"Ah," said Father Christmas almost gayly, "children in the house!"
"One," I answered, "the sweetest boy in all the world."
"I"ll be bound he is!" said Father Christmas and he broke now into a merry laugh that did one"s heart good to hear. "They all are! Lord bless me! The number that I have seen, and each and every one--and quite right too--the sweetest child in all the world. And how old, do you say? Two and a half all but two months except a week? The very sweetest age of all, I"ll bet you say, eh, what? They all do!"
And the old man broke again into such a jolly chuckling of laughter that his snow-white locks shook upon his head.
"But stop a bit," he added. "This horse is broken. Tut, tut, a hind leg nearly off. This won"t do!"
He had the toy in his lap in a moment, mending it. It was wonderful to see, for all his age, how deft his fingers were.
"Time," he said, and it was amusing to note that his voice had a.s.sumed almost an authoritative tone, "reach me that piece of string. That"s right. Here, hold your finger across the knot. There! Now, then, a bit of beeswax. What? No beeswax? Tut, tut, how ill-supplied your houses are to-day. How can you mend toys, sir, without beeswax? Still, it will stand up now."
I tried to murmur by best thanks.
But Father Christmas waved my grat.i.tude aside.
"Nonsense," he said, "that"s nothing. That"s my life. Perhaps the little boy would like a book too. I have them here in the packet. Here, sir, _Jack and the Bean Stalk_, most profound thing. I read it to myself often still. How damp it is! Pray, sir, will you let me dry my books before your fire?"
"Only too willingly," I said. "How wet and torn they are!"
Father Christmas had risen from his chair and was fumbling among his tattered packages, taking from them his children"s books, all limp and draggled from the rain and wind.
"All wet and torn!" he murmured, and his voice sank again into sadness.
"I have carried them these three years past. Look! These were for little children in Belgium and in Serbia. Can I get them to them, think you?"
Time gently shook his head.
"But presently, perhaps," said Father Christmas, "if I dry and mend them. Look, some of them were inscribed already! This one, see you, was written "_With father"s love_." Why has it never come to him? Is it rain or tears upon the page?"
He stood bowed over his little books, his hands trembling as he turned the pages. Then he looked up, the old fear upon his face again.
"That sound!" he said. "Listen! It is guns--I hear them."
"No, no," I said, "it is nothing. Only a car pa.s.sing in the street below."
"Listen," he said. "Hear that again--voices crying!"
"No, no," I answered, "not voices, only the night wind among the trees."
"My children"s voices!" he exclaimed. "I hear them everywhere--they come to me in every wind--and I see them as I wander in the night and storm--my children--torn and dying in the trenches--beaten into the ground--I hear them crying from the hospitals--each one to me, still as I knew him once, a little child. Time, Time," he cried, reaching out his arms in appeal, "give me back my children!"
"They do not die in vain," Time murmured gently.
But Christmas only moaned in answer:
"Give me back my children!"
Then he sank down upon his pile of books and toys, his head buried in his arms.
"You see," said Time, "his heart is breaking, and will you not help him if you can?"
"Only too gladly," I replied. "But what is there to do?"
"This," said Father Time, "listen."
He stood before me grave and solemn, a shadowy figure but half seen though he was close beside me. The fire-light had died down, and through the curtained windows there came already the first dim brightening of dawn.
"The world that once you knew," said Father Time, "seems broken and destroyed about you. You must not let them know--the children. The cruelty and the horror and the hate that racks the world to-day--keep it from them. Some day _he_ will know"--here Time pointed to the prostrate form of Father Christmas--"that his children, that once were, have not died in vain: that from their sacrifice shall come a n.o.bler, better world for all to live in, a world where countless happy children shall hold bright their memory for ever. But for the children of To-day, save and spare them all you can from the evil hate and horror of the war.
Later they will know and understand. Not yet. Give them back their Merry Christmas and its kind thoughts, and its Christmas charity, till later on there shall be with it again Peace upon Earth Good Will towards Men."
His voice ceased. It seemed to vanish, as it were, in the sighing of the wind.
I looked up. Father Time and Christmas had vanished from the room. The fire was low and the day was breaking visibly outside.
"Let us begin," I murmured. "I will mend this broken horse."
END