"There, I guess that will do," he said, finally. "Come on!"
Outside, the night air was cold and bracing, and in the black vault of the sky the winter constellations flashed and throbbed. The shadows of the two men, thrown by the lantern, bobbed huge and grotesque across the snow and among the bare branches of the cottonwoods, as they moved toward the barn.
"Ay tank ve put on dose extra side poards and make her an even fifty pushel," said Nels, after they had backed the wagon up to the granary door. "Ve might as vell do it oop right, skence ve"re at it."
Having carried out this suggestion, the two shovelled steadily, with short intervals of rest, for three quarters of an hour, the dark pile of grain in the wagon-box rising gradually until it stood flush with the top.
Good it was to look upon, cold and soft and yielding to the touch, this heaped-up wealth from the inexhaustible treasure-house of the mighty West. Charlie and Nels felt something of this as they viewed the results of their labours for a moment before hitching up the team.
"It"s A number one hard," said Charlie, picking up a handful and sifting it slowly through his fingers, "and it"ll fetch seventy-four cents. But you can"t raise any worse on this old farm of ours if you try," he added, a little proudly. "Nor anywhere else in the Jim River Valley, for that matter."
As they approached the Roney place, looking dim and indistinct in the darkness, their voices hushed apprehensively, and the noise of the sled-runners slipping through the snow seemed to them to increase from a purr to a roar.
"Here, stob a minute!" whispered Nels, in agony of discovery. "Ve"re magin" an awful noise. Ay"ll go und take a beek."
He slipped away and cautiously approached the house. "Et"s all right,"
he whispered, hoa.r.s.ely, returning after a moment; "dere all asleeb. But go easy; Ay tank ve pest go easy." They seemed burdened all at once with the consciences of criminals, and went forward with almost guilty timidity.
"Thunder, dere"s a b.u.mp! Vy don"d you drive garefuller, Sharlie?"
"Drive yourself, if you think you can do any better!"
As they came into the yard a dog suddenly ran out from the barn, barking furiously. Charlie reined up with an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of despair; "Look there, the dog! We"re done for now, sure! Stop him, Nels! Throw somethin" at "im!"
The noise seemed to their excited ears louder than the crash of artillery. Nels threw a piece of snow crust. The dog ran back a few steps, but his barking did not diminish.
"Here, hold the lines. I"ll try to catch "im." Charlie jumped from the wagon and approached the dog with coaxing words: "Come, doggie, good doggie, nice boy, come!"
His manoeuvre, however, merely served to increase the animal"s frenzy.
As Charlie approached the dog retired slowly toward the house, his head thrown back, and his rapid barking increased to a long-drawn howl.
"Good boy, come! Bother the brute! He"ll wake up the whole household!
Nice doggie! Phe-e----"
The noise, however, had no apparent effect upon the occupants of the house. All remained as dark and silent as ever.
"Sharlie, Sharlie, let him go!" cried Nels, in a voice smothered with laughter. "Ay go in dose parn; maype ha"ll chase me."
His hope was well founded. The dog, observing this treacherous occupation by the enemy of his last harbour of refuge, gave pursuit and disappeared within the door, which Charlie, hard behind him, closed with a bang. There was the sound of a hurried scuffle within. The dog"s barking gave place to terrified whinings, which in turn were suddenly quenched to a choking murmur.
"Gome in, Sharlie, kvick!"
"You got him?" queried Charlie, opening the door cautiously. "Did he bite you?"
"Na, yust ma mitten. Gat a sack or someding da die him oop in."
A sack was procured from somewhere, into which the dog, now silenced from sheer exhaustion and fright, was unceremoniously thrust, after which the sack was tied and flung into the wagon. This formidable obstacle overcome and the Roneys still slumbering peacefully, the rest was easy. The granary door was pried open and the wheat shovelled hurriedly in upon the empty floor. Charlie then crept up to the house and slipped his note under the door.
The sack was lifted from the now empty wagon and opened before the barn, whereupon its occupant slipped meekly out and retreated at once to a far corner, seemingly too much incensed at his discourteous treatment even to fling a volley of farewell barks at his departing captors.
