"This doll is bigger than Mary Pratt"s: I know it is. Oh, Rob! don"t you suppose it must have cost a lot of money?"
At last Mrs. March came back into their room, looking very much annoyed.
"Well, children," she said, "we"re going to have a droll sort of Christmas. Sarah is so fast asleep we can"t wake her up, and your papa thinks she must be drunk. We shall have to cook our Christmas dinner ourselves. How will you like that?"
"Oh, splendid, mamma, splendid! Let us get right up now," cried both the children, eagerly laying down their playthings.
"No," said Mrs. March. "Rob must not get up yet: it is too cold; but you may get up, Nell, and help me get breakfast. Can you leave your new dolly?"
"Oh, yes, mamma!" cried Nelly, "indeed I can." And laying the dolly carefully between the bed-clothes with her head on the pillow, she kissed her, and said, "Good-by, dear Josephine Harriet: you won"t be very long alone. I will come back soon."
Rob burst out laughing. "What a name!" he said, mimicking Nelly.
"Josephine Harriet! whoever heard such a name?"
"I think it"s a real pretty name, Rob," replied Nelly. "Boys don"t know any thing about dolls names. Besides, she is named for two people: Josephine is for that poor, dear, beautiful Empress that mamma told us about; I"ve always thought since then if ever I had a doll handsome enough, I"d name her after her. And Harriet is after Hatty Pratt. I love Hatty dearly, and she"s named two dolls after me."
"Well, I shall call the doll the Empress, then," said Rob, in a tone intended to be very sarcastic.
"Yes; so shall I," replied Nelly: "I thought of that. It will sound very nice."
Rob looked a little disappointed. He thought it would tease Nelly to have her doll called "The Empress."
"No: I think I"ll call her Mrs. Napoleon," said he.
"Well," said Nelly, "I suppose that would do,"--Nelly had not the least idea that Rob was making fun of her,--"but I don"t believe they ever call the real Empress so. I don"t remember it in the story. I"ll ask mamma. I think Mrs. Napoleon is a beautiful name: don"t you, Rob?"
By this time Rob was too deep in the "Cliff Climbers"--one of his new books--to answer; and Nelly was all dressed ready to go downstairs. As she left the room, Rob called out:--
"I say, Nell, tell mamma I don"t want any breakfast. I"d rather stay in bed and read this story."
It was a very droll Christmas-day, but the children always said it was one of the very pleasantest they ever spent. It turned out that the cook was really in a heavy drunken sleep. She had been partly under the influence of liquor when she went to bed the night before.
That was the reason she had asked Nelly where they would be sleeping in the morning. She did not know what she was saying when she said that. Mr. March went and brought a doctor to look at her in her sleep, for they were afraid it might be apoplexy; but the doctor only laughed, and said:--
"Pshaw! The woman"s drunk. Let her alone. She"ll wake up by noon."
Mr. and Mrs. March felt very unhappy about this, for Sarah had lived with them two years, and had never done such a thing before. She did not wake up by noon, as the doctor had said. She did not wake up till nearly night; and, when she went downstairs, there were Mrs.
March and Nelly and Rob in the kitchen, all at work. Mrs. March and Nelly were washing the dishes, and Rob was cleaning the knives. They had cooked the dinner and eaten it, and cleared every thing away.
Sarah dropped into a chair, and looked from one to the other without speaking.
"Hullo!" said Rob, "you cooked us a nice Christmas dinner: didn"t you? We"d have never had any if we"d waited for you."
"Do you feel sick now, Sarah?" said good-hearted little Nelly.
Sarah did not speak. Her brain was not yet clear. She looked helplessly from Mrs. March to the children, and from the children to Mrs. March. Then she rose and walked unsteadily to the table, and tried to take the towel out of Nelly"s hands.
"Let me wipe the dishes," she said: "my head"s better now."
"No, Sarah," said Mrs. March, sternly. "Go back to your room. You"re not yet fit to be on your feet."
The children wondered very much that their mamma, who was usually so kind, should speak so sternly to Sarah; but they asked no questions.
They were too full of the excitement of doing all the work, and looking at their presents, and talking about them. The hours flew by so quickly that it was dark before they knew it; and, when they went to bed, they both exclaimed together:--
"Oh, Nell!" and "Oh, Rob! hasn"t it been a splendid Christmas!"
They remembered it for a great many years, for it was the last Christmas they spent in their pleasant home at Mayfield.
