Soon they, too, were invited laughingly to retire, and by half-past ten the house was quiet.
"'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE, NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, NOT EVEN A MOUSE;"
Stretched out on the hearth-rug lay Tell snoring loudly, And above from the mantel the stockings hung proudly; When down from the stairway there came such a patter Of stockingless feet--'t was no laughing matter!
As the good Doctor thought, for he sprang out of bed To see if 't were real, or a dream iii its stead.
But no! with his eye at a crack of the door He discovered the truth--'t was the Blossoms, all four, With Hazel to aid them, tiptoeing about Like a party of ghosts grown a little too stout.
They pinched and they fingered; they poked and they squeezed Each plump Christmas stocking--then somebody sneezed!
Consternation and terror!! The tall clock struck one As the ghosts disappeared on the double-quick run!
"'T WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE, NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, NOT EVEN A MOUSE;"
Without in the moonlight, the snow sparkled bright; The Mountain stood wrapped in a mantle of white, With a crown of dark firs on his noble old crest And ermine and diamonds adorning his breast; And the stars that above him swung true into line Once shone o'er a manger in far Palestine.
What a Christmas morning that was!
Chi was up at five o'clock, building roaring fires, for it was ten degrees below zero.
With the first glint of the sun on the frosted panes the household was astir. At precisely seven the order was given to take down the thirteen stockings. But bless you! You 're not to think the stockings could hold all the gifts. In front of each wide jamb were piled the bundles and packages, three feet high!
Rose hesitated a moment when the children sat down on the rug with their stockings, as was their custom every Christmas morn; then she plumped down among them, saying, laughingly:
"I don't care if I _am_ growing up, Martie--it's Christmas."
Upon which Jack, hugging his striped Balbriggan, sat down beside her.
Such "Ohs" and "Ahs"! Such thankings and squeezings! Such somersaults as were turned by March and Budd at the kitchen end of the long-room!
Such rapturous gurgles from May! Such hand-shakes and kisses! Such silent bliss on the part of Chi, who, though suffering as if in a Turkish bath, had donned his new, blue woollen sweater, drawn on his gauntleted beaver gloves, and proceeded to investigate his stocking with the air of a man who has nothing more to wish for. And through all the chaotic happiness a sentence could be distinguished now and then.
"Chi, these corn-cob pipes are just what I shall want after Christmas when I give my Junior Smoker."
"Oh, Martie, it can't be for me!" as the lovely white serge dress, ready made and trimmed with lace, was held up to Rose's admiring eyes.
Budd was caressing with approving fingers a regular "base-ball-nine" bat and admiring the white leather balls.
"I say, it's a stunner, Mr. Sherrill; but how did you know I wanted it?"
Mr. Clyde, who was touched to his very heart's core by Hazel's gift of a dollar pair of suspenders which she had earned by her own labor, felt a small hand slipped into his, and found Cherry Bounce looking up at him with wide, adoring, brown eyes, which, for the first time, she had taken from her beautiful emilie Angelique, whom she held pressed to her heart:--
"I want to whisper to you," she said, shyly. Mr. Clyde bent down to her;--"After I said my prayers to Martie, I asked God to give me emilie Angelique--every night," she nodded--"but I only told Budd, so how _did_ you know?"
March was lost to the world in his volume of foreign photographs, in his boxes of paints and brushes, and a whole set of drawing materials. He had not as yet thanked Hazel for them.
Everybody was happy and satisfied. Everybody said he or she had received just exactly the thing. Tell alone could not express his gratification in words. He had been given his woollen stocking, and nosed about till he had brought forth three fat dog-biscuit, a deliciously juicy-greasy beef bone, wrapped in white waxed paper and tied at one end with a blue ribbon, a fine nickelplated dog collar with a bell attached, and last, from the brown woollen toe, three lumps of sugar.
One by one he took the gifts and laid them down at Mrs. Blossom's feet; putting one huge paw firmly on the waxed-paper package, he waved the other wildly until she took it and spoke a loving word to him. Then, taking up his beloved bone, he retired with it to the farthest end of the long-room, under the kitchen sink, and licked it in peace and joy.
Jack and Chi in the joyful confusion had slipped from the room.
Soon there was a commotion in the woodshed, and the two made their appearance dragging after them a brand-new double-runner and a real Canadian toboggan, which Jack had ordered from Montreal for March.
Breakfast proved to be a short meal, for the whole family was wild to try the new toboggan with Jack to engineer it. Then it was up and down--down and up the steep mountain road; Jack and Doctor Heath, Mr.
