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THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF CHRISTMAS STORIES
[Illustration: CHRISTMAS JOLLITY
(_John Leech's "Mr. Fezziwig's Ball," from Dickens' "Christmas
Carol."_)]
THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF CHRISTMAS STORIES
EDITED BY
ASA DON DICKINSON
AND
ADA M. SKINNER
GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC.
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY DOUBLEDAY &
COMPANY, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The Publishers desire to acknowledge the kindness of the J. B.
Lippincott Co., Houghton Mifflin Co., D. C. Heath & Co., The
Bobbs-Merrill Co., Milton Bradley Co., Henry Altemus Co., Lothrop, Lee &
Shepherd Co., Little, Brown & Co., Moffat, Yard & Co., American Book
Co., Perry, Mason Co., Duffield & Co., Chicago Kindergarten College, and
others, who have granted them permission to reproduce herein selections
from works bearing their copyright.
PREFACE
Many librarians have felt the need and expressed the desire for a select
collection of children's Christmas stories in one volume. This book
claims to be just that and nothing more.
Each of the stories has already won the approval of thousands of
children, and each is fraught with the true Christmas spirit.
It is hoped that the collection will prove equally acceptable to
parents, teachers, and librarians.
ASA DON DICKINSON.
CONTENTS
(_Note_.--The stories marked with a star (*) will be most enjoyed by
younger children; those marked with a dagger (+) are better suited to
older children.)
PAGE
Christmas at Fezziwig's Warehouse. _By Charles Dickens_ 3
*The Fir-Tree. _By Hans Christian Andersen_ 6
The Christmas Masquerade. _By Mary E. Wilkins Freeman_ 19
*The Shepherds and the Angels. _Adapted from the Bible_ 34
+The Telltale Tile. _By Olive Thorne Miller_ 36
*Little Girl's Christmas. _By Winnifred E. Lincoln_ 48
+A Christmas Matinée. _By M. A. L. Lane_ 57
*Toinette and the Elves. _By Susan Coolidge_ 68
The Voyage of the Wee Red Cap. _By Ruth Sawyer Durand_ 86
*A Story of the Christ-Child (a German Legend for Christmas
Eve). _As told by Elizabeth Harrison_ 96
*Jimmy Scarecrow's Christmas. _by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman_ 103
Why the Chimes Rang. _By Raymond McAlden_ 113
*The Birds' Christmas (founded on fact). _By F. E. Mann_ 120
+The Little Sister's Vacation. _By Winifred M. Kirkland_ 126
*Little Wolff's Wooden Shoes. _By François Coppée, adapted
and translated by Alma J. Foster_ 139
+Christmas in the Alley. _By Olive Thorne Miller_ 146
*A Christmas Star. _By Katherine Pyle_ 158
+The Queerest Christmas. _By Grace Margaret Gallaher_ 165
Old Father Christmas. _By J. H. Ewing_ 179
A Christmas Carol. _By Charles Dickens_ 193
How Christmas Came to the Santa Maria Flats. _By Elia W. Peattie_ 196
The Legend of Babouscka. _From the Russian Folk Tale_ 208
*Christmas in the Barn. _By F. Arnstein_ 211
The Philanthropist's Christmas. _By James Weber Linn_ 216
*The First Christmas-Tree. _By Lucy Wheelock_ 230
The First New England Christmas. _By G. L. Stone and M. G.
Fickett_ 232
The Cratchits' Christmas Dinner. _By Charles Dickens_ 242
Christmas in Seventeen Seventy-Six. _By Anne Hollingsworth
Wharton_ 253
*Christmas Under the Snow. _By Olive Thorne Miller_ 261
Mr. Bluff's Experience of Holidays. _By Oliver Bell Bunce_ 273
+Master Sandy's Snapdragon. _By Elbridge S. Brooks_ 284
A Christmas Fairy. _By John Strange Winter_ 297
The Greatest of These. _By Joseph Mills Hanson_ 303
*Little Gretchen and the Wooden Shoe. _By Elizabeth Harrison_ 316
+Christmas on Big Rattle. _By Theodore Goodridge Roberts_ 329
THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF CHRISTMAS STORIES
I
CHRISTMAS AT FEZZIWIG'S WAREHOUSE
CHARLES DICKENS
"YO HO! my boys," said Fezziwig. "No more work to-night! Christmas Eve,
Dick! Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's have the shutters up!" cried old
Fezziwig with a sharp clap of his hands, "before a man can say Jack
Robinson. . . ."
"Hilli-ho!" cried old Fezziwig, skipping down from the high desk with
wonderful agility. "Clear away, my lads, and let's have lots of room
here! Hilli-ho, Dick! Cheer-up, Ebenezer!"
Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away, or
couldn't have cleared away with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in
a minute. Every movable was packed off, as if it were dismissed from
public life forevermore; the floor was swept and watered, the lamps were
trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug,
and warm, and dry, and bright a ballroom as you would desire to see on a
winter's night.
In came a fiddler with a music book, and went up to the lofty desk and
made an orchestra of it and tuned like fifty stomach-aches. In came Mrs.
Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came the three Misses
Fezziwig, beaming and lovable. In came the six followers whose hearts
they broke. In came all the young men and women employed in the
business. In came the housemaid with her cousin the baker. In came the
cook with her brother's particular friend the milkman. In came the boy
from over the way, who was suspected of not having board enough from his
master, trying to hide himself behind the girl from next door but one
who was proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress; in they all
came, anyhow and everyhow. Away they all went, twenty couple at once;
hands half round and back again the other way; down the middle and up
again; round and round in various stages of affectionate grouping, old
top couple always turning up in the wrong place; new top couple starting
off again, as soon as they got there; all top couples at last, and not a
bottom one to help them.
When this result was brought about the fiddler struck up "Sir Roger de
Coverley." Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top
couple, too, with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them; three or
four and twenty pairs of partners; people who were not to be trifled
with; people who would dance and had no notion of walking.
But if they had been thrice as many--oh, four times as many--old
Fezziwig would have been a match for them, and so would Mrs. Fezziwig.
As to her, she was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term.
If that's not high praise, tell me higher and I'll use it. A positive
light appeared to issue from Fezziwig's calves. They shone in every part
of the dance like moons. You couldn't have predicted at any given time
what would become of them next. And when old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig
had gone all through the dance, advance and retire; both hands to your
partner, bow and courtesy, corkscrew, thread the needle, and back again
to your place; Fezziwig "cut"--cut so deftly that he appeared to wink
with his legs, and came upon his feet again with a stagger.
When the clock struck eleven the domestic ball broke up. Mr. and Mrs.
Fezziwig took their stations, one on either side of the door, and
shaking hands with every person individually, as he or she went out,
wished him or her a Merry Christmas!
II
THE FIR-TREE[A]
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
OUT in the woods stood a nice little Fir-tree. The place he had was a
very good one; the sun shone on him; as to fresh air, there was enough
of that, and round him grew many large-sized comrades, pines as well as
firs. But the little Fir wanted so very much to be a grown-up tree.
He did not think of the warm sun and of the fresh air; he did not care
for the little cottage children that ran about and prattled when they
were in the woods looking for wild strawberries. The children often came
with a whole pitcher full of berries, or a long row of them threaded on
a straw, and sat down near the young tree and said, "Oh, how pretty he
is! what a nice little fir!" But this was what the Tree could not bear
to hear.
At the end of a year he had shot up a good deal, and after another year
he was another long bit taller; for with fir-trees one can always tell
by the shoots how many years old they are.
"Oh, were I but such a high tree as the others are!" sighed he. "Then I
should be able to spread out my branches, and with the tops to look
into the wide world! Then would the birds build nests among my branches;
and when there was a breeze, I could bend with as much stateliness as
the others!"
Neither the sunbeams, nor the birds, nor the red clouds, which morning
and evening sailed above them, gave the little Tree any pleasure.
In winter, when the snow lay glittering on the ground, a hare would
often come leaping along, and jump right over the little Tree. Oh, that
made him so angry! But two winters were past, and in the third the tree
was so large that the hare was obliged to go round it. "To grow and
grow, to get older and be tall," thought the Tree--"that, after all, is
the most delightful thing in the world!"
In autumn the wood-cutters always came and felled some of the largest
trees. This happened every year; and the young Fir-tree, that had now
grown to a very comely size, trembled at the sight; for the magnificent
great trees fell to the earth with noise and cracking, the branches were
lopped off, and the trees looked long and bare; they were hardly to be
recognized; and then they were laid in carts, and the horses dragged
them out of the woods.
Where did they go to? What became of them?
In spring, when the Swallows and the Storks came, the Tree asked them,
"Don't you know where they have been taken? Have you not met them
anywhere?"
The Swallows did not know anything about it; but the Stork looked
musing, nodded his head, and said: "Yes, I think I know; I met many
ships as I was flying hither from Egypt; on the ships were magnificent
masts, and I venture to assert that it was they that smelt so of fir. I
may congratulate you, for they lifted themselves on high most
majestically!"
"Oh, were I but old enough to fly across the sea! But how does the sea
look in reality? What is it like?"
"That would take a long time to explain," said the Stork, and with these
words off he went.
"Rejoice in thy growth!" said the Sunbeams, "rejoice in thy vigorous
growth, and in the fresh life that moveth within thee!"
And the Wind kissed the Tree, and the Dew wept tears over him; but the
Fir understood it not.
When Christmas came, quite young trees were cut down; trees which often
were not even as large or of the same age as this Fir-tree, who could
never rest, but always wanted to be off. These young trees, and they
were always the finest looking, retained their branches; they were laid
on carts, and the horses drew them out of the woods.
"Where are they going to?" asked the Fir. "They are not taller than I;
there was one indeed that was considerably shorter; and why do they
retain all their branches? Whither are they taken?"
"We know! we know!" chirped the Sparrows. "We have peeped in at the
windows in the town below! We know whither they are taken! The greatest
splendour and the greatest magnificence one can imagine await them. We
peeped through the windows, and saw them planted in the middle of the
warm room, and ornamented with the most splendid things--with gilded
apples, with gingerbread, with toys, and many hundred lights!"
"And then?" asked the Fir-tree, trembling in every bough. "And then?
What happens then?"
"We did not see anything more: it was incomparably beautiful."
