THE PIRATE'S CHRISTMAS STORY
CHRISTMAS Day dawned bright and clear. After breakfast they shut up the
Cottage and all went to church. Dinner was to be late that day, for
Aunt Alice was determined not to miss church in the morning.
"We'll have a snack of cold lunch," she said; "and then we'll have a
proper Christmas dinner at six o'clock."
The church was very full. Sir George and Lady Melville had their boys
home and a party of visitors as well. Charlie was there with his
father and mother, but just before the service began, there was a
great surprise for the little girls. The Pirate appeared and walked
up the aisle, taking a seat on the opposite side to where they sat.
Faith nudged her Aunt, and Aunt Alice smiled with a little flush on
her cheeks. When they came out of church, greetings took place in the
churchyard. Sir George and Lady Melville both thanked Faith very much
for her presents, and then Charlie rushed up in great excitement.
"You are a brick!" he said. "You should have heard me yell when I saw
my cycle! How did you think of it?"
"We all thought of it," said Faith; "Charity and Hope helped me with
everything. Hope said she knew you wanted one."
"It's simply stunning! And I say, I'm going to have a party with
fireworks on New Year's Eve, and you're all to come!"
"How jolly!" cried the little girls. "Of course we will."
Then the Pirate, who had been talking to Granny and Aunt Alice, came
up, and they all seized hold of him.
"We thought you were in France!" "When did you come back?" "Are you
going to stay?"
He laughed.
"I came back last night, and I'm coming to dinner with you to-day.
Won't we have fun!"
The little girls of course were entranced.
Then Faith pulled him aside.
"We're having such a lovely Christmas because of the money in the
coin cabinet. Aunt Alice says you know about it. Wasn't it the most
wonderful surprise for me?"
"I guess it was. Yes, I know all about it. Has it all gone yet?"
"The most awful lot of it has. Wasn't it good of Mr. Cardwell? I do
hope he knows how we're enjoying ourselves."
"I expect he does. What have you done to your Aunt Alice? She's looking
ripping!"
Faith slipped over to her Aunt's side.
Aunt Alice was wearing her furs, and she was indeed looking her very
best. A bright colour was in her cheeks, and a light in her eyes. She
took hold of Faith's hand.
"Come along, chicks! We must get home. You will see your Pirate again,
so we won't say good-bye."
But Faith had to speak to another of her friends first, and that was
old Timothy, who was in the new overcoat and standing outside the gate.
He gripped hold of her small hand.
"A happy Christmas, missie!—But your face tells me you're having that."
"Yes, everything is delicious," said Faith. "Wouldn't you like a week
of Christmas Days, Timothy, all bunched together? It goes too quickly
for us."
"We can have a week of Christmas joy," the old man said, and then he
went off and Faith joined her sisters.
The Pirate arrived about four that afternoon; and he produced out
of his pockets the most wonderful presents for everyone. They came
from Paris; there were three big chocolate boxes for the little girls
tied up with pink satin ribbon; there was a most dainty silk work-bag
for Granny, and a tiny little leather box for Aunt Alice. There were
dainty handkerchiefs, and scent bottles, and sachets, which were also
distributed round.
The children were quite overcome by it all.
"I shall have to write to Mrs. Cox to-morrow," said Charity; "I feel I
must tell about it all to somebody."
The Pirate was sitting round the fire with Granny and Aunt Alice.
Aunt Alice every now and then ran away to see how the cooking was
getting on, for she had one of the village women to help her for the
day, and she wanted some superintendence.
"What is inside your little box, Aunt Alice?" asked Hope presently.
Aunt Alice looked at the Pirate and laughed.
"I will show you after dinner," she said, "not now."
They had a light tea round the fire, and, later on, the children all
went upstairs and put on their best party dresses in honour for the
occasion.
Dinner, of course, was a great success.
Sir George had sent Granny a huge turkey, there were mince-pies and
plum pudding, and apples and nuts and oranges, and a big box of
crackers, which was a present from Lady Melville.
And they were all very merry, for the Pirate told them funny stories;
some were true, some did not sound as if they were, but they made
everybody laugh. And as the Pirate said, this Christmas must be the
very jolliest of all, for Peace was amongst them once more.
And then when dinner was over, they all gathered in a circle round the
blazing fire, and the little girls besought the Pirate once more for a
story. At first he refused, and then he suddenly sat up, and said he
would tell them one.
