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diff --git a/17456-8.txt b/17456-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7fac7dd --- /dev/null +++ b/17456-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2271 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Romance of a Christmas Card, by Kate Douglas Wiggin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Romance of a Christmas Card + +Author: Kate Douglas Wiggin + +Illustrator: Alice Ercle Hunt + +Release Date: January 4, 2006 [EBook #17456] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF A CHRISTMAS CARD *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + _The_ + ROMANCE + _of a_ + CHRISTMAS + CARD + + + + BY + KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN + + + ILLUSTRATED BY + ALICE ERCLE HUNT + + + + BOSTON _and_ NEW YORK + HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + The Riverside Press, Cambridge + + 1916 + + + COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE BUTTERICK PUBLISHING COMPANY + + COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY KATE DOUGLAS RIGGS + + + + +[Illustration: Frontispiece] + +The Romance of a Christmas Card + + + + +I + + +It was Christmas Eve and a Saturday night when Mrs. Larrabee, the +Beulah minister's wife, opened the door of the study where her husband +was deep in the revision of his next day's sermon, and thrust in her +comely head framed in a knitted rigolette. + +"Luther, I'm going to run down to Letty's. We think the twins are +going to have measles; it's the only thing they haven't had, and +Letty's spirits are not up to concert pitch. You look like a blessed +old prophet to-night, my dear! What's the text?" + +The minister pushed back his spectacles and ruffled his gray hair. + +"Isaiah VI, 8: '_And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying +whom shall I send?... Then said I, Here am I, send me!_'" + +"It doesn't sound a bit like Christmas, somehow." + +"It has the spirit, if it hasn't the sound," said the minister. "There +is always so little spare money in the village that we get less and +less accustomed to sharing what we have with others. I want to remind +the people that there are different ways of giving, and that the +bestowing of one's self in service and good deeds can be the best of +all gifts. Letty Boynton won't need the sermon!--Don't be late, Reba." + +"Of course not. When was I ever late? It has just struck seven and +I'll be back by eight to choose the hymns. And oh! Luther, I have some +fresh ideas for Christmas cards and I am going to try my luck with +them in the marts of trade. There are hundreds of thousands of such +things sold nowadays; and if the 'Boston Banner' likes my verses well +enough to send me the paper regularly, why shouldn't the people who +make cards like them too, especially when I can draw and paint my own +pictures?" + +"I've no doubt they'll like them; who wouldn't? If the parish knew +what a ready pen you have, they'd suspect that you help me in my +sermons! The question is, will the publishers send you a check, or +only a copy of your card?" + +"I should relish a check, I confess; but oh! I should like almost as +well a beautifully colored card, Luther, with a picture of my own +inventing on it, my own verse, and R. L. in tiny letters somewhere in +the corner! It would make such a lovely Christmas present! And I +should be so proud; inside of course, not outside! I would cover my +halo with my hat so that nobody in the congregation would ever notice +it!" + +The minister laughed. + +"Consult Letty, my dear. David used to be in some sort of picture +business in Boston. She will know, perhaps, where to offer your +card!" + +At the introduction of a new theme into the conversation Mrs. Larrabee +slipped into a chair by the door, her lantern swinging in her hand. + +"David can't be as near as Boston or we should hear of him sometimes. +A pretty sort of brother to be meandering foot-loose over the earth, +and Letty working her fingers to the bone to support his +children--twins at that! It was just like David Gilman to have twins! +Doesn't it seem incredible that he can let Christmas go by without a +message? I dare say he doesn't even remember that his babies were born +on Christmas eve. To be sure he is only Letty's half-brother, but +after all they grew up together and are nearly the same age." + +"You always judged David a little severely, Reba. Don't despair of +reforming any man till you see the grass growing over his bare bones. +I always have a soft spot in my heart for him when I remember his +friendship for my Dick; but that was before your time.--Oh! these +boys, these boys!" The minister's voice quavered. "We give them our +very life-blood. We love them, cherish them, pray over them, do our +best to guide them, yet they take the path that leads from home. In +some way, God knows how, we fail to call out the return love, or even +the filial duty and respect!--Well, we won't talk about it, Reba; my +business is to breathe the breath of life into my text: 'Here am I, +Lord, send me!' Letty certainly continues to say it heroically, +whatever her troubles." + +"Yes, Letty is so ready for service that she will always be sent, till +the end of time; but if David ever has an interview with his Creator +I can hear him say: 'Here am I, Lord; send Letty!'" + +The minister laughed again. He laughed freely and easily nowadays. His +first wife had been a sort of understudy for a saint, and after a +brief but depressing connubial experience she had died, leaving him +with a boy of six; a boy who already, at that tender age, seemed to +cherish a passionate aversion to virtue in any form--the result, +perhaps, of daily doses of the catechism administered by an abnormally +pious mother. + +The minister had struggled valiantly with his paternal and parochial +cares for twelve lonely years when he met, wooed, and won (very much +to his astonishment and exaltation) Reba Crosby. There never was a +better bargain driven! She was forty-five by the family Bible but +twenty-five in face, heart, and mind, while he would have been printed +as sixty in "Who's Who in New Hampshire" although he was far older in +patience and experience and wisdom. The minister was spiritual, frail, +and a trifle prone to self-depreciation; the minister's new wife was +spirited, vigorous, courageous, and clever. She was also Western-born, +college-bred, good as gold, and invincibly, incurably gay. The +minister grew younger every year, for Reba doubled his joys and halved +his burdens, tossing them from one of her fine shoulders to the other +as if they were feathers. She swept into the quiet village life of +Beulah like a salt sea breeze. She infused a new spirit into the bleak +church "sociables" and made them positively agreeable functions. The +choir ceased from wrangling, the Sunday School plucked up courage and +flourished like a green bay tree. She managed the deacons, she braced +up the missionary societies, she captivated the parish, she cheered +the depressed and depressing old ladies and cracked jokes with the +invalids. + +"Ain't she a little mite too jolly for a minister's wife?" questioned +Mrs. Ossian Popham, who was a professional pessimist. + +"If this world is a place of want, woe, wantonness, an' wickedness, +same as you claim, Maria, I don't see how a minister's wife _can_ be +too jolly!" was her husband's cheerful reply. "Look how she's melted +up the ice in both congregations, so't the other church is most +willin' we should prosper, so long as Mis' Larrabee stays here an' we +don't get too fur ahead of 'em in attendance. Me for the smiles, +Maria!" + +And Osh Popham was right; for Reba Larrabee convinced the members of +the rival church (the rivalry between the two being in rigidity of +creed, not in persistency in good works) that there was room in heaven +for at least two denominations; and said that if they couldn't unite +in this world, perhaps they'd get round to it in the next. Finally, +she saved Letitia Boynton's soul alive by giving her a warm, +understanding friendship, and she even contracted to win back the +minister's absent son some time or other, and convince him of the +error of his ways. + +"Let Dick alone a little longer, Luther," she would say; "don't hurry +him, for he won't come home so long as he's a failure; it would please +the village too much, and Dick hates the village. He doesn't accept +our point of view, that we must love our enemies and bless them that +despitefully use us. The village did despitefully use Dick, and for +that matter, David Gilman too. They were criticized, gossiped about, +judged without mercy. Nobody believed in them, nobody ever praised +them;--and what is that about praise being the fructifying sun in +which our virtues ripen, or something like that? I'm not quoting it +right, but I wish I'd said it. They were called wild when most of +their wildness was exuberant vitality; their mistakes were magnified, +their mad pranks exaggerated. If I'd been married to you, my dear, +while Dick was growing up, I wouldn't have let you keep him here in +this little backwater of life; he needed more room, more movement. +They wouldn't have been so down on him in Racine, Wisconsin!" + +Mrs. Larrabee lighted her lantern, closed the door behind her, and +walked briskly down the lonely road that led from the parsonage at +Beulah Corner to Letitia Boynton's house. It was bright moonlight and +the ground was covered with light-fallen snow, but the lantern habit +was a fixed one among Beulah ladies, who, even when they were not +widows or spinsters, made their evening calls mostly without escort. +The light of a lantern not only enabled one to pick the better side of +a bad road, but would illuminate the face of any male stranger who +might be of a burglarious or murderous disposition. Reba Larrabee was +not a timid person; indeed, she was wont to say that men were so +scarce in Beulah that unless they were out-and-out ruffians it would +be an inspiration to meet a few, even if it were only to pass them in +the middle of the road. + +There was a light in the