"I would fain know if I am destined for so glorious a career," cried the
Tree, rejoicing. "That is still better than to cross the sea! What a
longing do I suffer! Were Christmas but come! I am now tall, and my
branches spread like the others that were carried off last year! Oh,
were I but already on the cart. Were I in the warm room with all the
splendour and magnificence! Yes; then something better, something still
grander, will surely follow, or wherefore should they thus ornament me?
Something better, something still grander, _must_ follow--but what? Oh,
how I long, how I suffer! I do not know myself what is the matter with
me!"
"Rejoice in our presence!" said the Air and the Sunlight; "rejoice in
thy own fresh youth!"
But the Tree did not rejoice at all; he grew and grew, and was green
both winter and summer. People that saw him said, "What a fine tree!"
and toward Christmas he was one of the first that was cut down. The axe
struck deep into the very pith; the tree fell to the earth with a sigh:
he felt a pang--it was like a swoon; he could not think of happiness,
for he was sorrowful at being separated from his home, from the place
where he had sprung up. He knew well that he should never see his dear
old comrades, the little bushes and flowers around him, any more;
perhaps not even the birds! The departure was not at all agreeable.
The Tree only came to himself when he was unloaded in a courtyard with
the other trees, and heard a man say, "That one is splendid! we don't
want the others." Then two servants came in rich livery and carried the
Fir-tree into a large and splendid drawing-room. Portraits were hanging
on the walls, and near the white porcelain stove stood two large Chinese
vases with lions on the covers. There, too, were large easy chairs,
silken sofas, large tables full of picture-books, and full of toys worth
hundreds and hundreds of crowns--at least the children said so. And the
Fir-tree was stuck upright in a cask that was filled with sand: but no
one could see that it was a cask, for green cloth was hung all around
it, and it stood on a large gayly coloured carpet. Oh, how the Tree
quivered! What was to happen? The servants, as well as the young ladies,
decorated it. On one branch there hung little nets cut out of coloured
paper, and each net was filled with sugar-plums; and among the other
boughs gilded apples and walnuts were suspended, looking as though they
had grown there, and little blue and white tapers were placed among the
leaves. Dolls that looked for all the world like men--the Tree had never
beheld such before--were seen among the foliage, and at the very top a
large star of gold tinsel was fixed. It was really splendid--beyond
description splendid.
"This evening!" said they all; "how it will shine this evening!"
"Oh," thought the Tree, "if the evening were but come! If the tapers
were but lighted! And then I wonder what will happen! Perhaps the other
trees from the forest will come to look at me! Perhaps the sparrows will
beat against the window-panes! I wonder if I shall take root here, and
winter and summer stand covered with ornaments!"
He knew very much about the matter! but he was so impatient that for
sheer longing he got a pain in his back, and this with trees is the same
thing as a headache with us.
The candles were now lighted. What brightness! What splendour! The Tree
trembled so in every bough that one of the tapers set fire to the
foliage. It blazed up splendidly.
"Help! Help!" cried the young ladies, and they quickly put out the fire.
Now the Tree did not even dare tremble. What a state he was in! He was
so uneasy lest he should lose something of his splendour, that he was
quite bewildered amidst the glare and brightness; when suddenly both
folding-doors opened, and a troop of children rushed in as if they
would upset the Tree. The older persons followed quietly; the little
ones stood quite still. But it was only for a moment; then they shouted
so that the whole place reëchoed with their rejoicing; they danced round
the tree, and one present after the other was pulled off.
"What are they about?" thought the Tree. "What is to happen now?" And
the lights burned down to the very branches, and as they burned down
they were put out, one after the other, and then the children had
permission to plunder the tree. So they fell upon it with such violence
that all its branches cracked; if it had not been fixed firmly in the
cask, it would certainly have tumbled down.
The children danced about with their beautiful playthings: no one looked
at the Tree except the old nurse, who peeped between the branches; but
it was only to see if there was a fig or an apple left that had been
forgotten.
"A story! a story!" cried the children, drawing a little fat man toward
the tree. He seated himself under it, and said: "Now we are in the
shade, and the Tree can listen, too. But I shall tell only one story.
Now which will you have: that about Ivedy-Avedy, or about Klumpy-Dumpy
who tumbled downstairs, and yet after all came to the throne and married
the princess?"
"Ivedy-Avedy!" cried some; "Klumpy-Dumpy!" cried the others. There was
such a bawling and screaming--the Fir-tree alone was silent, and he
thought to himself, "Am I not to bawl with the rest?--am I to do nothing
whatever?" for he was one of the company, and had done what he had to
do.
And the man told about Klumpy-Dumpy that tumbled down, who
notwithstanding came to the throne, and at last married the princess.
And the children clapped their hands, and cried out, "Oh, go on! Do go
on!" They wanted to hear about Ivedy-Avedy, too, but the little man only
told them about Klumpy-Dumpy. The Fir-tree stood quite still and
absorbed in thought; the birds in the woods had never related the like
of this. "Klumpy-Dumpy fell downstairs, and yet he married the princess!
Yes! Yes! that's the way of the world!" thought the Fir-tree, and
believed it all, because the man who told the story was so good-looking.
"Well, well! who knows, perhaps I may fall downstairs, too, and get a
princess as wife!" And he looked forward with joy to the morrow, when he
hoped to be decked out again with lights, playthings, fruits, and
tinsel.