Clyde, Mr. Blossom and Chi, all on together--clinging for dear life, laughing, whooping, panting, hurrahing like boys let out from school, while March and Budd and Rose and Hazel and Cherry flew after them on the double-runner, the keen air biting rose-red cheeks, and bringing the stinging water to the eyes.
But what sport it was!
"Now, this is something like," panted Jack, drawing up the hill with Chi, his handsome face aglow with life and joy.
"By George Washin'ton! it's the nearest thing to shootin' Niagary that I ever come," puffed Chi.
"Didn't we take that water-bar neatly?" laughed Jack.
"'N inch higher, 'n' we 'd all been goners;--I had n't a minute to think of it, goin' to the rate of a mile a minute; but if I had--I 'd have dusted! Guess I 'll make it level before I try it with the children,--'n' I want you to know there 's no coward about me, but I 'm just speakin' six for myself this time."
So the morning sped. Even Mrs. Blossom and May were taken down once, and the Doctor stopped only because he wanted to make a morning call on his patient, Ruth Ford; for it was by his advice the family had come to live for three years in this mountain region.
The horn for the mid-day meal sounded down the Mountain before they had thought of finishing the exciting sport, and one and all brought such keen appetites to the Christmas dinner, that Mrs. Blossom declared laughingly that she would give them no supper, for they had eaten the pantry shelves bare.
Such roast goose and barberry jam! Such a noble plum-pudding set in the midst of Maria-Ann's best wreath, for she and Aunt Tryphosa had sent over their simple gifts by an early teamster. Such red Northern Spies and winter russet pears! And such mirth and shouts and jests and quips to accompany each course!
It was genuine New England Christmas cheer, and the healths were drunk in the wine of the apple amid great applause, especially Doctor Heath's:
"Health, peace, and long life to the Lost Nation--May its tribe increase!"
And how they laughed at Chi, when he proposed the health of the Prize Chicken (which, by the way, he had kept for the next season's mascot,) and recounted the episode in the barn.
What shouts greeted Budd, who, rising with great gravity, his mouth puckered into real, not mock, seriousness--and that was the comical part of it all--said earnestly:
"To my first wife!" and sat down rather red, but gratified not only by the prolonged applause, but by the enthusiasm with which they drank to this unexpected toast from his unsentimental self.
Directly after dinner Mr. Clyde declared that a seven-mile walk was an actual necessity for him in his present condition, and invited all who would to accompany him to call in state on Mrs. Tryphosa Little and Miss Maria-Ann Simmons. Only Doctor Heath and Jack went with him, for Mr.
Blossom and Chi had matters to attend to at home, and Rose and Cherry and Hazel were needed to help Mrs. Blossom. Even March and Budd turned to and wiped dishes.
"I 'll set the table now, Martie," said Rose, "then there will be no confusion to-night--there are so many of us."
"No need for that to-night, children," replied Mrs. Blossom, with a merry smile. "'The last is the best of all the rest,' for we were all invited a week ago to take tea and spend Christmas evening at Hunger-ford."
"Oh, Martie!" A joyful shout went up from the six, that was followed by jigs and double-shuffles, pas-seuls and fancy steps, in which dish-towels were waved wildly, and tin pans were pounded instead of wiped.
When the din had somewhat subsided there were numberless questions asked; by the time they were all answered, and Rose and Hazel had donned their white serge dresses, the gentlemen had returned from their walk, and it was time to go.
"That's why Mrs. Ford had us learn all those songs," said Rose to Hazel.
"Don't forget to take your violin."
A merrier Christmas party never set forth on a straw-ride. Mr. and Mrs.
Blossom and May went over in the sleigh, but the rest piled into the apple-green pung, and when they came in sight of the seven-gabled-house, a rousing three times three, mingling with the sound of the sleigh-bells, greeted the pretty sight.
Every window was illumined, and adorned with a Christmas wreath. In the light of the rising moon, then at the full, the snow that covered the roof sparkled like frosted silver. The house, with its background of sharply sloping hill wooded with spruce and pine, its twinkling lights and the surrounding white expanse, looked like an illuminated Christmas card.
Within, the hall was festooned with ground hemlock and holly; a roaring fire of hickory logs furnished light and to spare. In the living-room and dining-room, Mr. Clyde and Jack Sherrill found, to their amazement, all the elegance and refinement of a city home combined with country simplicity. The tea-table shone with the service of silver and sparkled with the many-faceted crystal of glass and carafe. For decoration, the rich red of the holly berries gleamed among the dark green gloss of their leaves.