"It was Christmas Eve," he began, "and very dark and cold. A carriage
was lumbering up a long drive towards a big gloomy house. Inside was a
young man. We will call him Rufus. He did not look happy. He was tired
with a very long journey. A few days before he had been busy and happy,
for he was doing some hard work, and was told he was doing it very
satisfactorily; but suddenly he was told the work was finished, and
that he was needed no more. He was glad to come back to his home, and
yet he was sorry, for there was nobody to greet him. The only one who
had really belonged to him had passed away.
"And when the carriage stopped at the door, Rufus gave a big sigh and
walked into the dim, gloomy hall, nodded to the servants, and then went
into the library, where he always used to sit and smoke. There was a
big fire to welcome him, and a small white terrier. He sat down by it
and took the terrier into his arms, and then he kept very still until
he began to see pictures in the fire. He saw himself coming into the
big house, but flying to meet him was a lady with a beautiful face, and
two or three dancing sprites behind her. In the background was another
face of an older lady, almost heavenly in its welcoming radiance, and
he felt his heart get warm, as warm as his body was getting from the
blazing fire. He sprang to his feet and walked up and down the room.
"'I will! I will!' he cried. 'I won't put it off any longer!'"
"What was he going to do?" enquired Charity breathlessly.
"You'll hear. Soon afterwards he went into another room, where he had
to eat his Christmas Eve dinner all by himself. But he did not feel
lonely any more. He pictured the faces he had seen in the fire round
his table. Then he went upstairs after he had dined, and wandered into
a great many empty rooms, and planned how he could make them more
comfortable. And he went into one particular room, and unlocked a safe
in the wall, and took out of it an old-fashioned silver casket; there
were precious stones and jewels inside it. He took out one particular
jewel, and wrapped it up, and put it in his pocket next his heart, to
keep it warm. And then he went downstairs into the hall again, and
buttoned himself into his great coat, and jammed on his old felt hat,
and away he went down the drive with great swinging strides. His chest
was thrown out, and his head well up in the air, for he was determined
to be brave. He was going out to meet someone, and he did not know
whether he would return to his house that night a conqueror, or a
vanquished and despairing man."
"Oh! Was he going to fight an enemy?" asked Hope.
She was hushed up at once by her sisters.
"It's getting most awfully exciting," murmured Charity.
The Pirate went on without noticing these interruptions.
"And then suddenly, when he had got out on the dry, high road, his
spirits sank all at once. He remembered how full of hope he had been
once before, just before he left for a foreign land; and how he had
determined to come off conqueror, but how absolutely he was humbled
to the dust; how the desire of his heart was not granted to him. Of
course he had said he would win sooner or later, because it was only
that horrid big word, 'circumstances' against him. And then he heard a
little robin chirping in the hedge, and he bucked up again and went on.
"At last he came to his destination.
"A little, quiet, dark house, with just one light shining out, but that
light gave him a cheerful wink, and he got in at the gate and up to the
door, and suddenly before he could knock, it was flung open and the one
he sought came out."
The Pirate stopped. Aunt Alice bent forward and stirred the fire, and
coughed rather loudly.
The Pirate went on a little nervously.
"Well, that's nearly all, children—but he had his interview, and it was
well worth all the doubts and fears and tremblings that had beset him
before. He went back to his gloomy house in an hour's time, but it was
gloomy no more. He came back to it as victor, and it seemed to him as
if the whole place was full of glory."
"Is that all?" asked Faith, softly. "And what about the box with the
jewel?"
"He kept it for a Christmas present."
"But who was he so frightened of? Who did he go to meet?"
"Ask your Aunt Alice. She will tell you."
But Aunt Alice was looking into the fire. Her hand was shielding her
face.
Granny sat back in her chair, and looked smilingly amused. There seemed
to be a mystery somewhere.
Suddenly Charity sprang to her feet.
"I know," she said; "Rufus went to meet the beautiful lady. He wanted
her to come and live with him as his wife, and he wasn't certain
whether she would or not."
"Oh, Charity, you're too sharp altogether!" The Pirate leant back in
his chair and laughed.
"Did she say yes?" Hope asked.
"She did," the Pirate said; "she saw how unhappy poor Rufus would be
without her. And the next day he went back to her and gave her the
ring."
"Was the jewel a ring? Oh, how exciting! And did they marry and live
happy ever after?"
"That takes time in the doing," said the Pirate, with twinkling eyes,
"but of course that will come to pass."
"And what was the ring like?" asked Hope.
"Ask your Aunt Alice!"
Aunt Alice turned and held up her left hand in the firelight. There
upon her third finger sparkled a diamond ring!