"I won't tremble to-morrow," thought the Fir-tree. "I will enjoy to the
full all my splendour. To-morrow I shall hear again the story of
Klumpy-Dumpy, and perhaps that of Ivedy-Avedy, too." And the whole night
the Tree stood still and in deep thought.
In the morning the servant and the housemaid came in.
"Now, then, the splendour will begin again," thought the Fir. But they
dragged him out of the room, and up the stairs into the loft; and here
in a dark corner, where no daylight could enter, they left him. "What's
the meaning of this?" thought the Tree. "What am I to do here? What
shall I hear now, I wonder?" And he leaned against the wall, lost in
reverie. Time enough had he, too, for his reflections; for days and
nights passed on, and nobody came up; and when at last somebody did
come, it was only to put some great trunks in a corner out of the way.
There stood the Tree quite hidden; it seemed as if he had been entirely
forgotten.
"'Tis now winter out of doors!" thought the Tree. "The earth is hard and
covered with snow; men cannot plant me now, and therefore I have been
put up here under shelter till the springtime comes! How thoughtful that
is! How kind man is, after all! If it only were not so dark here, and so
terribly lonely! Not even a hare. And out in the woods it was so
pleasant, when the snow was on the ground, and the hare leaped by;
yes--even when he jumped over me; but I did not like it then. It is
really terribly lonely here!"
"Squeak! squeak!" said a little Mouse at the same moment, peeping out of
his hole. And then another little one came. They sniffed about the
Fir-tree, and rustled among the branches.
"It is dreadfully cold," said the Mouse. "But for that, it would be
delightful here, old Fir, wouldn't it?"
"I am by no means old," said the Fir-tree. "There's many a one
considerably older than I am."
"Where do you come from," asked the Mice; "and what can you do?" They
were so extremely curious. "Tell us about the most beautiful spot on the
earth. Have you never been there? Were you never in the larder, where
cheeses lie on the shelves, and hams hang from above; where one dances
about on tallow-candles; that place where one enters lean, and comes out
again fat and portly?"
"I know no such place," said the Tree, "but I know the woods, where the
sun shines, and where the little birds sing." And then he told all about
his youth; and the little Mice had never heard the like before; and they
listened and said:
"Well, to be sure! How much you have seen! How happy you must have
been!"
"I?" said the Fir-tree, thinking over what he had himself related. "Yes,
in reality those were happy times." And then he told about Christmas
Eve, when he was decked out with cakes and candles.
"Oh," said the little Mice, "how fortunate you have been, old Fir-tree!"
"I am by no means old," said he. "I came from the woods this winter; I
am in my prime, and am only rather short for my age."
"What delightful stories you know!" said the Mice; and the next night
they came with four other little Mice, who were to hear what the tree
recounted; and the more he related, the more plainly he remembered all
himself; and it appeared as if those times had really been happy times.
"But they may still come--they may still come. Klumpy-Dumpy fell
downstairs and yet he got a princess," and he thought at the moment of a
nice little Birch-tree growing out in the woods; to the Fir, that would
be a real charming princess.
"Who is Klumpy-Dumpy?" asked the Mice. So then the Fir-tree told the
whole fairy tale, for he could remember every single word of it; and the
little Mice jumped for joy up to the very top of the Tree. Next night
two more Mice came, and on Sunday two Rats, even; but they said the
stories were not interesting, which vexed the little Mice; and they,
too, now began to think them not so very amusing either.
"Do you know only one story?" asked the Rats.
"Only that one," answered the Tree. "I heard it on my happiest evening;
but I did not then know how happy I was."
"It is a very stupid story. Don't you know one about bacon and tallow
candles? Can't you tell any larder stories?"
"No," said the Tree.
"Then good-bye," said the Rats; and they went home.
At last the little Mice stayed away also; and the Tree sighed: "After
all, it was very pleasant when the sleek little Mice sat around me and
listened to what I told them. Now that too is over. But I will take
good care to enjoy myself when I am brought out again."
But when was that to be? Why, one morning there came a quantity of
people and set to work in the loft. The trunks were moved, the Tree was
pulled out and thrown--rather hard, it is true--down on the floor, but a
man drew him toward the stairs, where the daylight shone.
"Now a merry life will begin again," thought the Tree. He felt the fresh
air, the first sunbeam--and now he was out in the courtyard. All passed
so quickly, there was so much going on around him, that the Tree quite
forgot to look to himself. The court adjoined a garden, and all was in
flower; the roses hung so fresh and odorous over the balustrade, the
lindens were in blossom, the Swallows flew by, and said, "Quirre-vit! my
husband is come!" but it was not the Fir-tree that they meant.
"Now, then, I shall really enjoy life," said he, exultingly, and spread
out his branches; but, alas! they were all withered and yellow. It was
in a corner that he lay, among weeds and nettles. The golden star of
tinsel was still on the top of the Tree, and glittered in the sunshine.
In the courtyard some of the merry children were playing who had danced
at Christmas round the Fir-tree, and were so glad at the sight of him.
One of the youngest ran and tore off the golden star.
"Only look what is still on the ugly old Christmas tree!" said he,
trampling on the branches, so that they all cracked beneath his feet.
And the Tree beheld all the beauty of the flowers, and the freshness in
the garden; he beheld himself, and wished he had remained in his dark
corner in the loft; he thought of his first youth in the woods, of the
merry Christmas Eve, and of the little Mice who had listened with so
much pleasure to the story of Klumpy-Dumpy.
