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THE CAKES WERE RECEIVED WITH GREAT DELIGHT.
Charlie's bicycle was going to be wheeled along to him after dark. Aunt Alice said she would see to that. Charity's book-case had arrived the day before, but it was not going to be unpacked till after tea, when Faith said she would like to give her presents to the family. The cakes were received with great delight. Mrs. Budd and Mrs. Horn were quite overcome with their presents. Hope said that she and Charity felt the money was theirs, as they helped to give away the gifts, and had the pleasure of seeing the joy they gave.
In the afternoon, Charity and Hope were to leave Faith's presents at the Hall, and she herself staggered up to Timothy's cottage with her big brown paper parcel.
She would allow nobody to carry the coat but herself. It was a bright, frosty afternoon; the woods looked black and silent. In the distance, Faith heard the church bells pealing out. Aunt Alice had gone to help in the decorations at the church. When Faith reached the cottage she found Timothy had just come in. He was hanging up his old coat on a nail behind the door, and turned round with a pleased smile when he saw who it was.
"Come right in, Missie. Eh! 'Tis good to see ye lookin' up agin! Sit ye down now. There be Sandy waitin' to shake hands wi' ye!"
Faith breathlessly held out her big parcel.
"For you, Timothy, with my love and a happy Christmas. I bought it for you myself with some of the money I told you about. Do try it on and see how it fits!"
Timothy slowly undid the parcel. When he unfolded the thick coat, he looked at her with his slow, sweet smile:
"Well, I never did! This beats me altogether. 'Tis fit for the king hisself. However am I to thank you big enough, Missie?"
"Put it on! Put it on!" cried Faith, dancing up and down in her excitement. "I'll help you, Timothy."
So between them, they got Timothy into the coat, and he pronounced it a "perfect fit."
"My last new coat was twelve years agone!" he said.
"Why, that was before I was born," said Faith in awed tones.
"Well, I'm wonderful grateful, Missie! To think that you should give me such a big gift as this! My old bones will ache no more with cold this winter! Dearie me, I shall not know myself!"
He turned himself round and round and Faith admired him amazingly. Then after she had told him the whole history of the purchase they settled down to talk of other things.
"Isn't Christmas a lovely time, Timothy?"
"Ay, Missie, surely it be; and never will there be such a Christmas as this with 'Peace on earth' again. 'Tis like a horrible dream, these four years of killin' and burnin' and drownin'! I always have been fond of Christmas. To us shepherds, when we go round at night, the Message seems to sound out in a partic'lar way, just as it did to them Eastern shepherds. I pray God He will send the Message afresh to the aching hearts in the world to-day to tell them of the joy to be found in the Saviour."
"But it's the Comforter Who speaks to aching hearts," said Faith.
"So 'tis, Missie, and He'll be tellin' them of the One Who loved 'em, and gave Himself for 'em! There'll be those this Christmas who'll be wantin' all the love and comfort they can get. For there be no such sad a time for those who have lost their dear ones, as a real merry-making time all round 'em. It just stabs 'em cruel all the time!"
Faith sat very still on her little stool. She hardly understood Timothy's words, for she was feeling supremely happy herself. Sandy had his nose in her lap, and she was stroking his head.
"I hope there'll be nobody unhappy in our village this Christmas, Timothy. Do you think there will be?"
"We'll hope not, though there is a few with mourning hearts who stiffen their backs, an' will not listen to the Comforter."
"And I suppose if everybody listened, there wouldn't be an unhappy person in the world?" said Faith.
"That there would not," said Timothy earnestly.
When Faith came away from him it was getting dark. He walked over the fields with her and saw her safely into the lane; and she then ran home as fast as she could.
The little cottage was quite gay that night. It was trimmed up with holly and evergreen; there was a beautiful cake for tea made by Aunt Alice. And after tea was cleared away, the presents were produced. Granny was speechless when she saw her cloak, and Aunt Alice was almost distressed when she was given her furs.
"My dear Faith, you ought not to have spent so much money on me!"
But she put them on, and said she felt a duchess in them. The little girls all had Christmas presents from Granny and Aunt Alice. Warm gloves, books, and boxes of chocolates.
When at last the children retired to bed, they were almost worn out with excitement, but very happy. As Granny said when Aunt Alice remarked on Faith's white cheeks:
"Well, Christmas only comes once a year, and this is a year that will be remembered all our lives. We have been pretending for the last four years to feel happy at Christmastime, now we really are."
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 WITHCHILDREN
BY
AMY LE FEUVRE
...is an outstanding example of the art of interestingyoung people. The ordinary and every-day things of lifein such skilful hands assume a new character, whilespiritual lessons therefrom are reached by an easy transition.A delight to the children. A real treasure for the parents.
CHAT I. OUTSIDE AND INSIDECHAT II. WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIPCHAT III. THE WAY TO HEAVENCHAT IV. A KNOCK AT THE DOORCHAT V. HOW TO TACKLE GIANTSCHAT VI. A FREE GIFTCHAT VII. TO BE READYCHAT VIII. THE UNKNOWN VISITORCHAT IX. OUR INHERITANCE
Four Illustrations in Full ColourEight Illustrations in Black and White
COLOURED JACKET PICKERING
CR. OCTAVO 2/6 NET & INGLIS