"Vell," remarked Nels, with a sigh of relief as they gained the road, "Ay tank dose Roneys pelieve en Santa Claus now. Dose peen funny vay fer Santa Claus to coom."
Charlie"s laugh was good to hear. "He didn"t exactly come down the chimney, that"s a fact, but it"ll do at a pinch. We ought to have told them to get a present for the dog--collar and chain. I reckon he wouldn"t hardly be thankful for it, though, eh?"
"Ay ga.s.s not. Ha liges ta haf hes nights ta hemself."
"Well, we had our fun, anyway. Sort of puts me in mind of old Wisconsin, somehow."
From far off over the valley, with its dismantled cornfields and snow-covered haystacks, beyond the ice-bound river, floated slow, and sonorous, the mellow clanging of church bells. They were ushering in the Christmas morn.
Overhead the starlit heavens glistened, brooding and mysterious, looking down with luminous, loving eyes upon these humble sons of men doing a good deed, from the impulse of simple, generous hearts, as upon that other Christmas morning, long ago, when the Jewish shepherds, guarding their flocks by night, read in their shining depths that in Bethlehem of Judea the Christ-Child was born.
The rising sun was touching the higher hilltops with a faint rush of crimson the next morning when the back door of the Roney house opened with a creak, and Mr. Roney, still heavy-eyed with sleep, stumbled out upon the porch, stretched his arms above his head, yawned, blinked at the dazzling snow, and then shambled off toward the barn.
As he approached, the dog ran eagerly out, gambolled meekly around his feet and caressed his boots. The man patted him kindly.
"h.e.l.lo, old boy! What were you yappin" around so for last night, huh?
Grain-thieves? You needn"t worry about them. There ain"t nothin" left for them to steal. No, sir! If they got into that granary they"d have to take a lantern along to find a pint of wheat. I don"t suppose," he added, reflectively, "that I could sc.r.a.pe up enough to feed the chickens this mornin", but I guess I might"s well see."
He pa.s.sed over to the little building. What he saw when he looked within seemed for a moment to produce no impression upon him whatever. He stared at the hillock of grain in motionless silence.
Finally Mr. Roney gave utterance to a single word, "Geewhilikins!" and started for the house on a run. Into the kitchen, where his wife was just starting the fire, the excited man burst like a whirlwind.
"Come out here, Mary!" he cried. "Come out here, quick!"
The worthy woman, unaccustomed to such demonstrations, looked at him in amazement.
"For goodness sake, what"s come over you, Peter Roney?" she exclaimed.
"Are you daft? Don"t make such a noise! You"ll wake the young ones, and I don"t want them waked till need be, with no Christmas for "em, poor little things!"
"Never mind the young "uns," he replied. "Come on!"
As they pa.s.sed out he noticed the slip of paper under the door and picked it up, but without comment. He charged down upon the granary, his wife, with a shawl over her head, close behind.
She peered in, apprehensively at first, then with eyes of widening wonder.
"Why, Peter!" she said, turning to him. "Why, Peter! What does--I thought----"
"You thought!" he broke in. "Me, too. But it ain"t so. It means that we"ve got some of the best neighbours that ever was, a thinkin" of our young "uns this way! Read that!" and he thrust the paper into her hand.
"Why, Peter!" she e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed again, weakly. Then suddenly she turned, and laying her head on his shoulder, began to sob softly.
"There, there," he said, patting her arm awkwardly. "Don"t you go and cry now. Let"s just be thankful to the good Lord for puttin" such fellers into the world as them fellers down the road. And now you run in and hurry up breakfast while I do up the ch.o.r.es. Then we"ll hitch up and get into town "fore the stores close. Tell the young "uns Santy didn"t get round last night with their things, but we"ve got word to meet him in town. Hey? Yes, I saw just the kind of sled Pete wants when I was up yesterday, and that china doll for Mollie. Yes, tell "em anything you want. "Twon"t be too big. Santy Claus has come to Roney"s ranch this year, sure!"
FOOTNOTE:
[X] This story was first printed in the _Youth"s Companion_, vol. 76.