll hurry on," continued Judith, utterly absorbed in her own
affairs. "I think I will take the train to New York this afternoon. I
suppose it would be rather cowardly to leave mamma and Richard alone,
this Christmas, especially. Good-by." She held out her hand. "What are
your plans? Are you going to do anything tonight to celebrate?"
"No," answered Molly, shaking Judith's hand with as much cordiality as
she could muster. "Just go to bed."
"I thought perhaps you had formed some scheme of entertainment with my
cousins."
"You mean the Greens? I didn't know they were here."
"I don't know that they are here, either. They have been careful to keep
their plans from me."
Molly ignored this implication.
"I hope you'll enjoy your Christmas, Judith," she said. "Perhaps
something will turn up."
"Something will have to turn up after next year," exclaimed Judith, "for
I have made up my mind to one thing. I shall never work for a living."
And she strode off through the pine woods with her chin in the air, as
if she were defying all the powers in heaven to make her change this
resolution.
Molly shivered as she knelt to clip the holly. She seemed to see a
picture of a tiny little Judith standing in the middle of a vast,
endless plain raging and shaking her fists at--what? The empty air. She
sighed.
"I don't suppose I could ever make her understand that she'd be lots
happier if she'd just let go and stop thinking that God has a grudge
against her."