meeting-house as she passed, and then there +was a long stretch of shining white silence unmarked by any human +habitation till she came to the tumble-down black cottage inhabited by +"Door-Button" Davis, as the little old man was called in the village. +In the distance she could see Osh Popham's two-story house brilliantly +illuminated by kerosene lamps, and as she drew nearer she even +descried Ossian himself, seated at the cabinet organ in his +shirt-sleeves, practicing the Christmas anthem, his daughter holding a +candle to the page while she struggled to adjust a circuitous alto to +her father's tenor. On the hither side of the Popham house, and quite +obscured by it, stood Letitia Boynton's one-story gray cottage. It had +a clump of tall cedar trees for background and the bare branches of +the elms in front were hung lightly with snow garlands. As Mrs. +Larrabee came closer, she set down her lantern and looked fixedly at +the familiar house as if something new arrested her gaze. + +"It looks like a little night-light!" she thought. "And how queer of +Letty to be sitting at the open window!" + +Nearer still she crept, yet not so near as to startle her friend. A +tall brass candlestick, with a lighted tallow candle in it, stood on +the table in the parlor window; but the room in which Letty sat was +unlighted save by the fire on the hearth, which gleamed brightly +behind the quaint andirons--Hessian soldiers of iron, painted in gay +colors. Over the mantel hung the portrait of Letty's mother, a benign +figure clad in black silk, the handsome head topped by a snowy muslin +cap with floating strings. Just round the corner of the fireplace was +a half-open door leading into a tiny bedroom, and the flickering flame +lighted the heads of two sleeping children, arms interlocked, bright +tangled curls flowing over one pillow. + +Letty herself sat in a low chair by the open window wrapped in an old +cape of ruddy brown homespun, from the folds of which her delicate +head rose like a flower in a bouquet of autumn leaves. One elbow +rested on the table; her chin in the cup of her hand. Her head was +turned away a little so that one could see only the knot of bronze +hair, the curve of a cheek, and the sweep of an eyelash. + +"What a picture!" thought Reba. "The very thing for my Christmas card! +It would do almost without a change, if only she is willing to let me +use her." + +"Wake up, Letty!" she called. "Come and let me in!--Why, your front +door isn't closed!" + +"The fire smoked a little when I first lighted it," said Letty, rising +when her friend entered, and then softly shutting the bedroom door +that the children might not waken. "The night is so mild and the room +so warm, I couldn't help opening the window to look at the moon on the +snow. Sit down, Reba! How good of you to come when you've been +rehearsing for the Christmas Tree exercises all the afternoon." + + + + +[Illustration] + +II + + +"It's never 'good' of me to come to talk with you, Letty!" And the +minister's wife sank into a comfortable seat and took off her +rigolette. "Enough virtue has gone out of me to-day to Christianize an +entire heathen nation! Oh! how I wish Luther would go and preach to a +tribe of cannibals somewhere, and make me superintendent of the +Sabbath-School! How I should like to deal, just for a change, with +some simple problem like the undesirability and indigestibility +involved in devouring your next-door neighbor! Now I pass my life in +saying, 'Love your neighbor as yourself'; which is far more difficult +than to say, 'Don't _eat_ your neighbor, it's such a disgusting +habit,--and wrong besides,'--though I dare say they do it half the +time because the market is bad. The first thing I'd do would be to get +my cannibals to raise sheep. If they ate more mutton, they wouldn't +eat so many missionaries." + +Letty laughed. "You're so funny, Reba dear, and I was so sad before +you came in. Don't let the minister take you to the cannibals until +after I die!" + +"No danger!--Letty, do you remember I told you I'd been trying my hand +on some verses for a Christmas card?" + +"Yes; have you sent them anywhere?" + +"Not yet. I couldn't think of the right decoration and color scheme +and was afraid to trust it all to the publishers. Now I've found just +what I need for one of them, and you gave it to me, Letty!" + +"I?" + +"Yes, you; to-night, as I came down the road. The house looked so +quaint, backed by the dark cedars, and the moon and the snow made +everything dazzling. I could see the firelight through the open +window, the Hessian soldier andirons, your mother's portrait, the +children asleep in the next room, and you, wrapped in your cape +waiting or watching for something or somebody." + +"I wasn't watching or waiting! I was dreaming," said Letty hurriedly. + +"You looked as if you were watching, anyway, and I thought if I were +painting the picture I would call it 'Expectancy,' or 'The Vigil,' or +'Sentry Duty.' However, when I make you into a card, Letty, nobody +will know what the figure at the window means, till they read my +verses." + +"I'll give you the house, the room, the andirons, and even mother's +portrait, but you don't mean that you want to put _me_ on the card?" +And Letty turned like a startled deer as she rose and brushed a spark +from the hearth-rug. + +"No, not the whole of you, of course, though I'm not clever enough to +get a likeness even if I wished. I merely want to make a color sketch +of your red-brown cape, your hair that matches it, your ear, an inch +of cheek, and the eyelashes of one eye, if you please, ma'am." + +"That doesn't sound quite so terrifying." And Letty looked more +manageable. + +"Nobody'll ever know that a real person sat at a real window and that +I saw her there; but when I send the card with a finished picture, and +my verses beautifully lettered on it, the printing people will be more +likely to accept it." + +"And if they do, shall I have a dozen to give to my Bible-class?" +asked Letty in a wheedling voice. + +"You shall have more than that! I'm willing to divide my magnificent +profits with you. You will have furnished the picture and I the +verses. It's wonderful, Letty,--it's providential! You just _are_ a +Christmas card to-night! It seems so strange that you even put the +lighted candle in the window when you never heard my verse. The candle +caught my eye first, and I remembered the Christmas customs we studied +for the church festival,--the light to guide the Christ Child as he +walks through the dark streets on the Eve of Mary." + +"Yes, I thought of that," said Letty, flushing a little. "I put the +candle there first so that the house shouldn't be all dark when the +Pophams went by to choir-meeting, and just then I--I remembered, and +was glad I did it!" + +"These are my verses, Letty." And Reba's voice was soft as she turned +her face away and looked at the flames mounting upward in the +chimney:-- + + My door is on the latch to-night, + The hearth fire is aglow. + I seem to hear swift passing feet,-- + The Christ Child in the snow. + + My heart is open wide to-night + For stranger, kith or kin. + I would not bar a single door + Where Love might enter in! + +There was a moment's silence and Letty broke it. "It means the sort of +love the Christ Child brings, with peace and good-will in it. I'm glad +to be a part of that card, Reba, so long as nobody knows me, and--" + +Here she made an impetuous movement and, covering her eyes with her +hands, burst into a despairing flood of confidence, the words crowding +each other and tumbling out of her mouth as if they feared to be +stopped. + +"After I put the candle on the table ... I could not rest for thinking ... +I wasn't ready in my soul to light the Christ Child on his way ... I was +bitter and unresigned ... It is three years to-night since the children +were born ... and each year I have hoped and waited and waited and hoped, +thinking that David might remember. David! my brother, their father! Then +the fire on the hearth, the moon and the snow quieted me, and I felt that I +wanted to open the door, just a little. No one will notice that it's ajar, +I thought, but there's a touch of welcome in it, anyway. And after a few +minutes I said to myself: 'It's no use, David won't come; but I'm glad the +firelight shines on mother's picture, for he loved mother, and if she +hadn't died when he was scarcely more than a boy, things might have been +different.... The reason I opened the bedroom door--something I never do +when the babies are asleep--was because I needed a sight of their faces to +reconcile me to my duty and take the resentment out of my heart ... and it +did flow out, Reba,--out into the stillness. It is so dazzling white +outside, I couldn't bear my heart to be shrouded in gloom!" + +"Poor Letty!" And Mrs. Larrabee furtively wiped away a tear. "How long +since you have heard? I didn't dare ask." + +"Not a word, not a line for nearly three months, and for the half-year +before that it was nothing but a note, sometimes with a five-dollar +bill enclosed. David seems to think it the natural thing for me to +look after his children; as if there could be no question of any life +of my own." + +"You began wrong, Letty. You were born a prop and you've been propping +somebody ever since." + +"I've done nothing but my plain duty. When my mother died there was my +stepfather to nurse, but I was young and strong; I didn't mind; and he +wasn't a burden long, poor father. Then, after four years came the +shock of David's reckless marriage. When he asked if he might bring +that girl here until her time of trial was over, it seemed to me I +could never endure it! But there were only two of us left, David and +I; I thought of mother and said yes." + +"I remember, Letty; I had come to Beulah then." + +"Yes, and you know what Eva was. How David, how anybody, could have +loved her, I cannot think! Well, he brought her, and you know how it +turned out. David never saw her alive again, nor ever saw his babies +after they were three days old. Still, what can you expect of a father +who is barely twenty-one?" + +"If