"'Tis over--'tis past!" said the poor Tree. "Had I but rejoiced when I
had reason to do so! But now 'tis past, 'tis past!"
And the gardener's boy chopped the Tree into small pieces; there was a
whole heap lying there. The wood flamed up splendidly under the large
brewing copper, and it sighed so deeply! Each sigh was like a shot.
The boys played about in the court, and the youngest wore the gold star
on his breast which the Tree had had on the happiest evening of his
life. However, that was over now--the Tree gone, the story at an end.
All, all was over; every tale must end at last.
FOOTNOTE:
[A] Reprinted by permission of the Houghton-Mifflin Company.
III
THE CHRISTMAS MASQUERADE[B]
MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN
ON Christmas Eve the Mayor's stately mansion presented a beautiful
appearance. There were rows of different coloured wax candles burning in
every window, and beyond them one could see the chandeliers of gold and
crystal blazing with light. The fiddles were squeaking merrily, and
lovely little forms flew past the windows in time to the music.
There were gorgeous carpets laid from the door to the street, and
carriages were constantly arriving and fresh guests tripping over them.
They were all children. The Mayor was giving a Christmas Masquerade
to-night to all the children in the city, the poor as well as the rich.
The preparation for this ball had been making an immense sensation for
the last three months. Placards had been up in the most conspicuous
points in the city, and all the daily newspapers had at least a column
devoted to it, headed with "THE MAYOR'S CHRISTMAS MASQUERADE," in very
large letters.
The Mayor had promised to defray the expenses of all the poor children
whose parents were unable to do so, and the bills for their costumes
were directed to be sent in to him.
Of course there was great excitement among the regular costumers of the
city, and they all resolved to vie with one another in being the most
popular, and the best patronized on this gala occasion. But the placards
and the notices had not been out a week before a new Costumer appeared
who cast all the others into the shade directly. He set up his shop on
the corner of one of the principal streets, and hung up his beautiful
costumes in the windows. He was a little fellow, not much bigger than a
boy of ten. His cheeks were as red as roses, and he had on a long
curling wig as white as snow. He wore a suit of crimson velvet
knee-breeches, and a little swallow-tailed coat with beautiful golden
buttons. Deep lace ruffles fell over his slender white hands, and he
wore elegant knee buckles of glittering stones. He sat on a high stool
behind his counter and served his customers himself; he kept no clerk.
It did not take the children long to discover what beautiful things he
had, and how superior he was to the other costumers, and they begun to
flock to his shop immediately, from the Mayor's daughter to the poor
ragpicker's. The children were to select their own costumes; the Mayor
had stipulated that. It was to be a children's ball in every sense of
the word.
So they decided to be fairies and shepherdesses, and princesses
according to their own fancies; and this new Costumer had charming
costumes to suit them.
It was noticeable that, for the most part, the children of the rich, who
had always had everything they desired, would choose the parts of
goose-girls and peasants and such like; and the poor children jumped
eagerly at the chance of being princesses or fairies for a few hours in
their miserable lives.
When Christmas Eve came and the children flocked into the Mayor's
mansion, whether it was owing to the Costumer's art, or their own
adaptation to the characters they had chosen, it was wonderful how
lifelike their representations were. Those little fairies in their short
skirts of silken gauze, in which golden sparkles appeared as they moved
with their little funny gossamer wings, like butterflies, looked like
real fairies. It did not seem possible, when they floated around to the
music, half supported on the tips of their dainty toes, half by their
filmy purple wings, their delicate bodies swaying in time, that they
could be anything but fairies. It seemed absurd to imagine that they
were Johnny Mullens, the washerwoman's son, and Polly Flinders, the
charwoman's little girl, and so on.
The Mayor's daughter, who had chosen the character of a goose-girl,
looked so like a true one that one could hardly dream she ever was
anything else. She was, ordinarily, a slender, dainty little lady rather
tall for her age. She now looked very short and stubbed and brown, just
as if she had been accustomed to tend geese in all sorts of weather. It
was so with all the others--the Red Riding-hoods, the princesses, the
Bo-Peeps and with every one of the characters who came to the Mayor's
ball; Red Riding-hood looked round, with big, frightened eyes, all ready
to spy the wolf, and carried her little pat of butter and pot of honey
gingerly in her basket; Bo-Peep's eyes looked red with weeping for the
loss of her sheep; and the princesses swept about so grandly in their
splendid brocaded trains, and held their crowned heads so high that
people half-believed them to be true princesses.
But there never was anything like the fun at the Mayor's Christmas ball.
The fiddlers fiddled and fiddled, and the children danced and danced on
the beautiful waxed floors. The Mayor, with his family and a few grand
guests, sat on a daïs covered with blue velvet at one end of the dancing
hall, and watched the sport. They were all delighted. The Mayor's eldest
daughter sat in front and clapped her little soft white hands. She was a
tall, beautiful young maiden, and wore a white dress, and a little cap
woven of blue violets on her yellow hair. Her name was Violetta.
The supper was served at midnight--and such a supper! The mountains of
pink and white ices, and the cakes with sugar castles and flower gardens
on the tops of them, and the charming shapes of gold and ruby-coloured
jellies. There were wonderful bonbons which even the Mayor's daughter
did not have every day; and all sorts of fruits, fresh and candied.
