THE CHRISTMAS GIFT.I.
THE CHRISTMAS GIFT.
Therewere to be great times at Mr. Lee’s house during the Christmas Holidays. Frank and Flora had long looked forward to this season, for they expected to enjoy themselves more than ever before.
Their two cousins, Henry and Sarah Vernon, were to spend a week with them; and this alone would have made them very happy. Besides this, Christmas was to be celebrated in a manner worthy of the occasion.
The windows of the parlor and sitting room had been dressed with evergreen, and looked very pretty. And the day before Christmas, whenFlora wanted to enter the parlor, she found the doors were all locked. At first she did not know what to make of this, for she had never known the doors to be fastened before.
She was going to ask her mother why the doors were locked, when she happened to think that her father and mother might want to surprise the children in somemanner, and she decided not to say any thing about the matter.
Henry and Sarah came in the noon train, and their cousins were very glad to see them. They lived in the city, and had a great deal to say about the fine things at home. Then Frank had to tell about his voyage down the river on a raft. The city cousins felt a deep interest in this story, forthey had heard their parents speak of it.
Flora had no story to tell, and seemed to be thrown into the shade by the fine talk of her city cousins, and the great doings of her brother Frank. But she was thinking of something all the time—something that was a great deal better than fine talk, or even sailing on the river.
She had a great plan in herhead. She had been thinking of it for two or three weeks. Indeed, she had been so kind of sober while she thought, that her parents feared she might be sick. She was almost always laughing, and was as fond of play as any little girl you ever saw.
It is no wonder, therefore, that her father and mother thought she must be sick, for this plan had made a greatchange in her,—just as when boys and girls become men and women, and have a great many things to think about, they have to stop playing, and do not laugh half so much as when they were children.
After dinner, the children all met in the play room. It was a nice little chamber up stairs, where Frank and Flora kept their playthings, and where they played in stormyweather. I dare say all my little readers would have enjoyed a visit to this room, for it was a perfect museum of playthings.
In one corner there was a complete doll’s house. It is true, there was but one room in Miss Dolly’s mansion, but it had ever so many fine things in it.
It was about a yard square. Two sides of the room wereformed of the two sides of the chamber, while the other two were made of a kind of fence, about six inches high.
This little chamber had a carpet of its own—and a very pretty carpet it was, too. I believe it was a piece of drab cashmere, with a handsome figure on it; and it looked just like a carpet.
In one corner stood the bed. It was nicely made up,with a clean white spread, and real sheets and pillows. The bedstead was made of rosewood, and the corners were carved; and if you had seen it, you would have said it was the prettiest one in the world.
There was a centre table in the middle of the room, on which were placed two or three of the tiniest books you ever saw. One of them wascalled “A Picture of London.” It was given to Flora by her friend Mr. Bigelow, a bookseller in the city. Another was “The Life of Tom Thumb.” Neither of these books was more than an inch square; and they were just big enough for the little centre table.
Six tiny chairs stood around the room, besides two sofas, and a rocking chair. Near the bed was a handsomestuffed arm-chair, in which Miss Dolly herself was seated.
Miss Dolly was a very pretty young lady. She had a wax head, with glass eyes, and real hair. She was clothed in a white muslin dress, trimmed with satin ribbon. It was rather a cool dress for Christmas; but I suppose Flora thought she ought to look like a bride at this time, though it was winter.
Her cousin Sarah had never seen Miss Dolly or her mansion house before, and she was so pleased that she danced with delight. She had to take up Miss Dolly herself, and examine every article of her dress. Then she picked up every article in the room and looked at it. Not content with this, the bed had to be pulled to pieces, and re-made, so thatshe could see every part of it.
Henry Vernon, being a boy, was, of course,abovetaking an interest in dollies and baby-houses. But he could not help being pleased with the pretty room in which Miss Dolly lived. He looked at the bed, the sofas, and the chairs, and said some smart things about dolls and baby-houses in general.
He then turned his attention to the rocking-horse, the tin steamboat, and other wonderful things that were in the play room. Frank showed him all the toys, hoops, rattles, and “things” he had. By the time he had finished, and the girls had put Miss Dolly’s room to rights, Flora called the meeting to order by hinting that she had something to say.
All were ready to hear her; but poor Flora was so wild over her great plan, that she could hardly say what she wished. She had been thinking of something for a long time, and she almost trembled for fear the others would not like her plan.
“Do you know what I have been thinking about these three weeks?” said she, her pretty face red with excitement.
“How should we know?” replied Henry, with a laugh.
“Was it about a sleigh ride?” asked Sarah.
“No; nothing of that kind.”
“A Christmas tree?”
“No; guess again.”
“About having a party?”
“No.”
“What was it?”
“When you guess right, I’ll tell you.”
“Wasn’t it about a ragbaby?” said Henry, with a sneer.
“No, it wasn’t.”
They all guessed round several times, but none of them guessed right. By this time Flora was calm enough to unfold her great plan.
“Do you know there is a poor woman inRiverdale—”
“Lots of them,” put in Henry.
“But there is one poor womanin Riverdale that I want to tell you about. She is a widow—that means that she hasn’t got any body to take care of her.”
Henry burst out in a hearty laugh, which quite surprised poor Flora; and she wondered what she had said that was so funny.
“Do you suppose we don’t know what a widow is?” asked Henry, who was a city boy,and rather smart. “Besides, a widow isn’t a woman that hasn’t got any one to take care of her.”
“No one but David, I mean,” added Flora, who felt that she had made a mistake.
“Who is David?” said Sarah.
“He is the poor widow’s son; and he is a real nice boy. He sells newspapers and gets money for his poormother; and she thinks there is not another boy like David in the world.”
“Does she, indeed! What a funny mother she must be, to be sure!” laughed Henry.
“Hush!” said Flora; “there comes my mother, and I don’t want her to know any thing about it yet.”
So they all went to playing with Dolly and the rocking-horse; but Mrs. Lee did notstop but a moment. She only came in to see what the children were about; for they laughed so loud, she was afraid they were doing some mischief.
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