he's old enough to have children, he's old enough to notice them," +said Mrs. Larrabee with her accustomed spirit. "Somebody ought to jog +his sense of responsibility. It's wrong for women to assume men's +burdens beyond a certain point; it only makes them more selfish. If +you only knew where David is, you ought to bundle the children up and +express them to his address. Not a word of explanation or apology; +simply tie a tag on them, saying, 'Here's your Twins!'" + +"But I love the babies," said Letty smiling through her tears, "and +David may not be in a position to keep them." + +"Then he shouldn't have had them," retorted Reba promptly; "especially +not two of them. There's such a thing as a man's being too lavish with +babies when he has no intention of doing anything for them but bring +them into the world. If you had a living income, it would be one +thing, but it makes me burn to have you stitching on coats to feed and +clothe your half-brother's children!" + +"Perhaps it doesn't make any difference--now!" sighed Letty, pushing +back her hair with an abstracted gesture. "I gave up a good deal for +the darlings once, but that's past and gone. Now, after all, they're +the only life I have, and I'd rather make coats for them than for +myself." + +Letty Boynton had never said so much as this to Mrs. Larrabee in the +three years of their friendship, and on her way back to the parsonage, +the minister's wife puzzled a little over the look in Letty's face +when she said, "David seemed to think there could be no question of +any life of my own"; and again, "I gave up a good deal for the +darlings once!" + +"Luther," she said to the minister, when the hymns had been chosen, +the sermon pronounced excellent, and they were toasting their toes +over the sitting-room fire,--"Luther, do you suppose there ever was +anything between Letty Boynton and your Dick?" + +"No," he answered reflectively, "I don't think so. Dick always admired +Letty and went to the house a great deal, but I imagine that was +chiefly for David's sake, for they were as like as peas in a pod in +the matter of mischief. If there had been more than friendship between +Dick and Letty, Dick would never have gone away from Beulah, or if he +had gone, he surely would have come back to see how Letty fared. A +fellow yearns for news of the girl he loves even when he is content to +let silence reign between him and his old father.--What makes you +think there was anything particular, Reba?" + +"What makes anybody think anything!--I wonder why some people are +born props, and others leaners or twiners? I believe the very +nursing-bottle leaned heavily against Letty when she lay on her infant +pillow. I didn't know her when she was a child, but I believe that +when she was eight all the other children of three and five in the +village looked to her for support and guidance!" + +"It's a great vocation--that of being a prop," smiled the minister, as +he peeled a red Baldwin apple, carefully preserving the spiral and +eating it first. + +"I suppose the wobbly vine thinks it's grand to be a stout trellis +when it needs one to climb on, but doesn't the trellis ever want to +twine, I wonder?" And Reba's tone was doubtful. + +"Even the trellis leans against the house, Reba." + +"Well, Letty never gets a chance either to lean or to twine! Her +family, her friends, her acquaintances, even the stranger within her +gates, will pass trees, barber poles, telephone and telegraph poles, +convenient corners of buildings, fence posts, ladders, and lightning +rods for the sake of winding their weakness around her strength. When +she sits down from sheer exhaustion, they come and prop themselves +against her back. If she goes to bed, they climb up on the footboard, +hang a drooping head, and look her wistfully in the eye for sympathy. +Prop on, prop ever, seems to be the underlying law of the universe!" + +"Poor Reba! She is talking of Letty and thinking of herself!" And the +minister's eye twinkled. + +"Well, a little!" admitted his wife; "but I'm only a village prop, not +a family one. Where you are concerned"--and she administered an +affectionate pat to his cheek as she rose from her chair--"I'm a +trellis that leans against a rock!" + + + + +[Illustration] + +III + + +Letitia Boynton's life had been rather a drab one as seen through +other people's eyes, but it had never seemed so to her till within the +last few years. Her own father had been the village doctor, but of him +she had no memory. Her mother's second marriage to a venerable country +lawyer, John Gilman, had brought a kindly, inefficient stepfather into +the family, a man who speedily became an invalid needing constant +nursing. The birth of David when Letty was three years old, brought a +new interest into the household, and the two children grew to be fast +friends; but when Mrs. Gilman died, and Letty found herself at +eighteen the mistress of the house, the nurse of her aged stepfather, +and the only guardian of a boy of fifteen, life became difficult. More +difficult still it became when the old lawyer died, for he at least +had been a sort of fictitious head of the family and his mere +existence kept David within bounds. + +David was a lively, harum-scarum, handsome youth, good at his lessons, +popular with his companions, always in a scrape, into which he was +generally drawn by the minister's son, so the neighbors thought. At +any rate, Dick Larrabee, as David's senior, received the lion's share +of the blame when mischief was abroad. If Parson Larrabee's boy +couldn't behave any better than an unbelieving black-smith's, a +Methodist farmer's, or a Baptist storekeeper's, what was the use of +claiming superior efficacy for the Congregational form of belief? + +"Dick's father's never succeeded in bringing him into the church, +though he's worked on him from the time he was knee-high to a toad," +said Mrs. Popham. + +"P'raps his mother kind o' vaccinated him with religion 'stid o' +leavin' him to take it the natural way, as the ol' sayin' is," was her +husband's response. "The first Mis' Larrabee was as good as gold, but +she may have overdone the trick a little mite, mebbe; and what's more, +I kind o' suspicion the parson thinks so himself. He ain't never been +quite the same sence Dick left home, 'cept in preaching'; an' I tell +you, Maria, his high-water mark there is higher 'n ever. Abel Dunn o' +Boston walked home from meetin' with me Thanksgivin', an', says he, +takin' off his hat an' moppin' his forehead, 'Osh,' says he, 'does +your minister preach like that every Sunday?' 'No,' says I, 'he don't. +If he did we couldn't stan' it! He preaches like that about once a +month, an' we don't care what he says the rest o' the time.'" + +"Well, so far as boys are concerned, preachin' ain't so reliable, for +behavin' purposes, as a good young alder switch," was the opinion of +Mrs. Popham, her children being of the comatose kind, whose minds had +never been illuminated by the dazzling idea of disobedience. + +"Land sakes, Maria! There ain't alders enough on the river-bank to +switch religion into a boy like Dick Larrabee. It's got to come like +a thief in the night, as the ol' sayin' is, but I guess I don't mean +thief, I guess I mean star: it's got to come kind o' like a star in a +dark night. If the whole village, 'generate an' onregenerate, hadn't +'a' kep' on naggin' an' hectorin' an' criticizin' them two boys, Dick +an' Dave,--carryin' tales an' multiplyin' of 'em by two, '_ong root_' +as the ol' sayin' is,--I dare say they'd 'a' both been here yet; 'stid +o' roamin' roun' the earth seekin' whom they may devour." + +There was considerable truth in Ossian Popham's remark, as Letty could +have testified; for the conduct of the Boynton-Gilman household, as +well as that of the minister, had been continually under inspection +and discussion. + +Nothing could remain long hidden in Beulah. Nobody spied, nobody +pried, nobody listened at doors or windows, nobody owned a microscope, +nobody took any particular notice of events, or if they did they +preserved an attitude of profound indifference while doing it,--yet +everything was known sooner or later. The amount of the fish and meat +bill, the precise extent of credit, the number of letters in the post, +the amount of fuel burned, the number of absences from church and +prayer-meeting, the calls or visits made and received, the hours of +arrival or departure, the source of all incomes,--these details were +the common property of the village. It even took cognizance of more +subtle things; for it observed and recorded the fluctuations of all +love affairs, and the fluctuations also in the religious experiences +of various persons not always in spiritual equilibrium; for the soul +was an object of scrutiny in Beulah, as well as mind, body, and +estate. + +Letty Boynton used to feel that nothing was exclusively her own; that +she belonged to Beulah part and parcel; but Dick Larrabee was far more +restive under the village espionage than were she and David. + +It was natural that David should want to leave Beulah and make his way +in the world, and his sister did not oppose it. Dick's circumstances +were different. He had inherited a small house and farm from his +mother, had enjoyed a college education, and had been offered a share +in a good business in a city twelve miles away. He left Beulah because +he hated it. He left because he could not endure his father's gentle +remonstrances or the bewilderment in his stepmother's eyes. She was a +newcomer in the household and her glance seemed to say: "Why on earth +do you behave so badly to your father when you're such a delightful +chap?" He left because Deacon Todd had prayed for him publicly at a +Christian Endeavor meeting; because Mrs. Popham had circulated a +wholly baseless scandal about him; and finally because in his young +misery the only being who could have comforted him by joining her +hapless fortunes to his had refused to do so. He didn't know why. He +had always counted on Letty when the time should come to speak the +word. He had shown his heart in everything but words; what more