At last the singing stopped, the organ was silent, and the Christmas music
was ended. The boys arose in order and left the church, two by two, as
they had entered it; and the teacher walked in front.
Now, as he passed through the door of the church, little Wolff saw a child
sitting on one of the stone steps and fast asleep in the midst of the
snow. The child was thinly clad, and his feet, cold as it was, were bare.
In the pale light of the moon, the face of the child, with its closed
eyes, was full of a sweetness which is not of this earth, and his long
locks of yellow hair seemed like a golden crown upon his head. But his
poor bare feet, blue in the cold of that winter night, were sad to look
upon.
The scholars, so warmly clad, passed before the strange child, and did not
so much as glance that way. But little Wolff, who was the last to come out
of the church, stopped, full of pity, before him.
“Ah, the poor child!” he said to himself. “How sad it is that he must go
barefoot in such weather as this! And what is still worse, he has not a
stocking nor even a wooden shoe to lay before him while he sleeps, so that
the Christ Child can put something in it to make him glad when he wakens.”
Little Wolff did not stand long to think about it; but in the goodness of
his heart he took off the wooden shoe from his right foot and laid it by
the side of the sleeping child. Then, limping along through the snow, and
shivering with cold, he went down the street till he came to his cheerless
home.
“You worthless fellow!” cried his aunt. “Where have you been? What have
you done with your other shoe?”
Little Wolff trembled now with fear as well as with the cold; but he had
no thought of deceiving his angry aunt. He told her how he had given the
shoe to a child that was poorer than himself. The woman laughed an ugly,
wicked laugh.
“And so,” she said, “our fine young gentleman takes off his shoes for
beggars! He gives his wooden shoe to a barefoot! Well, we shall see.
You may put the shoe that is left in the chimney, and, mind what I say!
If anything is left in it, it will be a switch to whip you with in the
morning. To-morrow, for your Christmas dinner, you shall have nothing but
a hard crust of bread to eat and cold water to drink. I will show you how
to give away your shoes to the first beggar that comes along!”
The wicked woman struck the boy upon the cheek with her hand, and then
made him climb up to his bed in the loft. Sobbing with grief and pain,
little Wolff lay on his hard, cold bed, and did not go to sleep till the
moon had gone down and the Christmas bells had rung in the glad day of
peace and good will.
In the morning when the old woman arose grumbling and went downstairs, a
wonderful sight met her eyes. The great chimney was full of beautiful toys
and bags of candy and all kinds of pretty things; and right in the midst
of these was the wooden shoe which Wolff had given to the child, and near
it was its mate in which the wicked aunt had meant to put a strong switch.
The woman was so amazed that she cried out and stood still as if in a
fright. Little Wolff heard the cry and ran downstairs as quickly as he
could to see what was the matter. He, too, stopped short when he saw all
the beautiful things that were in the chimney. But as he stood and looked,
he heard people laughing in the street. What did it all mean?
By the side of the town pump many of the neighbors were standing. Each
was telling what had happened at his home that morning. The boys who had
rich parents and had been looking for beautiful gifts had found only long
switches in their shoes.
But, in the meanwhile, Wolff and his aunt stood still and looked at the
wonderful gifts around the two wooden shoes. Who had placed them there?
And where now was the kind, good giver?
Then, as they still wondered, they heard the voice of some one reading
in the little chapel over the way: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the
least of these--” And then, in some strange way, they understood how it
had all come about; and even the heart of the wicked aunt was softened.
And their eyes were filled with tears and their faces with smiles, as
they knelt down together and thanked the good God for what He had done to
reward the kindness and love of a little child.
--_Adapted from the French of François Coppée._