"I"ll bring back bushels," said Helen. "You have enough to go on with for a while."
"One year when Mother and I were caught at the last minute on Christmas Eve without any ribbon," said Dorothy, "--it was after the shops had closed, I remember, we found several bundles that we had overlooked--we tied them with ordinary red and green string twisted together. It looked holly-fied."
"That would be easy to do," said Roger. "See, put two b.a.l.l.s of twine, one red and one green in a box and punch a hole in the top and let the two colors come out of the hole. Then use them just as if they were one cord. See?"
"As he talked he manufactured a twine box, popping into it not only the red and green b.a.l.l.s about which he had been talking, but, on the other side of a slip of pasteboard which he put in for a part.i.tion, a ball of pink and a ball of blue.
"Watch Roger developing another color scheme," cried Ethel Blue. "I"m going to follow that out," and she proceeded to make up a collection of parcels wrapped in pink tissue paper tied with blue string, in blue paper tied with pink cord and in white tied with Roger"s combination.
"There"s one family fitted out with a lot of presents all naturally belonging together," she cried.
"I rather like that notion myself," announced James gravely, adjusting his lame leg to a more comfortable position. "Please hand me that brown and yellow tissue, somebody. I"m going to make a lot of bundles along the color lines that my auburn haired sister uses in her dress."
"Observant little Jimmy," commented Margaret.
"Here you perceive, ladies, that I am doing up the bundles with brown and yellow and burnt orange and tango, and lemon color, and I"m tying them with a contrast--brown with orange and b.u.t.tercup yellow with brown and lemon yellow with white and so on. Good looking, eh?" he finished, pointing with pride to his group of attractive parcels.
"I"m going to do a bunch with a mixture of all sorts," announced Roger.
"Here"s a green tied with red and a white tied with green and a pink tied with white and a brown tied with tango, and violet tied with blue, _und so weiter_, as our Fraulein says when she means "and so forth" and can"t remember her English fast enough."
"Poor Fraulein! It will be a hard Christmas for her."
"She brought in the last of her work and Mrs. Hindenburg"s yesterday.
Such a mound of knitting!"
"Has any one been to the Old Ladies" Home to gather up what they have there?" asked James.
"Roger went early this morning before school. Perhaps those old ladies haven"t been busy! See that pile?"
"All theirs? Good work," and James set about tying up the soft and comfortable knitted m.u.f.flers and wristlets and socks, first in tissue paper with a ribbon or a bright cord and then with a stouter wrapper of ordinary paper. He marked on each package what was in it.
"If the people who are doing the sorting and repacking at the Bush Terminal can know what is in each bundle it is going to help them a lot," remarked methodical James.
The packing of the candies and cookies took especial care, for they had to be wrapped in paraffin paper and tightly wedged in the fancy boxes awaiting them before they could be wrapped with their gay outside coverings.
"We want them to arrive with some shape still left to them and not merely a boxful of crumbs," said Ethel Brown earnestly.
Except for the collections of varied presents which they had made for the sake of the color schemes of their wrappings--an arrangement with which Helen was much pleased when she came back laden with ribbons and cord--the gifts were packed according to their kind. Every article of clothing was wrapped separately and the bundles were labelled, each with the name of the article within, and then put into one large box. It was only by great squeezing that the knitted articles were persuaded to go into the same case.
In another box were the candies and cookies and cakes and breads. The grocer from whom they had bought the materials for their cooking had contributed a dozen tins of peaches.
In still another case went the seemingly innumerable small parcels that held toys or little gifts. Here were the metal pieces and the leather coin purses and the stuffed animals and the dolls. Doctor Hanc.o.c.k had sent over a box of raisins and Mrs. Watkins had sent out from town a box of figs and a few of these goodies with two or three pieces of candy, went into every article that could be made to serve as a container. Of this sort were the innumerable fancy bags made of silk bits and of cretonne and of sc.r.a.ps of velvet which the girls had put together when other work flagged. Many of the pretty little baskets held a pleasant amount of sweeties, and the tiny leather travelling bags and the larger wrist bags of tooled leather were lined with a piece of paraffin paper enclosing something for sweet-toothed European children.