They had cowslip wine in green glasses, and elderberry wine in red, and
they drank each other's health. The glasses held a thimbleful each; the
Mayor's wife thought that was all the wine they ought to have. Under
each child's plate there was a pretty present and every one had a basket
of bonbons and cake to carry home.
At four o'clock the fiddlers put up their fiddles and the children went
home; fairies and shepherdesses and pages and princesses all jabbering
gleefully about the splendid time they had had.
But in a short time what consternation there was throughout the city.
When the proud and fond parents attempted to unbutton their children's
dresses, in order to prepare them for bed, not a single costume would
come off. The buttons buttoned again as fast as they were unbuttoned;
even if they pulled out a pin, in it would slip again in a twinkling;
and when a string was untied it tied itself up again into a bowknot. The
parents were dreadfully frightened. But the children were so tired out
they finally let them go to bed in their fancy costumes and thought
perhaps they would come off better in the morning. So Red Riding-hood
went to bed in her little red cloak holding fast to her basket full of
dainties for her grandmother, and Bo-Peep slept with her crook in her
hand.
The children all went to bed readily enough, they were so very tired,
even though they had to go in this strange array. All but the
fairies--they danced and pirouetted and would not be still.
"We want to swing on the blades of grass," they kept saying, "and play
hide and seek in the lily cups, and take a nap between the leaves of the
roses."
The poor charwomen and coal-heavers, whose children the fairies were for
the most part, stared at them in great distress. They did not know what
to do with these radiant, frisky little creatures into which their
Johnnys and their Pollys and Betseys were so suddenly transformed. But
the fairies went to bed quietly enough when daylight came, and were soon
fast asleep.
There was no further trouble till twelve o'clock, when all the children
woke up. Then a great wave of alarm spread over the city. Not one of the
costumes would come off then. The buttons buttoned as fast as they were
unbuttoned; the pins quilted themselves in as fast as they were pulled
out; and the strings flew round like lightning and twisted themselves
into bowknots as fast as they were untied.
And that was not the worst of it; every one of the children seemed to
have become, in reality, the character which he or she had assumed.
The Mayor's daughter declared she was going to tend her geese out in the
pasture, and the shepherdesses sprang out of their little beds of down,
throwing aside their silken quilts, and cried that they must go out and
watch their sheep. The princesses jumped up from their straw pallets,
and wanted to go to court; and all the rest of them likewise. Poor
little Red Riding-hood sobbed and sobbed because she couldn't go and
carry her basket to her grandmother, and as she didn't have any
grandmother she couldn't go, of course, and her parents were very much
troubled. It was all so mysterious and dreadful. The news spread very
rapidly over the city, and soon a great crowd gathered around the new
Costumer's shop for every one thought he must be responsible for all
this mischief.
The shop door was locked; but they soon battered it down with stones.
When they rushed in the Costumer was not there; he had disappeared with
all his wares. Then they did not know what to do. But it was evident
that they must do something before long for the state of affairs was
growing worse and worse.
The Mayor's little daughter braced her back up against the tapestried
wall, and planted her two feet in their thick shoes firmly. "I will go
and tend my geese," she kept crying. "I won't eat my breakfast. I won't
go out in the park. I won't go to school. I'm going to tend my geese--I
will, I will, I will!"
And the princesses trailed their rich trains over the rough unpainted
floors in their parents' poor little huts, and held their crowned heads
very high and demanded to be taken to court. The princesses were mostly
geese-girls when they were their proper selves, and their geese were
suffering, and their poor parents did not know what they were going to
do and they wrung their hands and wept as they gazed on their gorgeously
apparelled children.
Finally the Mayor called a meeting of the Aldermen, and they all
assembled in the City Hall. Nearly every one of them had a son or a
daughter who was a chimney-sweep, or a little watch-girl, or a
shepherdess. They appointed a chairman and they took a great many votes
and contrary votes but they did not agree on anything, until every one
proposed that they consult the Wise Woman. Then they all held up their
hands, and voted to, unanimously.
So the whole board of Aldermen set out, walking by twos, with the Mayor
at their head, to consult the Wise Woman. The Aldermen were all very
fleshy, and carried gold-headed canes which they swung very high at
every step. They held their heads well back, and their chins stiff, and
whenever they met common people they sniffed gently. They were very
imposing.
The Wise Woman lived in a little hut on the outskirts of the city. She
kept a Black Cat, except for her, she was all alone. She was very old,
and had brought up a great many children, and she was considered
remarkably wise.
But when the Aldermen reached her hut and found her seated by the fire,
holding her Black Cat, a new difficulty presented itself. She had always
been quite deaf and people had been obliged to scream as loud as they
could in order to make her hear; but lately she had grown much deafer,
and when the Aldermen attempted to lay the case before her she could not
hear a word. In fact, she was so very deaf that she could not
distinguish a tone below G-sharp. The Aldermen screamed till they were
quite red in the faces, but all to no purpose: none of them could get up
to G-sharp of course.
So the Aldermen all went back, swinging their gold-headed canes, and
they had another meeting in the City Hall. Then they decided to send the
highest Soprano Singer in the church choir to the Wise Woman; she could
sing up to G-sharp just as easy as not. So the high Soprano Singer set
out for the Wise Woman's in the Mayor's coach, and the Aldermen marched
behind, swinging their gold-headed canes.
