"U--m--m," said my father.
"It"s because of the hundred-dollar bill," said my mother. "He doesn"t want to give us any chance to return it."
"Humph!" said my father. "Do we _look_ poor?"
My mother glanced at the worn spot in the dining-room rug. She glanced at my father"s coat.
"We certainly do!" she laughed. "But young Derry Willard didn"t leave us a hundred-dollar bill to try and make us look any richer. All young Derry Willard was trying to do was to make us look more Christma.s.sy!"
"Well, we can"t accept it!" said my father.
"Of course we can"t accept it!" said my mother. "It was a mistake. But at least it was a very kind mistake."
"_Kind?_" said my father.
"_Very_ kind," said my mother. "No matter how dark a young man may be or how much cane-sirup and bananas he has consumed, he can"t be absolutely depraved as long as he goes about the world trying to make things look more Christma.s.sy!"
My father looked up rather sharply.
My mother gave a funny little gasp.
"Oh, it"s all right," she said. "We"ll manage some way! But who ever heard of a chicken-bone hung on a Christmas tree? Or a slice of roast beef?"
"Some children don"t get--anything," said my father. He looked solemn.
"Money is very scarce," he said.
"It always is," said my mother. "But that"s no reason why presents ought to be scarce."
My father jumped up.
My father laughed.
"Great Heavens, woman!" he said. "Can"t anything dull your courage?"
"Not my--Christmas courage!" said my mother.
My father reached out suddenly and patted her hand.
"Oh, all right," he said. "I suppose we"ll manage somehow."
"Of course we"ll manage somehow," said my mother.
I ran back as fast as I could to Carol and Rosalee.
We thought a good deal about young Derry Willard coming. We talked about it among ourselves. We never talked about it to my father or my mother.
I don"t know why. I went and got my best story-book and showed the Fairy Prince to Carol. Carol stared and stared. There were palms and bananas in the picture. There was a lace-paper castle. There was a moat. There was a fiery charger. There were dragons. The Fairy Prince was all in white armor, with a white plume in his hat. It grasped your heart, it was so beautiful. I showed the picture to Rosalee. She was surprised.
She turned as white as the plume in the Fairy Prince"s hat. She put the book in her top bureau-drawer with her ribbons. We wondered and wondered whether young Derry Willard would come. Carol thought he wouldn"t. I thought he would. Rosalee wouldn"t say. Carol thought it would be too cold. Carol insisted that he was a tropic. And that tropics couldn"t stand the cold. That if a single breath of cold air struck a tropic he blew up and froze. Rosalee didn"t want young Derry Willard to blow up and freeze. Anybody could see that she didn"t. I comforted her.
I said he would come in a huge fur coat. Carol insisted that tropics didn"t have huge fur coats. "All right, then," I said. "He will come in a huge _feather_ coat! Blue-bird feathers it will be made of! With a soft brown breast! When he fluffs himself he will look like the G.o.d of all the birds and of next Spring! Hawks and all evil things will scuttle away!"
There certainly _was_ something the matter with the Christmas tree that year.
It grew. But it didn"t grow very fast.
My father said that perhaps the fertilizer hadn"t been rich enough.
My mother said that maybe all Christmas trees were blooming rather late this year. Seasons changed so.
My father and mother didn"t go away to town at all. Not for a single day.
Late at night after we"d gone to bed we heard them hammering things and running the sewing-machine.
Carol thought it smelt like kites.
Rosalee said it sounded to her like a blue silk waist.
It looked like a worry to me.
It got colder and colder. It snowed and snowed.
Christmas eve it snowed some more. It was beautiful. We were very much excited. We clapped our hands. We stood at the window to see how white the world was. I thought about the wise men"s camels. I wondered if they could carry snow in their stomachs as well as rain. Mother said camels were tropics and didn"t know anything about snow. It seemed queer.
A sleigh drove up to the door. There were three men in it. Two of them got out. The first one was young Derry Willard. It was a fur coat that he had on. He was full of bundles. My father gave one gasp.
"The--the impudent young--" gasped my father.
We ran to the door. The second man looked just exactly like young Derry Willard except that he had on a gray beard and a gray slouch hat. He looked like the picture of "a planter" in "Uncle Tom"s Cabin." My father and he took just one look at each other. And then suddenly they began to pound each other on the back and to hug each other. "h.e.l.lo, old top!"
they shouted. "h.e.l.lo--h.e.l.lo--_h.e.l.lo_!" Derry Willard"s father cried a little. Everybody cried a little or shouted or pounded somebody on the back except young Derry Willard and Rosalee. Young Derry Willard and Rosalee just stood and looked at each other.
"Well--well--well!" said Derry Willard"s father over and over and over.
"Twenty years! _Twenty_ years!" The front hall was full of bundles! We fell on them when we stepped. And we fell on new ones when we tried to get up. Whenever Derry Willard"s father wasn"t crying he was laughing!
"So this is the wife?" he said. "And these are the children? Which is Rosalee? Ah! A very pretty girl! But not as pretty as your wife!" he laughed. "Twenty years! _Twenty_ years!" he began all over again. "A bit informal, eh? Descending on you like this? But I couldn"t resist the temptation after I"d seen Derry. We Southerners, you know! Our impulses are romantic! Tuck us away anywhere! Or turn us out--if you must!"
My father was like a wild man for joy! He forgot all about everything except "twenty years ago."
We had to put the two Mr. Derry Willards to bed in the parlor. There was no other room. They insisted on sleeping with the Christmas tree. They had camped under every kind of branch and twig in the world, they said.
But _never_ had they camped under a Christmas tree.
Father talked and talked and talked! Derry Willard"s father talked and talked and talked! It was about college! It was about girls! It was about boys! It was about all sorts of pranks! Not any of it was about studies! Mother sat and laughed at them!
Rosalee and young Derry Willard sat and looked at each other. Carol and I played checkers. Everybody forgot us. I don"t know who put me to bed.
When we came down-stairs the next morning and went into the parlor to see the Christmas tree we _screamed_!
Every single weeney-teeny branch of it had sprouted tinsel ta.s.sels!
There were tinsel stars all over it! Red candles were blazing! Gla.s.s icicles glistened! There were candy canes! There were tin trumpets!
Little white-paper presents stuck out everywhere through the branches!
Big white presents piled like a snowdrift all around the base of the tree!