HOW WE SPENT CHRISTMAS
The next day the Master, the Mistress, the Baby, William and us dogs
went for a walk together. William carried an axe and a piece of rope. I
thought we were going hunting. The snow was quite deep and the Master
and the Mistress wore funny flat things under their shoes which kept
them from sinking through the snow. The Master carried the Baby in his
arms until we had got to the woods, and she kept saying “Kismas twee!
Kismas twee! Booful Kismas twee!” all the way. When we were at the
edge of the woods the Master and William walked around and looked at
the trees and at last the Master said “This one, William,” and William
swung his axe and down came the tree. It was only a small one and I
tried to tell them that there were very much larger ones further on,
but no one paid any attention to me. When the tree was cut down William
tied the rope to it and we went home, William dragging the tree after
him over the snow. I thought it was a pretty poor sort of hunt.
It began to snow again before we were back at the house and William put
us to bed early that evening. The next morning the snow had stopped and
the sun was shining brightly. William let us out and we all tore up to
the back door, very hungry indeed. And when Cook gave us our breakfast
what do you suppose it was? What’s the nicest thing you can think of?
Mince pie? Why, of course not; dogs don’t care for mince pie. No, nor
candy――much. What we had that morning was liver and corn-bread, with
lots of gravy! How was that for a feast? And Cook and Delia and William
stood around and saw us eat it and laughed and seemed very gay and
happy. And after that William took us into the house.
There was the Baby and the Master and the Mistress, and they all
cried “Merry Christmas!” as we came tumbling in; only the Baby said
“Maykismas!” instead, which was the best she could do. Between the
windows in the big room was that tree we had brought home the day
before, but you would never have known it for the same tree. I didn’t
know whether to bark at it or wag my tail. So I growled. That tree
was all covered with the most wonderful sparkly things! There were
glass balls of red and yellow and green and white and blue, and long
strings of shiny stuff that glittered in the sunlight, and strings of
pop-corn――only I’d never seen any pop-corn just like it before, because
it was pink!――and all sorts of little toys and coloured paper bags and,
at the very tip-top of the tree, a little white angel with wings like
a dragon-fly! And underneath the tree were many things wrapped in paper
and tied with red ribbons.
“Just see Freya!” laughed the Mistress. Would you believe it, that dog
had helped herself to one of the packages and had taken it under the
table and was tearing the paper off it! I was terribly ashamed of her,
I can tell you! But the Master and the Mistress didn’t seem to mind
it. They only laughed. And the Master looked at what Freya had taken
and said: “Smart dog! It had her name on it!” And the Baby clapped
her hands and every one seemed to think that Freya had really done
something very clever!
The Master reached under the tree then and picked up one of the
packages and looked at it and said: “Now then, Young Fritz, here’s a
present for you. Sit up and ask for it, you rascal!”
So I sat up on my hind legs and begged and he put it in my mouth and I
took it off to a corner and smelled of it. It didn’t smell very nice,
I thought. It made me think of something but I couldn’t remember what.
So I tore the paper off it and――can you guess what I found? A pickled
lime! Wasn’t that a mean joke? I backed away from it in a hurry and
they all laughed at me and I crawled under the couch where Freya was
chewing on a rubber ball with her eyes closed. I took it away from her,
but the Mistress said “No, no, Fritzie! You mustn’t take Freya’s ball
away. Here’s something nice for you.”
So I sat up and begged again and the Master gave me another present and
when I’d got the paper and ribbon off it there was a rubber cat that
squeaked every time I bit it! It looked a little like Ju-Ju, who was
sitting on the window-sill with a new pink bow around her neck, and
when I saw that I bit it harder.
Father got a new collar and a rabbit made of cloth, Mother got a
Teddy bear and a tin bug that walked across the floor and went
_click-click-click_, Freya got the ball and a cloth cat which was
bigger than mine but didn’t taste so good and I got a wooden duck that
flapped its wings and opened its mouth when you moved it. I didn’t
think that the Family knew about the time the duck made me fall into
the brook, but they must have. I suppose Ju-Ju told them. That cat
talks too much, anyway.
And we all had sweet biscuits and candy which the Baby fed to us until
the Mistress told her we had had enough. After that we were allowed
to stay there and play a long time. I chewed that rubber cat until it
stopped squeaking and then tried the duck. The paint tasted very good.
Freya stole a bag of candy from the tree and ate half of it before I
found out about it and took it away from her. Really, her manners were
awful that day!
[Illustration: I chewed that rubber cat until it stopped squeaking and
then tried the duck]
I ate the rest of the candy so as to punish her for stealing it, but I
didn’t really want it and after I had eaten it I began to feel sick.
It was just as well, I think, that they let us out just then. I don’t
know what the rest did, but I hurried right down to the stable and
got behind the flower-pots and had quite a miserable time of it for a
while. You see, besides the sweet biscuits and all that candy, I had
eaten most of a rubber cat and one wing of a wooden duck. I think,
though, that it was the yellow paint that made me sick.
I felt better in the afternoon and crawled out and went back to the
house. The Baby had a new sled and she was coasting down a little hill
behind the house. She would sit on the sled and take one of us dogs in
her arms and then Nurse would give her a push and off she would go. I
coasted twice but didn’t care much for it. I wasn’t feeling quite well
yet. For dinner that day we had turkey, and it was fine; almost as
good as liver and corn-bread. I was very glad that I felt well enough
by that time to eat all that was given to me――and some of Freya’s. Then
William took us down and put us to bed and that ended that Christmas
Day. I had had a very good time, on the whole, but I was a little glad
that Christmas didn’t come very often!