James"s boxes, with those made by the others, held out wonderfully.
"You certainly put in a good week"s work with the paste pot," declared Roger admiringly as he filled the last one with sugar cookies and tied it with green and red twine to harmonize with its covering of holly paper.
The Watkinses had sent out their offerings, for they wanted what they had at home to be packed with the other Club articles, even though they lived nearer than the rest to the place from which the ship was going to steam. When this additional collection was prepared and packed it was found that there were three big packing cases.
"Good for the U. S. C.!" cried the boys as the last nail went into the last cover.
James, who printed well, painted the address neatly on the tops and sides, and they all watched with vivid interest the drayman who hauled them, away, generously contributing his services to the Christmas cause.
After all their hurry it seemed something of a hardship when they were informed that the sailing of the ship was delayed for several days because the force of packers, large as it was, could not prepare all the parcels in time for the tenth of the month.
"The paper says there are more than sixty car-loads of gifts," read Ethel Blue to her interested family, "and five or six million separate presents."
"No wonder they"re delayed!"
Yet after all they were glad of the delay for the _Jason_ finally sailed at noon of the fourteenth, and that was Sat.u.r.day. The Hanc.o.c.ks went in to New York and over to Brooklyn in the Doctor"s car and Mrs. Emerson"s big touring car held all the Mortons and Dorothy and her mother, and Fraulein and her mother, though it was a tight squeeze.
"The old woman who lived in a shoe must have been on her way to a Christmas Ship," cried Grandmother when Roger tossed d.i.c.ky in "on top of the heap of Ethels," as he described it and took up his own station on the running board.
The pier at the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn was already well crowded with people and motors when the Rosemont party arrived. The Watkinses and the Hanc.o.c.ks were already there. Freight cars stood at one side, freight cars empty now of their loads of good cheer. Everybody was laughing and happy and in a Christmas mood, and the boy band from St. John"s Home in Brooklyn made merry music.
Thanks to Mrs. Morton"s acquaintance with Lieutenant-Commander Courtney, who was in command of the ship, she and her flock had been invited to hear the speeches of farewell made in the main saloon by representatives of the city of New York.
Roger led the way to the gang plank which stretched from the pier to the deck of the huge navy collier.
"Old _Jason_ looks grim enough in his gray war paint," he commented.
"But those great latticed arms of the six cranes look as if he were trying to play Christmas tree," suggested Mrs. Emerson.
The speeches were full of good will and Christmas cheer. Back on to the pier went the listeners and then amid the cheers of the throng on the dock and the whistles of near-by boats and the strains of "The Star Spangled Banner" from the boys" band and the waving of handkerchiefs and hats, the huge gray steamer slipped out into the stream and started on her way across the ocean.
It was when the U. S. C. was making its way back to the automobiles that a piercing scream attracted their attention.
"That sounds like Fraulein"s voice," said Helen, looking about for the source of the cry.
"_Meine Tochter!_" exclaimed Mrs. Hindenburg at the same moment.
And then they came upon Fraulein, her arms about the neck of a bearded man, who stroked her hair and cheek with one hand while with the other he clung to one of the crutches which gave him but an insecure support.
"_Lieber Heinrich!_" cried Mrs. Hindenburg as she caught sight of the tableau.
"It"s--yes, I believe it"s Mr. Schuler! Look, Helen, do you think it is?" whispered Roger.
"It must be," returned Helen. "It"s hard to tell with that beard, but I"m almost sure it is."
"His leg! Oh, Helen, his leg is gone!" lamented Ethel Blue.
The Rosemont party"s certainty was relieved by Mrs. Hindenburg who turned to them, beaming.
"It iss Mr. Schuler; it iss Heinrich," she explained. "_He_ has lost his leg. What matter? He is here and the _Tochter_ is happy!"
Happy indeed was Fraulein when she turned her tear-stained face toward the others.
"He has come," she said simply, while the rest crowded around and shook hands.