They were intensely disappointed at the blockade. They cried and sobbed and would not be comforted. Fortunately the woman had a great basket filled with substantial provisions which, by the way, she generously shared with the rest of us, so we were none of us hungry. As the night fell, we tipped up two of the seats, placed the bottoms sideways, and with our overcoats made two good beds for the little folks. Just before they went to sleep the drummer said to me:
"Say, parson, we"ve got to give those children some Christmas."
"That"s what," said the cow-boy.
"I"m agreed," added the cattle-man.
"Madam," said the drummer, addressing the woman with the easy a.s.surance of his cla.s.s, after a brief consultation between us, "we are going to give your kids some Christmas."
The woman beamed at him gratefully.
"Yes, children," said the now enthused drummer, as he turned to the open-mouthed children, "Santa Claus is coming round to-night sure. We want you to hang up your stockings."
"We ain"t got none," quivered the little girl, ""ceptin" those we"ve got on and ma says it"s too cold to take "em off."
"I"ve got two new pair of woollen socks," said the cattle-man eagerly, "which I ain"t never wore, and you are welcome to "em."
There was a clapping of little hands in childish glee, and then the two faces fell as the elder remarked.
"But Santa Claus will know they are not our stockings and he will fill them with things for you instead."
"Lord love you," said the burly cattle-man, roaring with infectious laughter, "he wont bring me nothin". One of us will sit up anyway and tell him it"s for you. You"ve got to hustle to bed right away because he may be here any time now."
Then came one of those spectacles which we sometimes meet once or twice in a lifetime. The children knelt down on the rough floor of the car beside their improvised beds. Instinctively the hands of the men went to their heads and at the first words of "Now I lay me down to sleep," four hats came off. The cow-boy stood twirling his hat and looking at the little kneeling figures; the cattle-man"s vision seemed dimmed; while in the eyes of the travelling man there shone a distant look--a look across snow-filled prairies to a warmly lighted home.
The children were soon asleep. Then the rest of us engaged in earnest conversation. What should we give them? was the question.
"It don"t seem to me that I"ve got anything to give "em," said the cow-boy mournfully, "unless the little kid might like my spurs, an" I would give my gun to the little girl, though on general principles I don"t like to give up a gun. You never know when you"re goin" to need it, "specially with strangers," he added with a rather suspicious glance at me. I would not have harmed him for the world.
"I"m in much the same fix," said the cattle-man. "I"ve got a flask of prime old whiskey here, but it don"t seem like it"s very appropriate for the occasion, though it"s at the service of any of you gents."
"Never seen no occasion in which whiskey wasn"t appropriate," said the cow-boy, mellowing at the sight of the flask.
"I mean "taint fit for kids," explained the cattle-man handing it over.
"I begun on"t rather early," remarked the puncher, taking a long drink, "an" I always use it when my feelin"s is onsettled, like now." He handed it back with a sigh.
"Never mind, boys," said the drummer. "You all come along with me to the baggage car."
So off we trooped. He opened his trunks, and spread before us such a glittering array of trash and trinkets as almost took away our breath.
"There," he said, "look at that. We"ll just pick out the best things from the lot, and I"ll donate them all."
"No, you don"t," said the cow-boy. "My ante"s in on this game, an" I"m goin" to buy what chips I want, an" pay fer "em too, else there ain"t going to be no Christmas around here."
"That"s my judgment, too," said the cattle-man.
"I think that will be fair," said I. "The travelling man can donate what he pleases, and we can each of us buy what we please, as well."
I think we spent hours looking over the stock which the obliging man spread out all over the car for us. He was going home, he said, and everything was at our service. The trainmen caught the infection, too, and all hands finally went back to the coach with such a load of stuff as you never saw before. We filled the socks and two seats besides with it. The grateful mother was simply dazed.
As we all stood about, gleefully surveying our handiwork including the bulging socks, the engineer remarked:
"We"ve got to get some kind of a Christmas tree."
So two of us ploughed off on the prairie--it had stopped snowing and was bright moon-light--and wandered around until we found a good-sized piece of sage-brush, which we brought back and solemnly installed and the woman decorated it with bunches of tissue paper from the notion stock and clean waste from the engine. We hung the train lanterns around it.
