Young Derry Willard"s father seemed to be still laughing. He rubbed his hands together.
"Excuse me, good people," he laughed, "for taking such liberties with your tree! But it"s twenty years since I"ve had a chance to take a real whack at a Christmas tree! Palms, of course, are all right, and banana groves aren"t half bad! But when it comes to real landscape effect--give me a Christmas tree in a New England parlor!"
"Palms?" we gasped. "Banana-trees?"
Young Derry Willard distributed the presents.
For my father there were boxes and boxes of cigars! And an order on some Dutch importing house for five hundred _green_ tulips! Father almost sw--ooned.
For mother there was a little gold chain with a single pearl in it! And a box of oranges as big as a chicken-coop!
I got four dolls! And a paint-box! One of the dolls was jet-black. She was funny. When you squeaked her stomach she grinned her mouth and said, "Oh, lor", child!"
Rosalee had a white crepe shawl all fringes and gay-colored birds of paradise! Rosalee had a fan made out of ivory and gold. Rosalee had a gold basket full of candied violets. Rosalee had a silver hand-mirror carved all round the edge with gra.s.ses and lilies like the edges of a little pool.
Carol had a big, big box that looked like a magic lantern. And on every branch where he had hung his seven wishes for a camel there was a white card instead with the one word "Palestine" written on it.
Everybody looked very much perplexed.
Young Derry Willard"s father laughed.
"If the youngster wants camels," he said, "he must have camels! I"m going to Palestine one of these days before so very long. I"ll take him with me. There must be heaps of camels still in Palestine."
"Going to Palestine before--long," gasped my mother. "How wonderful!"
Everybody turned and looked at Carol.
"Want to go, son, eh?" laughed Derry Willard"s father.
Carol"s mouth quivered. He looked at my mother.
My mother"s mouth quivered. A little red came into her checks.
"He wants me to thank you very much, Mr. Willard," she said. "But he thinks perhaps you wouldn"t want to take him to Palestine--if you knew that he can"t--talk."
"Can"t talk?" cried Mr. Derry Willard. "_Can"t talk?_" He looked at mother! He looked at Carol! He swallowed very hard! Then suddenly he began to laugh again!
"Good enough!" he cried. "He"s the very boy I"m looking for! We"ll rear him for a diplomat!"
Carol got a hammer and opened his big box. It _was_ a magic lantern! He was wild with joy! He beat his fists on the top of the box! He stamped his feet! He came and burrowed his head in mother"s shoulder. When Carol burrows his head in my mother"s shoulder it means, "Call me anything you want to!"
Mother called him anything she wanted to. Right out loud before everybody. "Shining Face!" said my mother.
There were lots of other presents besides.
My father had made a giant kite for Carol. It looked nine feet tall. My father had made the dearest little wooden work-box for my mother. There _was_ a blue silk waist for Rosalee. My mother had knitted me a doll!
Its body was knitted! Its cheeks were knitted! Its nose was knitted! It was wonderful!
We ate the peppermint-candy canes. All the pink stripes. All the white stripes. We sang carols. We sang,
O, the foxes have holes! And the birds build their nests In the crotch of the sycamore-tree!
But the Little Son of G.o.d had no place for His head When He cameth to earth for me!
Rosalee"s voice was like a lark in the sky. Carol"s face looked like two larks in the sky.
The tame crow stayed in the kitchen. He was afraid of so many strangers.
The tame c.o.o.n wasn"t afraid of anything. He crawled in and out of all the wrapping-papers, sniffing and sniffing. It made a lovely crackling sound.
Everything smelt like fir balsam. It was more beautiful every minute.
Even after every last present was picked from the tree, the tree was still so fat and fluffy with tinsel and gla.s.s b.a.l.l.s that it didn"t look robbed at all.
We just sat back and stared at it.
Young Derry Willard stared only at the topmost branch.
Father looked suddenly at mother. Mother looked suddenly at Rosalee.
Rosalee looked suddenly at Carol. Carol looked suddenly at me. I looked suddenly at the tame c.o.o.n. The tame c.o.o.n kept right on crackling through the wrapping-papers.
Young Derry Willard made a funny little face. There seemed to be dust in his throat. His voice was very dry. He laughed.
"My wish," said young Derry Willard, "seems to have been the only one that--didn"t bloom."
I almost died with shame. Carol almost died with shame. In all that splendiferousness, in all that generosity, poor Derry Willard"s gold-budded wish was the only one that hadn"t at least bloomed into _something_!
Rosalee jumped up very suddenly and ran into the dining-room. She looked as tho she was going to cry.
Young Derry Willard followed her. He didn"t run. He walked very slowly.
He looked a little troubled.
Carol and I began at once to fold the wrapping-papers very usefully.
Young Derry Willard"s father looked at my father. All of a sudden he wasn"t laughing at all. Or rubbing his hands.
"I"m sorry, d.i.c.k," he said. "I"ve always rather calculated somehow on having my boy"s wishes come true."
My father spoke a little sharply.
"You must have a lot of confidence," he said, "in your boy"s wishes!"
"I have!" said young Derry Willard"s father, quite simply. "He"s a good boy! Not only clever, I mean, but good! Never yet have I known him to wish for anything that wasn"t the _best_!"
"They"re too young," said my father.
"Youth," said Derry Willard"s father, "is the one defect I know of that is incontestably remedial."
"How can they possibly know their own minds?" demanded my father.
"No person," said Derry Willard"s father, "knows his own mind until he"s ready to die. But the sooner he knows his own heart the sooner he"s ready to begin to live."