did a +girl want? Of course, if any one preferred a purely fantastic duty to +a man's love, and allowed a scapegrace brother to foist two red-faced, +squalling babies on her, there was nothing to be said. So, in this +frame of mind he had had one flaming, passionate, wrong-headed scene +with his father, and strode out of Beulah with dramatic gestures of +shaking its dust off his feet. His father, roused for once from his +lifelong patience, had been rather terrible in that last scene; so +terrible that he had never forgiven himself, or really believed +himself fully forgiven by God, though his son had alienated half the +village and nearly rent the parish in twain by his conduct. + +As for Letty, she held her peace. She could only hope that the +minister and his wife suspected nothing, and she was sure of Beulah's +point of view. That a girl would never give up a suitor, if she had +any hope of tying him to her for life, was a popular form of belief in +the community; and strangely enough it was chiefly the women, not the +men, who made it current. Now and then a soft-hearted and chivalrous +male would observe indulgently of some village beauty, "I shouldn't +wonder a mite if she could 'a' had Bill for the askin'"; but this +opinion would be met by such a chorus of feminine incredulity that its +author generally withdrew it as unsound and untenable. + +It was then, when Dick had gone away, that the days had grown drab and +long, but the twins kept Letty's inexperienced hands busy, though in +the first year she had the help of old Miss Clarissa Perry, a +childless expert in the bringing-up of babies. + +The friendship of Reba Larrabee, so bright and cheery and +comprehending, was a never-ending solace. There was nothing of the +martyr about Letty. She was not wholly resigned to her lot, and to +tell the truth she did not intend to be, for a good many years yet. + +"I'm not a minister, but I'm the wife of a minister, which is the next +best thing," Mrs. Larrabee used to say. "I tell you, Letty, there's no +use in human creatures being resigned till their bodies are fairly +worn out with fighting. When you can't think of another mortal thing +to do, be resigned; but I'm convinced that the Lord is ashamed of us +when we fold our hands too soon!" + +"You were born courageous, Reba!" And Letty would look admiringly at +the rosy cheeks and bright eyes of her friend. + +"My blood circulates freely; that helps me a lot. Everybody's blood +circulates in Racine, Wisconsin."--And the minister's wife laughed +genially. "Yours, hereabouts, freezes up in your six months of cold +weather, and when it begins to thaw out the snow is ready to fall +again. That sort of thing induces depression, although no mere climate +would account for Mrs. Popham.--Ossian said to Luther the other day: +'Maria ain't hardly to blame, parson. She come from a gloomy stock. +The Ladds was all gloomy, root and branch. They say that the Ladd +babies was always discouraged two days after they was born.'" + +The cause of Letty's chief heartache, the one that she could reveal to +nobody, was that her brother should leave her nowadays so completely +to her own resources. She recalled the time when he came home from +Boston, pale, haggard, ashamed, and told her of his marriage, months +before. She could read in his lack-lustre eyes, and hear in his +voice, the absence of love, the fear of the future. That was bad +enough, but presently he said: "Letty, there's more to tell. I've no +money, and no place to put my wife, but there's a child coming. Can I +bring her here till--afterwards? You won't like her, but she's so +ailing and despondent just now that I think she'll behave herself, and +I'll take her away as soon as she's able to travel. She would never +stay here in the country, anyway; you couldn't hire her to do it." + +She came: black-haired, sullen-faced Eva, with a vulgar beauty of her +own, much damaged by bad temper, discontent, and illness. Oh, those +terrible weeks for Letty, hiding her own misery, putting on a brave +face with the neighbors, keeping the unwelcome sister-in-law in the +background. + +It was bitterly cold, and Eva raged against the climate, the house, +the lack of a servant, the absence of gayety, and above all at the +prospect of motherhood. Her resentment against David, for some reason +unknown to Letty, was deep and profound and she made no secret of it; +until the outraged Letty, goaded into speech one day, said: "Listen, +Eva! David brought you here because his sister's house was the proper +place for you just now. I don't know why you married each other, but +you did, and it's evidently a failure. I'm going to stand by David and +see you through this trouble, but while you're under my roof you'll +have to speak respectfully of my brother; not so much because he's my +brother, but because he's your husband and the father of the child +that's coming:--do you understand?" + +Letty had a good deal of red in her bronze hair and her brown eyes +were as capable of flashing fire as Eva's black ones; so the girl not +only refrained from venting her spleen upon the absent David, but +ceased to talk altogether, and the gloom in the house was as black as +if Mrs. Popham and all her despondent ancestors were living under its +roof. + +The good doctor called often and did his best, shrugging his shoulders +and lifting his eyebrows as he said: "Let her work out her own +salvation. I doubt if she can, but we'll give her the chance. If the +problem can be solved, the child will do it." + + + + +[Illustration] + +IV + + +Well, the problem never was solved, never in this world, at least; and +those who were in the sitting-room chamber when Eva was shown her two +babies lying side by side on a pillow, never forgot the quick glance +of horrified incredulity, or the shriek of aversion with which she +greeted them. + +Letty had a sense of humor, and it must be confessed that when the +scorned and discarded babies were returned to her, and she sat by the +kitchen stove trying to plan a second bottle, a second cradle, and see +how far the expected baby could divide its modest outfit with the +unexpected one, she burst into a fit of hysterical laughter mingled +with an outpour of tears. + +The doctor came in from the sick-room puzzled and crestfallen from his +interview with an entirely new specimen of woman-kind. He had brought +Letty and David into the world and soothed the last days of all her +family, and now in this tragedy--for tragedy it was--he was her only +confidant and adviser. + +Letty looked at him, the tears streaming from her eyes. + +"Oh, Doctor Lee, Doctor Lee! If an overruling Providence could smile, +wouldn't He smile now? David and Eva never wanted to marry each other, +I'm sure of it, and the last thing they desired was a child. Now +there are two of them. Their father is away, their mother won't look +at them! What will become of me until Eva gets well and behaves like a +human being? I never promised to be an aunt to twins; I never did like +twins; I think they're downright vulgar!" + + "Waly waly! bairns are bonny: + One's enough and twa's ower mony," + +quoted the doctor. "It's worse even than you think, my poor Letty, for +the girl can't get well, because she won't! She has gritted her teeth, +turned her face to the wall, and refused her food. It's the beginning +of the end. You are far likelier to be a foster mother than an aunt!" + +Letty's face changed and softened and her color rose. She leaned over +the two pink, crumpled creatures, still twitching nervously with the +amazement and discomfort of being alive. + +[Illustration: "COME TO YOUR AUNT LETTY THEN AND BE MOTHERED!" SHE +SOBBED] + +"Come to your Aunt Letty then and be mothered!" she sobbed, lifting +the pillow and taking it, with its double burden, into her arms. "You +shan't suffer, poor innocent darlings, even if those who brought you +into the world turn away from you! Come to your Aunt Letty and be +mothered!" + +"That's right, that's right," said the doctor over a lump in his +throat. "We mustn't let the babies pay the penalty of their parents' +sins; and there's one thing that may soften your anger a little, +Letty: Eva's not right; she's not quite responsible. There are cases +where motherhood, that should be a joy, brings nothing but mental +torture and perversion of instinct. Try and remember that, if it helps +you any. I'll drop in every two or three hours and I'll write David +to come at once. He must take his share of the burden." + +Well, David came, but Eva was in her coffin. He was grave and silent, +and it could not be said that he showed a trace of fatherly pride. He +was very young, it is true, thoroughly ashamed of himself, very +unhappy, and anxious about his new cares; but Letty could not help +thinking that he regarded the twins as a sort of personal +insult,--perhaps not on their own part, nor on Eva's, but as an +accident that might have been prevented by a competent Providence. At +any rate, he carried himself as a man with a grievance, and when he +looked at his offspring, which was seldom, it seemed to Letty that he +regarded the second one as an unnecessary intruder and cherished a +secret resentment at its audacity in coming to this planet uninvited. +He went back to his work in Boston without its having crossed his mind +that anybody but his sister could take care of his children. He didn't +really regard them as children or human beings; it takes a woman's +vision to make that sort of leap into the future. Until a new-born +baby can show some personal beauty, evince some intellect, stop +squirming and squealing, and exhibit enough self-control to let people +sleep at night, it is not, as a rule, _persona grata_ to any one but +its mother. + +David did say vaguely to Letty when he was leaving, that he hoped +"they would be good," the screams that rent the air at the precise +moment of farewell rather giving the lie to his hopes. + +Letty was struggling to end the interview without breaking down, for +she was worn out nervously as well as physically, and thought if she +could only be alone with her problems and her