“Well, you might as well pull up your stockings.”
So he did. His stockings were always just like a concertina or a very
expensive photographic camera, but he used to say it was not his fault,
and I suppose he knew best. Then he said—
“I say, Rom! mother only said we weren’t to _touch_ the two
top-drawers——”
“I _should_ like to be good,” said Rosamund.
“I _mean_ to be good,” said Fabian. “But if you took the little thin
poker that is not kept for best you could put it through one of the
brass handles and I could hold the other handle with the tongs. And
then we could open the drawer without touching it.”
“So we could! How clever you are, Fabe,” said Rosamund. And she admired
her brother very much. So they took the poker and the tongs. The front
of the bureau got a little scratched, but the top drawer came open, and
there they saw two boxes with glass tops and narrow gold paper going
all round; though you could only see paper shavings through the glass
they knew it was soldiers. Besides these boxes there was a doll and a
donkey standing on a green grass plot that had wooden wheels, and a
little wicker-work doll’s cradle, and some brass cannons, and a bag
that looked like marbles, and some flags, and a mouse that seemed as
though it moved with clockwork; only, of course, they had promised not
to touch the drawer, so they could not make sure. There was a wooden
box, too, and it was wrong way up and on the bottom of it was written
in pencil, “Vill: and anim: 5/9-1/2.” They looked at each other, and
Fabian said:
“I wish it was to-morrow!”
You have seen that Fabian was quite a clever boy; and he knew at once
that these were the Christmas presents which Santa Claus had brought
for him and Rosamund. But Rosamund said, “Oh dear, I wish we hadn’t!”
However, she consented to open the other drawer—without touching it,
of course, because she had promised faithfully—and when, with the
poker and tongs, the other drawer came open, there were large wooden
boxes—the kind that hold raisins and figs—and round boxes with paper
on—smooth on the top and folded in pleats round the edge; and the
children knew what was inside without looking. Every one knows what
candied fruit looks like on the outside of the box. There were square
boxes, too—the kind that have crackers in—with a cracker going off
on the lid, very different in size and brightness from what it does
really, for, as no doubt you know, a cracker very often comes in two
quite calmly, without any pop at all, and then you only have the motto
and the sweet, which is never nice. Of course, if there is anything
else in the cracker, such as brooches or rings, you have to let the
little girl who sits next you at supper have it.