We were so excited that we actually could not sleep. The contagion of the season was strong upon us, and I know not which were the more delighted the next morning, the children or the amateur Santa Clauses, when they saw what the cow-boy called the "layout."
Great goodness! Those children never did have, and probably never will have, such a Christmas again. And to see the thin face of that mother flush with unusual colour when we handed her one of those monstrous red plush alb.u.ms which we had purchased jointly and in which we had all written our names in lieu of our photographs, and between the leaves of which the cattle-man had generously slipped a hundred dollar bill, was worth being blockaded for a dozen Christmases. Her eyes filled with tears and she fairly sobbed before us.
During the morning we had a little service in the car, in accordance with the custom of the Church, and I am sure no more heartfelt body of worshippers ever poured forth their thanks for the Incarnation than those men, that woman, and the little children. The woman sang "Jesus Lover of my Soul" from memory in her poor little voice and that small but reverent congregation--cow-boy, drummer, cattle-man, trainmen, and parson--solemnly joined in.
"It feels just like church," said the cow-boy gravely to the cattle-man.
"Say I"m all broke up; let"s go in the other car and try your flask ag"in." It was his unfailing resource for "onsettled feelin"s."
The train-hand who had gone on to division headquarters returned with the snow-plough early in the afternoon, but what was more to the purpose he brought a whole cooked turkey with him, so the children had turkey, a Christmas tree, and Santa Claus to their heart"s content! I did not get home until the day after Christmas.
But, after all, what a Christmas I had enjoyed!
During a season of great privation we were much a.s.sisted by barrels of clothing which were sent to us from the East. One day just before Christmas, I was distributing the contents of several barrels of wearing apparel and other necessities to the women and children at a little mission. The delight of the women, as the good warm articles of clothing for themselves and their children which they so sadly needed were handed out to them was touching; but the children themselves did not enter into the joy of the occasion with the same spontaneity. Finally just as I got to the bottom of one box and before I had opened the other one, a little boy sniffling to himself in the corner remarked, _sotto voce_:
"Ain"t there no real Chris"mus gif"s in there for us little fellers, too?"
I could quite enter into his feelings, for I could remember in my youthful days when careful relatives had provided me with a "cardigan"
jacket, three handkerchiefs, and a half-dozen pairs of socks for Christmas, that the season seemed to me like a hollow mockery and the attempt to palm off necessities as Christmas gifts filled my childish heart with disapproval. I am older now and can face a Christmas remembrance of a cookbook, a silver cake-basket, or an ice-cream freezer (some of which I have actually received) with philosophical equanimity, if not grat.i.tude.
I opened the second box, therefore, with a great longing, though but little hope. Heaven bless the woman who had packed that box, for, in addition to the usual necessary articles, there were dolls, knives, books, games galore, so the small fry had some "real Chris"mus gif"s" as well as the others.
After one of the blizzards a young ranchman who had gone into the nearest town some twenty miles away to get some Christmas things for his wife and little ones, was found frozen to death on Christmas morning, his poor little packages of petty Christmas gifts tightly clasped in his cold hands lying by his side. His horse was frozen too and when they found it, hanging to the horn of the saddle was a little piece of an evergreen tree--you would throw it away in contempt in the East, it was so puny. There it meant something. The love of Christmas? It was there in his dead hands. The spirit of Christmas? It showed itself in that bit of verdant pine over the lariat at the saddle-bow of the poor bronco.
Do they have Christmas out West? Well, they have it in their hearts if no place else, and, after all, that is the place above all others where it should be.
A CHRISTMAS WISH
_For Everybody, Everywhere_
MAY peace and goodwill, prosperity and plenty, joy and satisfaction abound in your homes and in your hearts this day and all days. May opportunities for good work be many, and may you avail yourselves of them all. May your sorrows be lightened, may your griefs be a.s.suaged.
May your souls be fitted for what they must endure; may your backs be strengthened for your burdens; may your responsibilities be met; may your obligations be discharged; may your duties be performed. May love abound more and more until the perfect day breaks in your lives. In short, every wish that would be helpful, uplifting, and comforting, I wish you at this hour and in all hours.
In the words of Tiny Tim.
"_G.o.d Bless us every one!_"
CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.