The luxurious meal of sausages, potatoes, and hot tea was soon smoking on the table, and was eagerly devoured by Katey and her father. But Ann could not eat much. She was absent-minded, and only drank a cup of tea.
As soon as breakfast was over, she left Katey to wash the dishes, and started out again.
She walked slowly down the street, revolving a great plan in her mind.
"Let me see," she said to herself. "They shall have a happy day for once. I suppose John"ll grumble, but the Lord has sent me this money, and I mean to use part of it to make one good day for them."
Having settled this in her mind, she walked on more quickly, and visited various shops in the neighbourhood. When at last she went home, her big basket was stuffed as full as it could hold, and she carried a bundle besides.
"Here"s your tea, John," she said cheerfully, as she unpacked the basket, "a whole pound of it, and sugar, and tobacco, and a new pipe."
"Give me some now," said the old man eagerly; "don"t wait to take out the rest of the things."
"And here"s a new frock for you, Katey," old Ann went on, after making John happy with his treasures, "a real bright one, and a pair of shoes, and some real woollen stockings; oh! how warm you"ll be!"
"Oh, how nice, Mammy!" cried Katey, jumping about. "When will you make my frock?"
"To-morrow," answered the mother, "and you can go to school again."
"Oh, goody!" she began, but her face fell. "If only Molly Parker could go too!"
"You wait and see," answered Ann, with a knowing look. "Who knows what Christmas will bring to Molly Parker?"
"Now here"s a nice big roast," the happy woman went on, still unpacking, "and potatoes and turnips and cabbage and bread and b.u.t.ter and coffee and----"
"What in the world! You goin" to give a party?" asked the old man between the puffs, staring at her in wonder.
"I"ll tell you just what I am going to do," said Ann firmly, bracing herself for opposition, "and it"s as good as done, so you needn"t say a word about it. I"m going to have a Christmas dinner, and I"m going to invite every blessed soul in this house to come. They shall be warm and full for once in their lives, please G.o.d! And, Katey," she went on breathlessly, before the old man had sufficiently recovered from his astonishment to speak, "go right upstairs now, and invite every one of "em from the fathers down to Mrs. Parker"s baby to come to dinner at three o"clock; we"ll have to keep fashionable hours, it"s so late now; and mind, Katey, not a word about the money. And hurry back, child, I want you to help me."
To her surprise, the opposition from her husband was less than she expected. The genial tobacco seemed to have quieted his nerves, and even opened his heart. Grateful for this, Ann resolved that his pipe should never lack tobacco while she could work.
But now the cares of dinner absorbed her. The meat and vegetables were prepared, the pudding made, and the long table spread, though she had to borrow every table in the house, and every dish to have enough to go around.
At three o"clock when the guests came in, it was really a very pleasant sight. The bright warm fire, the long table, covered with a substantial, and, to them, a luxurious meal, all smoking hot. John, in his neatly brushed suit, in an armchair at the foot of the table, Ann in a bustle of hurry and welcome, and a plate and a seat for every one.
How the half-starved creatures enjoyed it; how the children stuffed and the parents looked on with a happiness that was very near to tears; how old John actually smiled and urged them to send back their plates again and again, and how Ann, the washerwoman, was the life and soul of it all, I can"t half tell.
After dinner, when the poor women lodgers insisted on clearing up, and the poor men sat down by the fire to smoke, for old John actually pa.s.sed around his beloved tobacco, Ann quietly slipped out for a few minutes, took four large bundles from a closet under the stairs, and disappeared upstairs. She was scarcely missed before she was back again.
Well, of course it was a great day in the house on the alley, and the guests sat long into the twilight before the warm fire, talking of their old homes in the fatherland, the hard winter, and prospects for work in the spring.
When at last they returned to the chilly discomfort of their own rooms, each family found a package containing a new warm dress and pair of shoes for every woman and child in the family.
"And I have enough left," said Ann the washerwoman, to herself, when she was reckoning up the expenses of the day, "to buy my coal and pay my rent till spring, so I can save my old bones a bit. And sure John can"t grumble at their staying now, for it"s all along of keeping them that I had such a blessed Christmas day at all."
FOOTNOTE:
[K] From "Kristy"s Queer Christmas," Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1904.
XVII
A CHRISTMAS STAR[L]
KATHERINE PYLE
"COME now, my dear little stars," said Mother Moon, "and I will tell you the Christmas story."
Every morning for a week before Christmas, Mother Moon used to call all the little stars around her and tell them a story.
It was always the same story, but the stars never wearied of it. It was the story of the Christmas star--the Star of Bethlehem.
When Mother Moon had finished the story the little stars always said: "And the star is shining still, isn"t it, Mother Moon, even if we can"t see it?"
And Mother Moon would answer: "Yes, my dears, only now it shines for men"s hearts instead of their eyes."
Then the stars would bid the Mother Moon good-night and put on their little blue nightcaps and go to bed in the sky chamber; for the stars"
bedtime is when people down on the earth are beginning to waken and see that it is morning.
But that particular morning when the little stars said good-night and went quietly away, one golden star still lingered beside Mother Moon.
"What is the matter, my little star?" asked the Mother Moon. "Why don"t you go with your little sisters?"
"Oh, Mother Moon," said the golden star. "I am so sad! I wish I could shine for some one"s heart like that star of wonder that you tell us about."
"Why, aren"t you happy up here in the sky country?" asked Mother Moon.
"Yes, I have been very happy," said the star; "but to-night it seems just as if I must find some heart to shine for."
"Then if that is so," said Mother Moon, "the time has come, my little star, for you to go through the Wonder Entry."
"The Wonder Entry? What is that?" asked the star. But the Mother Moon made no answer.
Rising, she took the little star by the hand and led it to a door that it had never seen before.
The Mother Moon opened the door, and there was a long dark entry; at the far end was shining a little speck of light.
"What is this?" asked the star.
"It is the Wonder Entry; and it is through this that you must go to find the heart where you belong," said the Mother Moon.
Then the little star was afraid.
It longed to go through the entry as it had never longed for anything before; and yet it was afraid and clung to the Mother Moon.
But very gently, almost sadly, the Mother Moon drew her hand away. "Go, my child," she said.