cares she would rather +write to David than tell him her mind face to face. + +Brother and sister held each other tightly for a moment, kissed each +other good-bye, and then Letty watched Osh Popham's sleigh slipping +off with David into the snowy distance, the merry tinkle of the bells +adding to the sadness in her dreary heart. Dick gone yesterday, Dave +to-day; Beulah without Dick and Dave! The two joys of her life were +missing and in their places two unknown babies whose digestive systems +were going to need constant watching, according to Dr. Lee. Then she +went about with set lips, doing the last sordid things that death +brings in its wake; doing them as she had seen her mother do before +her. She threw away the husks in Eva's under mattress and put fresh +ones in; she emptied the feathers from the feather bed and pillows and +aired them in the sun while she washed the ticking; she scrubbed the +paint in the sick-room, and in between her tasks learned from Clarissa +Perry the whole process of bringing up babies by hand. + +That was three years ago. At first David had sent ten dollars a month +from his slender earnings, never omitting it save for urgent reasons. +He evidently thought of the twins as "company" for his sister and +their care a pleasant occupation, since she had "almost" a living +income; taking in a few coats to make, just to add an occasional +luxury to the bare necessities of life provided by her mother's will. + +His letters were brief, dispirited, and infrequent, but they had not +ceased altogether till within the last few months, during which +Letty's to him had been returned from Boston with "Not found" +scribbled on the envelopes. + +The firm in whose care Letty had latterly addressed him simply wrote, +in answer to her inquiries, that Mr. Gilman had not been in their +employ for some time and they had no idea of his whereabouts. + +The rest was silence. + + + + +[Illustration] + +V + + +A good deal of water had run under Beulah Bridge since Letty Boynton +had sat at her window on a December evening unconsciously furnishing +copy and illustration for a Christmas card; yet there had been very +few outward changes in the village. Winter had melted into spring, +burst into summer, faded into autumn, lapsed into winter again,--the +same old, ever-recurring pageant in the world of Nature, and the same +procession of incidents in the neighborhood life. + +The harvest moon and the hunter's moon had come and gone; the first +frost, the family dinners and reunions at Thanksgiving, the first +snowfall; and now, as Christmas approached, the same holiday spirit +was abroad in the air, slightly modified as it passed by Mrs. Popham's +mournful visage. + +One or two babies had swelled the census, giving the minister hope of +a larger Sunday-School; one or two of the very aged neighbors had +passed into the beyond; and a few romantic and enterprising young +farmers had espoused wives, among them Osh Popham's son. + +The manner of their choice was not entirely to the liking of the +village. Digby Popham had married into the rival church and as his +betrothed was a masterful young lady it was feared that Digby would +leave Mr. Larrabee's flock to worship with his wife. Another had +married without visible means of support, a proceeding always to be +regretted by thoroughly prudent persons over fifty; and the third, +Deacon Todd's eldest son, had somehow or other met a siren from +Vermont and insisted on wedding her when there were plenty of +marriageable girls in Beulah. + +"I've no patience with such actions!" grumbled Mrs. Popham. "Young +folks are so full of notions nowadays that they look for change and +excitement everywheres. I s'pose James Todd thinks it's a decent, +respectable way of actin', to turn his back on the girls he's been +brought up an' gone to school with, and court somebody he never laid +eyes on till a year ago. It's a free country, but I must say I don't +think it's very refined for a man to go clear off somewheres and marry +a perfect stranger!" + +Births, marriages, and deaths, however, paled into insignificance +compared with the spectacular début of the minister's wife as a writer +and embellisher of Christmas cards, two at least having been seen at +the local milliner's store. How many she had composed, and how many of +them (said Mrs. Popham) might have been rejected, nobody knew, though +there was much speculation; and more than one citizen remarked on the +size of the daily package of mail matter handed out by the rural +delivery man at the parsonage gate. + +No one but Mrs. Larrabee and Letty Boynton were in possession of all +the thrilling details attending the public appearance of these works +of art; the words and letters of appreciation, the commendation, and +the occasional blows to pride that attended their acceptance and +publication. + +Mrs. Larrabee's first attempt, with the sketch of Letty at the window +on Christmas Eve, her hearth-fire aglow, her heart and her door open +that Love might enter in if the Christ Child came down the snowy +street,--this went to the Excelsior Card Company in a large Western +city, and the following correspondence ensued: + + MRS. LUTHER LARRABEE, + _Beulah, N.H._ + + DEAR MADAM:-- + + Your letter bears a well-known postmark, for my father and + my grandfather were born and lived in New Hampshire, "up + Beulah way." I accept your verses because of the beauty of + the picture that accompanied them, and because Christmas + means more than holly and plum pudding and gift-laden trees + to me, for I am a religious man,--a ministerial father and + three family deacons saw to that, though it doesn't always + work that way!--Frankly, I do not expect your card to have a + wide appeal, so I offer you only five dollars. + + A Christmas card, my dear madam, must have a greeting, and + yours has none. If the pictured room were a real room, and + some one who had seen or lived in it should recognize it, it + would attract his eye, but we cannot manufacture cards to + meet such romantic improbabilities. I am emboldened to ask + you (because you live in Beulah) if you will not paint the + outside of some lonely, little New Hampshire cottage, as + humble as you like, and make me some more verses; something, + say, about "the folks back home." + + Sincerely yours, + REUBEN SMALL. + + BEULAH, N.H. + + DEAR MR. SMALL:-- + + I accept your offer of five dollars for my maiden effort in + Christmas cards with thanks, and will try my hand at + something more popular. I am not above liking to make a + "wide appeal," but the subject you propose is rather a + staggering one, because you accompany it with a phrase + lacking rhythm, and difficult to rhyme. You will at once + see, by running through the alphabet, that "roam" is the + only serviceable rhyme for "_home_," but the union of the + two suggests jingle or doggerel. I defy any minor poet when + furnished with such a phrase, to refrain from bursting at + once into:-- + + No matter where you travel, no matter where you roam, + You'll never dum-di-dum-di-dee + The folks back home. + + Sincerely yours, + REBA LARRABEE. + + P.S. On second thought I believe James Whitcomb Riley could + do it and overcome the difficulties, but alas! I have not + his touch! + + DEAR MRS. LARRABEE:-- + + We never refuse verses because they are too good for the + public. Nothing is too good for the public, but the public + must be the judge of what pleases it. + + "The folks back home" is a phrase that will strike the eye + and ear of thousands of wandering sons and daughters. They + will choose that card from the heaped-up masses on the + counters and send it to every State in the Union. If you + will glance at your first card you will see that though + people may read it they will always leave it on the counter. + I want my cards on counters, by the thousand, but I don't + intend that they should be left there! + + Make an effort, dear Mrs. Larrabee! I could get "the folks + back home" done here in the office in half an hour, but I'm + giving you the chance because you live in Beulah, New + Hampshire, and because you make beautiful pictures. + + Sincerely yours, + REUBEN SMALL. + + DEAR MR. SMALL:-- + + I enclose a colored sketch of the outside of the cottage + whose living-room I used in my first card. I chose it + because I love the person who lives in it; because it always + looks beautiful in the snow, and because the tree is so + picturesque. The fact that it is gray for lack of paint may + remind a casual wanderer that there is something to do, now + and then, for the "folks back home." The verse is just as + bad as I thought it would be. It seems incredible that any + one should buy it, but ours is a big country and there are + many kinds of people living in it, so who knows? Why don't + you accept my picture and then you write the card? I could + not put my initials on this! They are unknown, to be sure, + and I should want them to be, if you use it! + + Sincerely yours, + REBA LARRABEE. + + Now here's a Christmas greeting + To the "folks back home." + It comes to you across the space, + Dear folks back home! + I've searched the wide world over, + But no matter where I roam, + No friends are like the old friends, + No folks like those back home! + + DEAR MRS. LARRABEE:-- + + I gave you five dollars for the first picture and verses, + which you, as a writer, regard more highly than I, who am + merely a manufacturer. Please accept twenty dollars for "The + Folks Back Home," on which I hope to make up my loss on the + first card! I insist on signing the despised verse with your + initials. In case R. L. should later come to mean + something, you will be glad that a few thousand people have + seen it. + + Sincerely, + REUBEN SMALL. + +The Hessian soldier andirons, the portrait over the Boynton mantel, +and even Letty Boynton's cape were identified on the first card, +sooner or later, but it was obvious that Mrs. Larrabee had to have a +picture for her verses and couldn't be supposed to make one up "out of +her head"; though Osh Popham declared it had been done again and again +in other parts of the world. Also