The High Soprano Singer put her head down close to the Wise Woman's ear,
and sung all about the Christmas Masquerade and the dreadful dilemma
everybody was in, in G-sharp--she even went higher, sometimes, and the
Wise Woman heard every word. She nodded three times, and every time she
nodded she looked wiser.
"Go home, and give 'em a spoonful of castor-oil, all 'round," she piped
up; then she took a pinch of snuff, and wouldn't say any more.
So the Aldermen went home, and every one took a district and marched
through it, with a servant carrying an immense bowl and spoon, and every
child had to take a dose of castor-oil.
But it didn't do a bit of good. The children cried and struggled when
they were forced to take the castor-oil; but, two minutes afterward, the
chimney-sweeps were crying for their brooms, and the princesses
screaming because they couldn't go to court, and the Mayor's daughter,
who had been given a double dose, cried louder and more sturdily: "I
want to go and tend my geese. I will go and tend my geese."
So the Aldermen took the high Soprano Singer, and they consulted the
Wise Woman again. She was taking a nap this time, and the Singer had to
sing up to B-flat before she could wake her. Then she was very cross and
the Black Cat put up his back and spit at the Aldermen.
"Give 'em a spanking all 'round," she snapped out, "and if that don't
work put 'em to bed without their supper."
Then the Aldermen marched back to try that; and all the children in the
city were spanked, and when that didn't do any good they were put to bed
without any supper. But the next morning when they woke up they were
worse than ever.
The Mayor and Aldermen were very indignant, and considered that they had
been imposed upon and insulted. So they set out for the Wise Woman
again, with the high Soprano Singer.
She sang in G-sharp how the Aldermen and the Mayor considered her an
impostor, and did not think she was wise at all, and they wished her to
take her Black Cat and move beyond the limits of the city. She sang it
beautifully; it sounded like the very finest Italian opera music.
"Deary me," piped the Wise Woman, when she had finished, "how very grand
these gentlemen are." Her Black Cat put up his back and spit.
"Five times one Black Cat are five Black Cats," said the Wise Woman. And
directly there were five Black Cats spitting and miauling.
"Five times five Black Cats are twenty-five Black Cats." And then there
were twenty-five of the angry little beasts.
"Five times twenty-five Black Cats are one hundred and twenty-five Black
Cats," added the Wise Woman with a chuckle.
Then the Mayor and the Aldermen and the high Soprano Singer fled
precipitately out the door and back to the city. One hundred and
twenty-five Black Cats had seemed to fill the Wise Woman's hut full, and
when they all spit and miauled together it was dreadful. The visitors
could not wait for her to multiply Black Cats any longer.
As winter wore on and spring came, the condition of things grew more
intolerable. Physicians had been consulted, who advised that the
children should be allowed to follow their own bents, for fear of injury
to their constitutions. So the rich Aldermen's daughters were actually
out in the fields herding sheep, and their sons sweeping chimneys or
carrying newspapers; and while the poor charwomen's and coal-heavers
children spent their time like princesses and fairies. Such a
topsy-turvy state of society was shocking. While the Mayor's little
daughter was tending geese out in the meadow like any common goose-girl,
her pretty elder sister, Violetta, felt very sad about it and used often
to cast about in her mind for some way of relief.
When cherries were ripe in spring, Violetta thought she would ask the
Cherry-man about it. She thought the Cherry-man quite wise. He was a
very pretty young fellow, and he brought cherries to sell in graceful
little straw baskets lined with moss. So she stood in the kitchen door
one morning and told him all about the great trouble that had come upon
the city. He listened in great astonishment; he had never heard of it
before. He lived several miles out in the country.
"How did the Costumer look?" he asked respectfully; he thought Violetta
the most beautiful lady on earth.
Then Violetta described the Costumer, and told him of the unavailing
attempts that had been made to find him. There were a great many
detectives out, constantly at work.
"I know where he is!" said the Cherry-man. "He's up in one of my
cherry-trees. He's been living there ever since cherries were ripe, and
he won't come down."
Then Violetta ran and told her father in great excitement, and he at
once called a meeting of the Aldermen, and in a few hours half the city
was on the road to the Cherry-man's.
He had a beautiful orchard of cherry-trees all laden with fruit. And,
sure enough in one of the largest, way up amongst the topmost branches,
sat the Costumer in his red velvet and short clothes and his diamond
knee-buckles. He looked down between the green boughs. "Good-morning,
friends!" he shouted.
The Aldermen shook their gold-headed canes at him, and the people danced
round the tree in a rage. Then they began to climb. But they soon found
that to be impossible. As fast as they touched a hand or foot to a tree,
back it flew with a jerk exactly as if the tree pushed it. They tried a
ladder, but the ladder fell back the moment it touched the tree, and lay
sprawling upon the ground. Finally, they brought axes and thought they
could chop the tree down, Costumer and all; but the wood resisted the
axes as if it were iron, and only dented them, receiving no impression
itself.
Meanwhile, the Costumer sat up in the tree, eating cherries and throwing
the stones down. Finally he stood up on a stout branch, and, looking
down, addressed the people.
