"Ah! does thee think so? There was one thing I believed when I was a very little girl, and it was not true. I believed the cattle knelt at midnight on Christmas eve."
"Knelt, grandma? For what?"
"Because our blessed Lord was born in a manger."
"But they didn"t know that. Cows can"t read the Bible."
"It was an idle story, of course, like the one about Mother Knowles. A man who worked at our house, Israel Grossman, told it to me, and I thought it was true."
Here grandma gazed into the coals again. She could see Israel Grossman sitting on a stump, whittling a stick and puffing away at a short pipe.
"Well, children," said she, "I have talked to you long enough about things that are past and gone. On the whole, I don"t say they were good old times, for the times now are a great deal better."
"Yes, indeed," said Prudy.
"Except one thing," added grandma, looking at Dotty, who was snapping the tongs together. "Children had more to do in my day than they have now."
Dotty blushed.
"Grandma," said she, "I"m having a playtime, you know, "cause there can"t anybody stop to fix my work. But mother says after the holidays I"m going to have a stint every day."
"That"s right, dear. Now thee may run down and get me a skein of red yarn thee will find on the top shelf in the nursery closet."
CHAPTER XI.
THE CRYSTAL WEDDING.
As the crystal wedding was to take place on the twenty-fourth, the Christmas tree was deferred till the night after, and was not looked forward too by the children as anything very important. They had had a tree, a Kris Kringle, or something of the sort, every year since they could remember; but a wedding was a rare event, and to be a bridesmaid was as great an honor, Dotty thought, as could be conferred on any little girl.
It was intended that everything should be as much as possible like the original wedding. Mrs. Parlin was to wear the same dove-colored silk and bridal veil she had worn then, and Mr. Parlin the same coat and white vest, though they were decidedly out of fashion by this time. Dotty was resplendent in a white dress with a long sash, a gold necklace of her aunt Eastman"s, and a pair of white kid slippers. Johnny was to be groomsman. He was a boy who was always startling his friends with some new idea, and this time he had "borrowed" a silver bouquet-holder out of his mother"s drawer, and filled it with the loveliest greenhouse flowers.
Until Dotty saw this, she had been happy; but the thought of standing up with a boy who held such a beautiful toy, while her own little hands would be empty--this was too much.
"Johnny Eastman," said she, with a trembling voice, "how do you think it will look to be holding flowers up to your nose when the minister"s a-praying? I"d be so "shamed, so "shamed, Johnny Eastman!"
"You want the bouquet-holder yourself, you know you do," said Johnny; "you want everything you see; and if folks don"t give right up to you, then there"s a fuss."
"O, Johnny Eastman, I"m a girl, and that"s the only reason why I want the bouquet-holder! If I was a boy, do you s"pose I"d touch such a thing? But I can"t wear flowers in the b.u.t.ton-holes of my coat--now can I?"
The children were in the guest chamber, preparing to go down--all but Prudy, who was in her mother"s room, a.s.sisting at the bridal toilet. Susy and Flossy stood before the mirror, and Johnny and Dotty in the middle of the room, confronting each other with angry brows.
[Ill.u.s.tration: DOTTY WANTS THE BOUQUET-HOLDER.]
"Hush, children!" said Susy, in an absentminded way, and went on brushing her hair, which was one of the greatest trials in the whole world, because it would not curl. She had frizzed it with curling-tongs, rolled it on papers, and drenched it with soap suds till there was danger of its fading entirely away; still it was as straight, after all, as an Indian"s.
"O, dear!" said she; "it sticks up all over my head like a skein of yarn.
Children, do hush!"
"Mine curls too tight, if anything; don"t you think so?" asked Flossy, trying not to look as well satisfied with herself as she really felt; adding, by way of parenthesis, "Johnny, why can"t you be quiet?"
"Are you going to let me have that bouquet-holder, Johnny Eastman?"
continued Dotty; ""cause I"m going right out to tell my mother. She"ll be so mortified she"ll send you right home, if you hold it up to your nose, when you are nothing but a boy."
"That"s right, Dimple, run and tell."
"No, I shan"t tell if you"ll give it to me. And you may have one of the roses in your b.u.t.ton-hole, Johnny. That"s the way the Pickings man had, that wrote Little Nell; father said so. There"s a good boy, now!"
Dotty dropped her voice to a milder key, and smiled as sweetly as the bitterness of her feelings would permit. She had set her heart on the toy, and her white slippers, and even her gold necklace, dwindled into nothing in comparison.
"Whose mother owns this bouquet-holder, I"d like to know?" said Johnny, flourishing it above his head. "And whose father brought home the flowers from the green-house?"
"Well, any way, Johnny, "twas my aunt and uncle, you know; and they"d be willing, "cause your mamma let me have her necklace "thout my asking."
"I can"t help it if they"re both as willing as two peas," cried Johnny.
"I"m not willing myself, and that"s enough."
"O, what a boy! I was going to put some of my nightly blue sirreup on your hangerjif, and now I won"t--see if I do!"
"I don"t want anybody"s sirup," retorted Johnny; ""tic"ly such a cross party"s as you are."
"Johnny Eastman, you just stop murdering me."
"Murdering you?"
"Yes; "he that hateth his brother.""
"I"m not your brother, I should hope."
"Well, a cousin"s just as bad."
"No, not half so bad. I wouldn"t be your brother if I had to be a beggar."
"And I wouldn"t let you be a brother, Johnny Eastman, not if I had to go and be a heathen."
"O, what a Dotty!"
"O, what a Johnny!"
By this time the little bridesmaid"s face was anything but pleasant to behold. Both her dimples were buried out of sight, and she had as many wrinkles in her forehead as grandma Head. Johnny danced about the room, holding before her eyes the bone of contention, then drawing it away again in the most provoking manner.
"If you act so, Johnny Eastman, I won"t have you for my bridegroom."
"And I won"t have you for my bride--so there!"
The moment these words were spoken, the angry children were frightened.