it was agreed that, as Letty's face +was not distinguishable, nobody outside of Beulah could recognize her +by her cape; and that anyhow it couldn't make much difference, for if +anybody wanted to spend fifteen cents on a card he would certainly buy +the one about "the folks back home." The popularity of this was +established by the fact that it was selling, not only in Beulah and +Greentown, but in Boston, and in Racine, Wisconsin, and, it was +rumored, even in Chicago. The village milliner in Beulah had disposed +of twenty-seven copies in thirteen days and the minister's wife was +universally conceded to be the most celebrated person in the State of +New Hampshire. + +Letty Boynton had an uncomfortable moment when she saw the first card, +but common sense assured her that outside of a handful of neighbors no +one would identify her home surroundings; meantime she was proud of +Reba's financial and artistic triumph in "The Folks Back Home" and +generously glad that she had no share in it. + +Twice during the autumn David had broken his silence, but only to +send her a postal from some Western town, telling her that he should +have no regular address for a time; that he was traveling for a +publishing firm and felt ill-adapted to the business. He hoped that +she and the children were well, for he himself was not; etc., etc. + +The twins had been photographed by Osh Popham, who was Jack of all +trades and master of many, and a sight of their dimpled charms, curly +heads, and straight little bodies would have gladdened any father's +heart, Letty thought. However, she scorned to win David back by any +such specious means. If he didn't care to know whether his children +were hump-backed, bow-legged, cross-eyed, club-footed, or +feeble-minded, why should she enlighten him? This was her usual frame +of mind, but in these last days of the year how she longed to pop the +bewitching photographs and Reba's Christmas cards into an envelope and +send them to David. + +But where? No word at all for weeks and weeks, and then only a postal +from St. Joseph, saying that he had given up his position on account +of poor health. Nothing in all this to keep Christmas on, thought +Letty, and she knitted and crocheted and sewed with extra ardor that +the twins' stockings might be filled with bright things of her own +making. + + + + +[Illustration] + +VI + + +On the afternoon before Christmas of that year, the North Station in +Boston was filled with hurrying throngs on the way home for the +holidays. Everybody looked tired and excited, but most of them had +happy faces, and men and women alike had as many bundles as they could +carry; bundles and boxes quite unlike the brown paper ones with which +commuters are laden on ordinary days. These were white packages, +beribboned and beflowered and behollied and bemistletoed, to be gently +carried and protected from crushing. + +The train was filled to overflowing and many stood in the aisles until +Latham Junction was reached and the overflow alighted to change cars +for Greentown and way stations. + +Among the crowd were two men with suit-cases who hurried into the way +train and, entering the smoking car from opposite ends, met in the +middle of the aisle, dropped their encumbrances, stretched out a hand +and ejaculated in the same breath: + +"Dick Larrabee, upon my word!" + +"Dave Gilman, by all that's great!--Here, let's turn over a seat for +our baggage and sit together. Going home, I s'pose?" + +The men had not met for some years, but each knew something of the +other's circumstances and hoped that the other didn't know too much. +They scanned each other's faces, Dick thinking that David looked +pinched and pale, David half-heartedly registering the quick +impression that Dick was prosperous. + +"Yes," David answered; "I'm going home for a couple of days. It's such +a confounded journey to that one-horse village that a business man +can't get there but once in a generation!" + +"Awful hole!" confirmed Dick. "Simply awful hole! I didn't get it out +of my system for years." + +"Married?" asked David. + +"No; rather think I'm not the marrying kind, though the fact is I've +had no time for love affairs--too busy. Let's see, you have a child, +haven't you?" + +"Yes; Letty has seen to all that business for me since my wife died." +(Wild horses couldn't have dragged the information from him that the +"child" was "twins," and Dick didn't need it anyway, for he had heard +the news the morning he left Beulah.) "Wonder if there have been many +changes in the village?" + +"Don't know; there never used to be! Mrs. Popham has been ailing for +years,--she couldn't die; and Deacon Todd wouldn't!" Dick's old +animosities still lingered faintly in his memory, though his laughing +voice and the twinkle in his eyes showed plainly that no bitterness +was left. "How's business with you, David?" + +"Only so-so. I've had the devil's own luck lately. Can't get anything +that suits me or that pays a decent income. I formed a new connection +the other day, but I can't say yet what there is in it. I'm just out +of hospital; operation; they cut out the wrong thing first, I believe, +sewed me up absent-mindedly, then remembered it was the other thing, +and did it over again. At any rate, that's the only way I can account +for their mewing me up there for two months." + +"Well, well, that is hard luck! I'm sorry, old boy! Things didn't +begin to go my way either till within the last few months. I've always +made a fair living and saved a little money, but never gained any real +headway. Now I've got a first-rate start and the future looks pretty +favorable, and best of all, pretty safe.--No trouble at home calls you +back to Beulah? I hope Letty is all right?" Dick cast an anxious side +glance at David, though he spoke carelessly. + +"Oh, no! Everything's serene, so far as I know. I'm a poor +correspondent, especially when I've no good news to tell; and anyway, +the mere sight of a pen ties my tongue. I'm just running down to +surprise Letty." + +Dick looked at David again. He began to think he didn't like him. He +used to, when they were boys, but when he brought that unaccountable +wife home and foisted her and her babies on Letty, he rather turned +against him. David was younger than himself, four or five years +younger, but he looked as if he hadn't grown up. Surely his boyhood +chum hadn't used to be so pale and thin-chested or his mouth so +ladylike and pretty. A good face, though; straight and clean, with +honest eyes and a likable smile. Lack of will, perhaps, or a +persistent run of ill luck. Letty had always kept him stiffened up in +the old days. Dick recalled one of his father's phrases to the effect +that Dave Gilman would spin on a very small biscuit, and wondered if +it were still true. + +"And you, Dick? Your father's still living? You see I haven't kept up +with Beulah lately." + +"Keeping up with Beulah! It sounds like the title of a novel, but the +hero would have to be a snail or he'd pass Beulah in the first +chapter!--Yes, father's hale and hearty, I believe." + +"You come home every Christmas, I s'pose?" inquired David. + +"No; as a matter of fact this is my first visit since I left for +good." + +"That's about my case." And David, hung his head a little, +unconsciously. + +"That so? Well, I was a hot-headed fool when I said good-bye to +Beulah, and it's taken me all this time to cool off and make up my +mind to apologize to the dad. There's--there's rather a queer +coincidence about my visit just at this time." + +"Speaking of coincidences," said David, "I can beat yours, whatever it +is. If the thought of your father brought you back, my mother drew +me--this way!" And he took something from his inside coat pocket.--"Do +you see that?" + +Dick regarded the object blankly, then with a quick gesture dived into +his pocket and brought forth another of the same general character. +"How about this?" he asked. + +Each had one of Reba Larrabee's Christmas cards but David had the +first unsuccessful one and Dick the popular one with the lonely +little gray house and the verse about the folks back home. + +The men looked at each other in astonishment and Dick gave a low +whistle. Then they bent over the cards together. + +"It was mother's picture that pulled me back to Beulah, I don't mind +telling you," said David, his mouth twitching. "Don't you see it?" + +"Oh! Is that your mother?" And Dick scanned the card closely. + +"Don't you remember her portrait that always hung there after she +died?" + +"Yes, of course!" And Dick's tone was apologetic. "You see the face is +so small I didn't notice it, but I recognize it now and remember the +portrait." + +"Then the old sitting-room!" exclaimed David. "Look at the rag carpet +and the blessed old andirons! Gracious! I've crawled round those +Hessian soldiers, burned my fingers and cracked my skull on 'em, often +enough when I was a kid! When I'd studied the card five minutes, I +bought a ticket and started for home." + +David's eyes were suffused and his lip trembled. + +"I don't wonder," said Dick. "I recognize the dear old room right +enough, and of course I should know Letty." + +"It didn't occur to me that it _was_ Letty for some time," said her +brother. "There's just the glimpse of a face shown, and no real +likeness." + +"Perhaps not," agreed Dick. "A stranger wouldn't have known it for +Letty, but if it had been only that cape I should have guessed. It's +as familiar as Mrs. Popham's bugle bonnet, and much prettier. She wore +it every winter, skating, you know,--and it's just the color of her +hair." + +"Letty has a good-shaped head," said David judicially. "It shows, even +in the card." + +"And a remarkable ear," added Dick, "so small and so close to her +head." + +"I never notice people's ears," confessed David. + +"Don't you? I do, and eyelashes, too. Mother's got Letty's eyelashes +down fine.