"It's of no use, your trying to accomplish anything in this way," said
he; "you'd better parley. I'm willing to come to terms with you, and
make everything right on two conditions."
The people grew quiet then, and the Mayor stepped forward as spokesman,
"Name your two conditions," said he rather testily. "You own, tacitly,
that you are the cause of all this trouble."
"Well," said the Costumer, reaching out for a handful of cherries, "this
Christmas Masquerade of yours was a beautiful idea; but you wouldn't do
it every year, and your successors might not do it at all. I want those
poor children to have a Christmas every year. My first condition is that
every poor child in the city hangs its stocking for gifts in the City
Hall on every Christmas Eve, and gets it filled, too. I want the
resolution filed and put away in the city archives."
"We agree to the first condition!" cried the people with one voice,
without waiting for the Mayor and Aldermen.
"The second condition," said the Costumer, "is that this good young
Cherry-man here has the Mayor's daughter, Violetta, for his wife. He has
been kind to me, letting me live in his cherry-tree and eat his cherries
and I want to reward him."
"We consent," cried all the people; but the Mayor, though he was so
generous, was a proud man. "I will not consent to the second condition,"
he cried angrily.
"Very well," replied the Costumer, picking some more cherries, "then
your youngest daughter tends geese the rest of her life, that's all."
The Mayor was in great distress; but the thought of his youngest
daughter being a goose-girl all her life was too much for him. He gave
in at last.
"Now go home and take the costumes off your children," said the
Costumer, "and leave me in peace to eat cherries."
Then the people hastened back to the city, and found, to their great
delight, that the costumes would come off. The pins stayed out, the
buttons stayed unbuttoned, and the strings stayed untied. The children
were dressed in their own proper clothes and were their own proper
selves once more. The shepherdesses and the chimney-sweeps came home,
and were washed and dressed in silks and velvets, and went to
embroidering and playing lawn-tennis. And the princesses and the fairies
put on their own suitable dresses, and went about their useful
employments. There was great rejoicing in every home. Violetta thought
she had never been so happy, now that her dear little sister was no
longer a goose-girl, but her own dainty little lady-self.
The resolution to provide every poor child in the city with a stocking
full of gifts on Christmas was solemnly filed, and deposited in the city
archives, and was never broken.
Violetta was married to the Cherry-man, and all the children came to the
wedding, and strewed flowers in her path till her feet were quite hidden
in them. The Costumer had mysteriously disappeared from the cherry-tree
the night before, but he left at the foot some beautiful wedding
presents for the bride--a silver service with a pattern of cherries
engraved on it, and a set of china with cherries on it, in hand
painting, and a white satin robe, embroidered with cherries down the
front.
FOOTNOTE:
[B] From "The Pot of Gold," copyright by Lothrop, Lee & Shepherd Co.
IV
THE SHEPHERDS AND THE ANGELS
ADAPTED FROM THE BIBLE
AND there were shepherds in the same country abiding in the field, and
keeping watch by night over their flock. And an angel of the Lord stood
by them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were
sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Be not afraid; for, behold, I
bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people:
for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, which
is Christ the Lord. And this is the sign unto you; ye shall find a babe
wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger. And suddenly there
was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and
saying:
Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace,
Good will toward men.
And it came to pass, when the angels went away from them into heaven,
the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem,
and see this thing that is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known
unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the
babe lying in the manger. And when they saw it, they made known
concerning the saying which was spoken to them about this child. And all
that heard it wondered at the things which were spoken unto them by the
shepherds. But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart.
And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the
things that they had heard and seen, even as it was spoken unto them.
And when eight days were fulfilled his name was called
JESUS
V
THE TELLTALE TILE[C]
OLIVE THORNE MILLER
IT BEGINS with a bit of gossip of a neighbour who had come in to see
Miss Bennett, and was telling her about a family who had lately moved
into the place and were in serious trouble. "And they do say she'll have
to go to the poorhouse," she ended.
"To the poorhouse! how dreadful! And the children, too?" and Miss
Bennett shuddered.
"Yes; unless somebody'll adopt them, and that's not very likely. Well, I
must go," the visitor went on, rising. "I wish I could do something for
her, but, with my houseful of children, I've got use for every penny I
can rake and scrape."
"I'm sure I have, with only myself," said Miss Bennett, as she closed
the door. "I'm sure I have," she repeated to herself as she resumed her
knitting; "it's as much as I can do to make ends meet, scrimping as I
do, not to speak of laying up a cent for sickness and old age."
"But the poorhouse!" she said again. "I wish I could help her!" and the
needles flew in and out, in and out, faster than ever, as she turned
this over in her mind. "I might give up something," she said at last,
"though I don't know what, unless--unless," she said slowly, thinking of
her one luxury, "unless I give up my tea, and it don't seem as if I
_could_ do that."
Some time the thought worked in her mind, and finally she resolved to
make the sacrifice of her only indulgence for six months, and send the
money to her suffering neighbour, Mrs. Stanley, though she had never
seen her, and she had only heard she was in want.
How much of a sacrifice that was you can hardly guess, you, Kristy, who
have so many luxuries.
That evening Mrs. Stanley was surprised by a small gift of money "from a
friend," as was said on the envelope containing it.
"Who sent it?" she asked, from the bed where she was lying.
"Miss Bennett told me not to tell," said the boy, unconscious that he
had already told.