The day before Christmas Lucy came to her mother with a request. "Just
one thing, mother! And it isn't more presents--the Good Will tree hangs
full!"
"Well, then, what is it, Lucy?" asked Mrs. Van Buren.
Little Lucy laughed. "A Chinese Santa Claus, mother! Think what a Santa
Claus Sky-High would make in his flowing robes of black, yellow, and
white all sprinkled over with silver and gold! Nearly all the gifts are
Chinese, you know--all but ours for him. Just remember how he looked
last summer on Sunday afternoons when the birds flew down to admire
him!"
Yes, the birds seemed to have felt a curiosity about the little Chinaman
when he went out into the garden with the children after Sunday luncheon;
for sometimes, on that day, he used to put on garments so splendid that
he did not like to show himself above stairs or on the street, and the
birds came out of the trees to take a peep at him. One of these garments
was a frock of silk covered with golden dragons, lotus-flowers, and
gilded fringes; and with it he wore a golden butterfly with jeweled
wings on his rimless cap.
Even Mr. Van Buren had wondered where a servant obtained such a
glittering robe! One day he described the wardrobe of his house-boy
to the consul. "Is everything all right?" he asked.
The consul laughed. "You don't know China!" he said. "Probably the old
Manchurian mandarin had a fancy for decking out the boy!"
Nora's eyes used to double in size when she saw him in silk and gold and
silver, with the jeweled butterfly waving above his narrow black eyes.
"There's not the loikes on this planet," she would say. "I would think
he'd stepped off a star and landed here! Queen Victory never looked the
aqual of that little hathen varmit!"
It was agreed that Sky-High should be made the Santa Claus of the
Christmas party. He promised to appear in his dragon robe, though he
said it was never worn in public excepting on vice-royal occasions.
"Sky-High, did you ever see a vice-royal occasion?" asked Lucy,
wondering what the double word meant.
"Yea, my little Lady of the Lotus," answered the house-boy. "And once
I was present on a royal occasion in Pekin. The Son of Heaven appeared
that day in all his splendor."
"You waited on your mandarin?" asked Lucy.
"I attended upon my mandarin--yes?" Little Sky-High burst forth into the
forbidden "flowery language." "It was in the Purple City. Barbarians
cannot understand; but in our court, in the Inner City, in the ancient
Purple City, we associate with the Sun and Moon and the Dragon that
swallows the Sun. The Sacred Lotus is our flower, and at the feast the
heavens are made to shine on us!"
Lucy's face shone too, just to hear the words of the mysterious little
"Washee-washee-wang,"--in fact she had been radiant ever since she had
first thought of making a Santa Claus of him. She wondered how he would
look to her mother's friends on Christ Child night, wearing his
"celestial" robes.
The children were to have their own tree on Christmas eve, at the church
among the evergreens and music, and Sky-High was to accompany them in
his black clothes and white ruffles. The Christmas night tree was always
at home, for Mrs. Van Buren and her friends.
Little Lucy was to lead the Christmas night jollities, and only the
Santa Claus himself knew what would follow the wave of the long Chinese
wand which she carried.
The guests gathered early--half a dozen ladies--for it was to be a
story-telling evening.
Promptly at the moment when Lucy waved for him, little Sky-High came
into the parlors fanning slowly with his great ceremonial fan, as if
entering some languid pagoda garden of his native land. Every guest
leaned forward to gaze at the gorgeous stranger. His silk stockings
were white, over black shoes with silver buckles and whitened soles.
His robe sparkled gaily with the dragon and lotus, and the butterfly on
his gold-banded cap shook its jeweled wings with every step. He wore a
sash of gems which the family had not seen before. He moved before the
company like a figure of sunshine.
Little Lucy had come to his side. "I have the great felicity," she
began--she had got the fine word from Sky-High--"to have a celestial
Santa Claus, a wang from China, to serve you the gifts from the Good
Will tree."
The glittering wang bowed to the four corners of the earth, then to all,
turning round and round in dazzling circles.
No, Mrs. Van Buren's Christmas guests had never seen a Santa Claus like
this one! All eyes were wide with pleased wonder.
"Isn't he perfectly splendid?" whispered Lucy, tripping over to the wife
of the rector.
"He is indeed, dear," said the rector's wife; and added low to her
neighbor, "Is it not their wonderful house-boy?"
No one was certain. And no one, excepting Lucy and the Santa Claus, knew
what were the gifts on the Good Will tree. Lucy and little Sky-High had
bought them in Boston. All those for the guests were blue-and-white
mandarin plates, wrapped in squares of gay silk crape, and tied with a
profusion of soft gold cord. As the packages were alike, the celestial
Santa Claus could present them without mistakes.
But there were some packages in red-and-gold crape still on the tree,
not large ones--not magic plates, certainly.
The Santa Claus unwrapped the three which he next took from the green
branches. The presents were amulets. When unfolded they revealed bells
and gems; the bells looked like gold; the gems like pure pearls, opals,
and crystals. One was a necklace for Mrs. Van Buren; one a bracelet for
Lucy; and the other a charm for Charles.
The amulets awakened a great surprise. The little golden bells burned
with the red lusters of rubies, and tinkled as though they were
dream-bells.
"They keep evil spirits away," said Sky-High, with sparkling eyes. "They
ring warnings."
Mrs. Van Buren rose and put one of the other packages in little
Sky-High's hand. The wrappings revealed a four-fold case of gold, which
some curious mechanism permitted to open into leaves, and stand us a
tablet, or half-closed. Each leaf held a small and perfect portrait--the
four were of the little serving-man's mistress and her children and the
master; and it is impossible to describe the blissful expression in
Sky-High's eyes when he first looked upon the familiar faces.
And there was still another package. That one the little Chinaman had
put on the Good Will tree for Nora.
It was an English gold sovereign in a case tied with red ribbon.
"And may the Angel of Mercy spread her white wings over that hathen
boy's pigtail!" said Nora, as she was given the gift. "I wish I had
something for him. I will give him kind words now, and sure!"