--She's changed, Dave, Letty has! That hurts me. She was +always so gay and chirpy. In this picture she has a sad, far-away, +listening look, but mother may have put that in just to make it +interesting." + +"Or perhaps I've had something to do with the change of expression!" +thought David. "What attracted me first," he added, "was your +mother's verses. She always had a knack of being pious without +cramming piety down your throat. I liked that open door. It meant +welcome, no matter how little you'd deserved it." + +"Where'd you get your card, Dave?" asked Dick. "It's prettier than +mine." + +"A nurse brought it to me in the hospital just because she took a +fancy to it. She didn't know it would mean anything to me, but it +did--a relapse!" And David laughed shamedfacedly. "I guess she'll +confine herself to beef tea after this!--Where'd you get yours?" + +"Picked it up on a dentist's mantelpiece when I was waiting for an +appointment. I was traveling round the room, hands in my pockets, when +suddenly I saw this card standing up against an hour-glass. The color +caught me. I took it to the window, and at first I was puzzled. It +certainly was Letty's house. The door's open you see and there's +somebody in the window. I knew it was Letty, but how could any card +publisher have found the way to Beulah? Then I discovered mother's +initials snarled up in holly, and remembered that she was always +painting and illuminating." + +"Queer job, life is!" said David, putting his card back in his pocket +and wishing there were a little more time, or that he had a little +more courage, so that he might confide in Dick Larrabee. He felt a +desire to tell him some of the wretchedness he had lived through. It +would be a comfort just to hint that his unhappiness had made him a +coward, so that the very responsibilities that serve as a spur to +some men had left him until now cold, unstirred, unvitalized. + +"You're right!" Dick answered. "Life is a queer job and it doesn't do +to shirk it. And just as queer as anything in life is the way that +mother's Christmas cards brought us back to Beulah! They acted as a +sort of magic, didn't they?--Jiminy! I believe the next station is +Beulah. I hope the depot team will be hitched up." + +"Yes, here we are; seven o'clock and the train only thirty-five +minutes late. It always made a point of that on holidays!" + +"Never mind!" And Dick's tone was as gay as David's was sober. "The +bean-pot will have gone back to the cellarway and the doughnuts to the +crock, but the 'folks back home' 'll get 'em out for us, and a mince +pie, too, and a cut of sage cheese." + +"There won't be any 'folks back home,' we're so late, I'm thinking. +There's always a Christmas Eve festival at the church, you know. They +never change--in Beulah." + +"Then, by George, they can have me for Santa Claus!" said Dick as they +stepped out on the platform. "Why, it doesn't seem cold at all; yet +look at the ice on the river! What skating, and what a moon! My +blood's up, and if I find the parsonage closed, I'll follow on to the +church and make my peace with the members. There's a kind of spell on +me! For the first time in years I feel as though I could shake hands +with Deacon Todd." + +"Well, Merry Christmas to you, Dick,--I'm going to walk. Good +gracious! Have you come to spend the winter?" For various bags and +parcels were being flung out on the platform with that indifference +and irresponsibility that bespeak the touch of the seasoned +baggage-handler. + +"You didn't suppose I was coming back to Beulah empty-handed, on +Christmas Eve, did you? If I'm in time for the tree, I'm going to give +those blue-nosed, frost-bitten little youngsters something to +remember! Jump in, Dave, and ride as far as the turn of the road." + +In a few minutes the tottering old sign-board that marked the way to +Beulah Center hove in sight, and David jumped from the sleigh to take +his homeward path. + +"Merry Christmas again, Dick!" he waved. + +"Same to you, Dave! I'll come myself to say it to Letty the first +minute I see smoke coming from your chimney to-morrow morning. Tell +her you met me, will you, and that my visit is partly for her, only +that father had to have his turn first. She'll know why. Tell her +mother's card had Christmas magic in it, tell--" + +"Say, tell her the rest yourself, will you, Dick?" And Dave broke into +a run down the hill road that led to Letty. + +"I will, indeed!" breathed Dick into his muffler. + + + + +[Illustration] + +VII + + +Repeating history, Letty was again at her open window. She had been +half-ashamed to reproduce the card, as it were, but something impelled +her. She was safe from scrutiny, too, for everybody had gone to the +tree--the Pophams, Mr. Davis, Clarissa Perry, everybody for a quarter +of a mile up and down the street, and by now the company would be +gathered and the tree lighted. She could keep watch alone, the only +sound being that of the children's soft breathing in the next room. + +Letty had longed to go to the festival herself, but old Clarissa +Perry, who cared for the twins now and then in Letty's few absences, +had a niece who was going to "speak a piece," and she yearned to be +present and share in the glory; so Letty was kept at home as she had +been numberless other times during the three years of her vicarious +motherhood. + +The night was mild again, as in the year before. The snow lay like +white powder on the hard earth; the moon was full, and the street was +a length of dazzling silence. The lighted candle was in the parlor +window, shining toward the meeting-house, the fire burned brightly on +the hearth, the front door was ajar. Letty wrapped her old cape round +her shoulders, drew her hood over her head, and seating herself at +the window repeated under her breath:-- + + "My door is on the latch to-night, + The hearth-fire is aglow. + I seem to hear swift passing feet, + The Christ Child in the snow. + + "My heart is open wide to-night + For stranger, kith, or kin; + I would not bar a single door + Where Love might enter in!" + +And then a footstep, drawing ever nearer, sounded crunch, crunch, in +the snow. Letty pushed her chair back into the shadow. The footstep +halted at the gate, came falteringly up the path, turned aside, and +came nearer the window. Then a voice said: "Don't be frightened Letty, +it's David! Can I come in? I haven't any right to, except that it's +Christmas Eve." + +That, indeed, was the magic, the all-comprehending phrase that swept +the past out of mind with one swift stroke: the acknowledgment of +unworthiness, the child-like claim on the forgiving love that should +be in every heart on such a night as this. Resentment melted away like +mist before the sun. Her deep grievance--where had it gone? How could +she speak anything but welcome? For what was the window open, the fire +lighted, the door ajar, the guiding candle-flame, but that Love, and +David, might enter in? + +There were few words at first; nothing but close-locked hands and wet +cheeks pressed together. Then Letty sent David into the children's +room by himself. If the twins were bewitching when awake, they were +nothing short of angelic when asleep. + +[Illustration: "I NEVER THOUGHT OF THEM AS MY CHILDREN BEFORE"] + +David came out a little later, his eyes reddened with tears, his hair +rumpled, his face flushed. He seemed like a man awed by an entirely +new experience. He could not speak, he could only stammer brokenly:-- + +"As God is my witness, Letty, there's been something wrong with me up +to this moment. I never thought of them as my children before, and I +can't believe that such as they can belong to me. They were never +wanted, and I've never had any interest in them. I owe them to you, +Letty; you've made them what they are; you, and no one else." + +"If there hadn't been something there to build on, my love and care +wouldn't have counted for much. They're just like dear mother's people +for good looks and brains and pretty manners: they're pure Shirley all +the way through, the twinnies are." + +"It's lucky for me that they are!" said David humbly. "You see, +Letty, I married Eva to keep my promise. If I was old enough to make +it, I was old enough to keep it, so I thought. She never loved me, and +when she found out that I didn't love her any longer she turned +against me. Our life together was awful, from beginning to end, but +she's in her grave, and nobody'll ever hear my side, now that she +can't tell hers. When I looked at those two babies the day I left you, +I thought of them only as retribution; and the vision of them--ugly, +wrinkled, writhing little creatures--has been in my mind ever since." + +"They were compensation, not retribution, David. I ought to have told +you how clever and beautiful they were, but you never asked and my +pride was up in arms. A man should stand by his own flesh and blood, +even if it isn't attractive; that's what I believe." + +"I know, I know! But I've had no feeling for three years. I've been +like a frozen man, just drifting, trying to make both ends meet, my +heart dead and my body full of pain. I'm just out of a hospital--two +months in all." + +"David! Why didn't you let me know, or send for me?" + +"Oh, it was way out in Missouri. I was taken ill very suddenly at the +hotel in St. Joseph and they moved me at once. There were two +operations first and last, and I didn't know enough to feed myself +most of the time." + +"Poor, poor Buddy! Did you have good care?" + +"The best. I had more than care. Ruth Bentley, the nurse that brought +me back to life, made me see what a useless creature I was." + +Some woman's instinct stirred in Letty at a new note in her brother's +voice and a new look in his face. She braced herself for his next +words, sure that they would open a fresh chapter. The door and the +window were closed now, the shades pulled down, the fire low; the hour +was ripe for confidences. + +"You see, Letty,"--and David cleared his throat nervously, and looked +at the coals gleaming behind the Hessian soldiers,--"it's a time for a +thorough housecleaning, body, mind, and soul, a long illness is; and +Miss Bentley knew well enough that all was wrong with me. I mentioned +my unhappy marriage and told her all about you, but I said nothing +about the children." + +"Why should you?" asked Letty, although her mind had leaped to the +reason already. + +"Well, I was a poor patient in one of the cheapest rooms; broken in +health, without any present means of support. I wanted to stand well +with her, she had been so good to me, and I thought if she knew about +the twins she wouldn't believe I could ever make a living for three." + +"Still less for _four_!" put in Letty, with an irrepressible note of +teasing in her tone. + +She had broken the ice. Like a torrent set free, David dashed into the +story of the last two months and Ruth Bentley's wonderful influence. +How she had recreated him within as well as without. How she was the +best and noblest of women, willing to take a pauper by the hand and +brace him up for a new battle with life. + +"Strength appeals to me," confessed David. "Perhaps it's because I am +weak; for I'm afraid I am, a little!" + +"Be careful, Davy! Eva was strong!" + +David shuddered. He remembered a strength that lashed and buffeted and +struck and overpowered. + +"Ruth is different," he said. "'Out of the strong came forth +sweetness' used to be one of Parson Larrabee's texts. That's Ruth's +kind of strength.