CHAPTER II
A TALK ABOUT LEAVING MAYFIELD
The next day a big snow fell. It was one of those snows which fall so thick and fast and fine, that when you look out of the windows it seems as if great white sheets were being let down from the skies.
When Rob first waked and saw this snow falling, he exclaimed:--
"Hurrah! here"s a bully snow-storm! Now we"ll get some snow-balling.
Say, Nell, won"t you help me build a real big snow-fort with high walls that we can stand behind, and fire snow-b.a.l.l.s at the boys?"
"Oh, Rob!" said Nelly, "I"m afraid mamma won"t let you play in the snow yet: your throat isn"t well enough; but by next week I think it will be. We"ll have snow right along now all winter."
"Oh, dear!" said Rob, fretfully: "there it is again. I can"t ever do any thing I want to."
"Why, Rob," replied Nelly, "aren"t you ashamed of yourself, with that lovely kaleidoscope and all those books? I shouldn"t think you"d want to go out to-day. I"m sure I don"t. I"d rather stay at home with Mrs. Napoleon and the rest of my dolls all day than go anywhere,--that is, unless it was to take a sleigh-ride. Mamma said perhaps, if it stopped snowing, papa might take us on a sleigh-ride this afternoon."
"Did she?" exclaimed Rob; "oh, bully! But then I suppose I can"t go," he added, in a quite altered tone.
"Oh, yes! you can," answered Nelly, "mamma said so. I heard her tell papa it would do you good to go well wrapped up."
"I hate to be bundled up so," said Rob. "It"s as hot as fury; and, besides, it makes the boys laugh; last time I went out so, Ned Saunders he stood on his father"s store steps, when we stopped there,--mamma wanted to buy a broom,--and Ned called out, "By-by, baby bunting, where"s your little rabbit skin?" I shan"t go if mamma makes me wear that red shawl, so!" and Rob"s face was the picture of misery.
Nelly"s cheeks flushed at the thought of the insulting taunt to Rob which was conveyed in that quotation from Mother Goose: but she was a very wise and clear-headed little girl, as you have no doubt discovered before this time, and she knew much better than to let Rob think she felt as he did about it; so all she said was, "I don"t care: I shouldn"t mind. If Ned Saunders had the sore throat, he"d have to be wrapped up just the same way. Boys are a great deal hatefuller than girls. No girl would ever say such a thing as that to a girl if she was sick, or to a boy either."
"No, I don"t suppose they would," said Rob, reflectively. "Girls are nicer than boys some ways: that"s a fact."
In the excitement of the Christmas presents, and the getting of the Christmas dinner, and all the housework which had to be done afterward, Nelly had forgotten about the conversation which she had overheard in the night between her father and mother. But in the quiet of this stormy morning it all came back to her. She and Rob were spending the forenoon in the place which they liked best in all the house, their mother"s room. It was a beautiful sunny chamber, with two big bay-windows in it,--one looking to the south, and one to the west; the south window looked out on the garden, and the west window looked out on a great pine grove which was only a few rods away from the house; on the east side of the room was the fireplace with a low grate set in it; the fire burned better in this fireplace than in any other in the house, the children thought. That was because they had a nice time every night, sitting down a while in front of this fire and talking with their mother. This was the time when they told her things they didn"t quite like to tell in the daytime; and this was the time she always took to tell them things she was anxious they should remember. They a.s.sociated all their talks with the bright open fire; and, whenever they saw the flames of soft coal leaping up and shining, they remembered a great many things their mother had said to them.
There was a large old-fashioned mahogany table on one side of this room, which Mrs. March used for cutting out work, and which the children liked better than any thing in the room. It had droll twisted legs which ended in k.n.o.bs and castors, and it had big leaves fastened on with bra.s.s hinges which opened and shut; when these leaves were open the table was so big that both Rob and Nelly could be up on it at once, and have plenty of room for their things. This morning their mother had let them open it out to its full size, and push it close up in one corner of the room, so that the walls made a fine back for them to lean against. Nelly sat on one side, with all her dolls ranged in a row against the wall, Mrs. Napoleon at the head. In front of her, she had all their clothes in one great pile, and was sorting and arranging them in the little bureau and trunk and boxes in which she kept them. Rob sat opposite her with his feet on a blanket shawl, so that they would not scratch the mahogany; he was reading the "Cliff Climbers," and every few minutes he would break out with:--
"This is the most splendid story of all yet."
"Nell, look at this picture of them going up over the cliff by ropes. Oh, don"t I just wish I could go to some such place!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: Nelly sat on one side with all her dolls ranged in a row against the wall. _Page 20_]