And then the little girls gave screams of astonishment and joy.
"Why, you've been telling us about yourself! It's a true story!"
"And you came home yesterday to the Towers."
"And did you come and see Aunt Alice last night?"
"And are you going to take her away from us? We really can't spare her."
"I am going to carry her off to my house, of course. But a pirate
sticks at nothing. I shall do more than that. I shall carry dear old
Granny off—very gently so as not to hurt her; and then I shall come
back for all of you—I shall carry you all off to my gloomy castle, and
there you will have to stay. What do you think of that?"
He leant back in his chair and looked at them with a cheerful smile.
It was some time before they could grasp this wonderful news, and when
they did, they hardly knew what to say.
"Do you mean," Charity said, earnestly, "that you're going to marry
Aunt Alice and take us all to live at the Towers? Why, it will be like
a fairy tale. It can't be true!"
"Do you think there will be room enough for you?" asked the Pirate,
anxiously.
And then the little girls began to laugh, as they thought of the big,
rambling passages, and the large, lofty rooms that were mostly empty.
Bedtime came too soon. But they went upstairs obediently when they were
told.
Surely this was the most wonderful Christmas Day that they had ever
seen!
The next morning Granny talked quietly about the change in front of
them.
The Pirate was coming home to farm his own land. At first, Aunt Alice
said she could not leave Granny and her nieces. That sent him away to
France very sorrowful, for Granny did not see her way to come to the
Towers too. She wanted to stay on in the Cottage with the little girls.
But when he wrote miserable letters saying what a gloomy, empty home he
had, and how he longed to fill it with them all, Granny began to think
she must give up her own will for his sake, and for Aunt Alice's, and
when he arrived at the Cottage in the dark the night before, and Aunt
Alice met him at the door, Granny came forward and said she was ready
to do anything they wished.
The children listened to this account with the greatest interest.
"What I can't make out," said Charity, "is why you like living here in
a tiny cottage better than a lovely house like the Towers, Granny."
"Ah, well," said Granny, smiling a little sadly, "you may understand
one day when you are older."
And then she said no more.
A few days after Christmas, the Pirate had Aunt Alice and the children
over to tea at the Towers.
They went all over it, and had the joy of settling the different rooms
that would be arranged for them. Granny was to have one of the big
sunny rooms looking over the green lawns and cedar trees, the little
girls were to have a big room next to her for their schoolroom, and
then three small bedrooms which led into each other at the end of the
passage, were for them to sleep in.
It was bliss to think that they would each have a bedroom of their own.
Aunt Alice was talking to the old housekeeper about some of the
downstairs rooms, when Faith stole softly along to the one in which she
had first seen old Mr. Cardwell.
The Pirate found her standing by the couch with tears in her eyes.
Turning to him she said:
"Oh, I do wish he was here to see us all. I do miss him so much."
"Why were you so fond of him, I wonder," said the young man, looking at
her with tender eyes.
"Oh, he was so unhappy," said Faith, "and then, you know, he got
happy, and I liked him better than ever. And he was so kind to me. And
he called me 'little Miss Moth.' I shall never, never hear that name
again! I did love it so."
"Did you?" said the Pirate, sitting down on a chair and taking her up
on his lap. "But you shall hear that name again, for I mean to call you
by it."
"Will you, really? Oh, it will be lovely if you do?"
Faith's face was radiant.
"Then come, little Miss Moth, we will go back to the others."
And he and she went out into the big hall, where the Pirate saw once
more the picture that had appeared in the fire—his beautiful lady
turning with a smiling face to meet him, and two dancing sprites behind
her.
CHATS WITH
CHILDREN
BY
AMY LE FEUVRE
...is an outstanding example of the art of interesting young people.
The ordinary and every-day things of life in such skilful hands assume
a new character, while spiritual lessons therefrom are reached by an
easy transition. A delight to the children. A real treasure for the
parents.
CHAT I. OUTSIDE AND INSIDE
CHAT II. WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP
CHAT III. THE WAY TO HEAVEN
CHAT IV. A KNOCK AT THE DOOR
CHAT V. HOW TO TACKLE GIANTS
CHAT VI. A FREE GIFT
CHAT VII. TO BE READY
CHAT VIII. THE UNKNOWN VISITOR
CHAT IX. OUR INHERITANCE
Four Illustrations in Full Colour
Eight Illustrations in Black and White
COLOURED JACKET PICKERING
CR. OCTAVO 2/6 NET & INGLIS