--Can I--will you let me bring her here to see you, +Letty,--say for New Year's? It's all so different from the last time I +asked you. Then I knew I was bringing you nothing but sorrow and pain, +but Ruth carries her welcome in her face." + +The prop inside of Letty wavered unsteadily for a moment and then +stood in its accustomed upright position. + +"Why not?" she asked. "It's the right thing to do; but you must tell +her about the children first." + +"Oh! I did that long ago, after I found out that she cared. It was +only at first that I didn't dare. I haven't told you, but she went out +for her daily walk and brought me home a Christmas card, the prettiest +one she could find, she said. I was propped up on pillows, as weak as +a kitten. I looked at it and looked at it, and when I saw that it was +this room, the old fireplace and mother's picture, and the Hessian +soldier andirons, when I realized there was a face at the window and +that the door was ajar,--everything just swam before me and I fainted +dead away. I had a relapse, and when I was better again I told her +everything. She's fond of children. It didn't make any difference, +except for her to say that the more she had to do for me, the more she +wanted to do it." + +"Well," said Letty with a break in her voice, "that's love, so far as +I can see, and if you've been lucky enough to win it, take it and be +thankful, and above all, nurse and keep it.--So one of Reba's cards, +the one the publisher thought would never sell, found you and brought +you back! How wonderful! We little thought of that, Reba and I!" + +"Reba's work didn't stop there, Letty! There was so much that had to +be said between you and me, just now, that I couldn't let another +subject creep in till it was finished and we were friends;--but Dick +Larrabee saw Reba's card about 'the folks back home' in Chicago and +he bought a ticket for Beulah just as I did. We met in the train and +compared notes." + +"Dick Larrabee home?" + +The blood started in Letty's heart and sped hither and thither, +warming her from head to foot. + +"Yes, looking as fit as a fiddle; the way a man looks when things are +coming his way." + +"But what did the card mean to him? Did he seem to like Reba's +verses?" + +"Yes, but I guess the card just spelled home to him; and he recognized +this house in a minute, of course. I showed him my card and he said: +'That's Letty fast enough: I know the cape.' He recognized you in a +minute, he said." + +He knew the cape! Yes, the old cape had been close to his shoulder +many a time. He liked it and said it matched her hair. + +"He was awfully funny about your ear, too! I told him I never noticed +women's ears, and he said he did, when they were pretty, and their +eyelashes, too.--Anything remarkable about your eyelashes, Letty?" + +"Nothing that I'm aware of!" said Letty laughingly, although she was +fibbing and she knew it. + +"And he said he'd call and say 'Merry Christmas' to you the first +thing to-morrow; that he would have been here to-night but you'd know +his father had to come first. You don't mind being second to the +parson, do you?" + +No, Letty didn't mind. Her heart was unaccountably light and glad, +like a girl's heart. It was the Eve of Mary when all women are blest +because of one. The Wise Men brought gifts to the Child; Letty had +often brought hers timidly, devoutly, trustfully, and perhaps to-night +they were coming back to her! + + + + +[Illustration] + +VIII + + +"Put the things down on the front steps," said Dick to the driver as +he neared the parsonage. "If there's nobody at home I'll go on up to +the church after I've got this stuff inside." + +"Got a key?" + +"No, don't need one. I've picked all the locks with a penknife many a +time. Besides, the key is sure to be under the doormat. Yes, here it +is! Of all the unaccountable customs I ever knew, that's the most +laughable!" + +"Works all right for you!" + +"Yes, and for all the other tramps,"--and Dick opened the door and +lifted in his belongings. "Good-night," he called to the driver; "I'll +walk up to the church after I've found out whether mother keeps the +mince pie and cider apple sauce in the same old place." + +A few minutes later, his hunger partially stayed, Dick Larrabee locked +the parsonage door and took the well-trodden path across the church +common. It was his father's feet, he knew, that had worn the shoveled +path so smooth; his kind, faithful feet that had sped to and fro on +errands of mercy, never faltering in all the years. + +It was nearly eight o'clock. The sound of the melodeon, with +children's voices, floated out from the white-painted meeting-house, +all ablaze with light; or as much ablaze as a kerosene chandelier and +six side lamps could make it. The horse sheds were crowded with teams +of various sorts, the horses well blanketed and standing comfortably +in straw; and the last straggler was entering the right-hand door of +the church as Dick neared the steps. Simultaneously the left-hand door +opened, and on the background of the light inside appeared the figure +of Mrs. Todd, the wife of his ancient enemy, the senior deacon. Dick +could see that a sort of dressing-room had been curtained off in the +little entry, as it had often been in former times of tableaux and +concerts and what not. Valor, not discretion, was the better policy, +and walking boldly up to the steps Dick took off his fur cap and +said, "Good-evening, Mrs. Todd!" + +"Good gracious me! Where under the canopy did you hail from, Dick +Larrabee? Was your folks lookin' for you? They ain't breathed a word +to none of us." + +"No, I'm a surprise, Mrs. Todd." + +"Well, I know you've given me one! Will you wait a spell till the +recitations is over? You'd scare the children so, if you go in now, +that they'd forget their pieces more'n they gen'ally do." + +"I can endure the loss of the 'pieces,'" said Dick with a twinkle in +his eye. + +At which Mrs. Todd laughed comprehendingly, and said: "Isaac'll get a +stool or a box or something; there ain't a vacant seat in the church. +I wish we could say the same o' Sundays!--Isaac! Isaac! Come out and +see who's here," she called under her breath. "He won't be long. He's +tendin' John Trimble in the dressin'-room. He was the only one in the +village that was willin' to be Santa Claus an' he wa'n't over-willin'. +Now he's et something for supper that disagrees with him awfully and +he's all doubled up with colic. We can't have the tree till the +exercises is over, but that won't be mor'n fifteen minutes, so I sent +Isaac home to make a mustard plaster. He's puttin' it on John now. +John's dreadful solemn and unamusin' when he's well, and I can't think +how he'll act when he's all crumpled up with stomach-ache, an' the +mustard plaster drawin' like fire." + +Dick threw back his head and laughed. He had forgotten just how +unexpected Beulah's point of view always was. + +Deacon Todd now came out cautiously. + +"I've got it on him, mother, tho' he's terrible unresigned to it; an' +I've given him a stiff dose o' Jamaica Ginger. We can tell pretty soon +whether he can take his part." + +"Here's Dick Larrabee come back, Isaac, just when we thought he had +given up Beulah for good an' all!" said Mrs. Todd. + +The Deacon stood on the top step, his gaunt, grizzled face peering +above the collar of his great coat; not a man to eat his words very +often, Deacon Isaac Todd. + +"Well, young man," he said, "you've found your way home, have you? +It's about time, if you want to see your father alive!" + +"If it hadn't been for you and others like you, men who had forgotten +what it was to be young, I should never have gone away," said Dick +hotly. "What had I done worse than a dozen others, only that I +happened to be the minister's son?" + +"That's just it; you were bringin' trouble on the parish, makin' talk +that reflected on your father. Folks said if he couldn't control his +own son, he wa'n't fit to manage a church. You played cards, you +danced, you drove a fast horse." + +"I never did a thing I'm ashamed of but one,"--and Dick's voice was +firm. "My misdeeds were nothing but boyish nonsense, but the village +never gave me credit for a single virtue. I ought to have remembered +father's position, but whatever I was or whatever I did, you had no +right to pray for me openly for full five minutes at a public meeting. +That galled me worse than anything!" + +"Now, Isaac," interrupted Mrs. Todd. "I hope you'll believe me! I've +told you once a week, on an average, these last three years, that you +might have chastened Dick some other way besides prayin' for him in +meetin'!" + +The Deacon smiled grimly. "You both talk as if prayin' was one of the +seven deadly sins," he said. + +"I'm not objecting to your prayers," agreed Dick, "but there were +plenty of closets in your house where you might have gone and told the +Lord your opinion of me; only that wasn't good enough for you; you +must needs tell the whole village!" + +"There, father, that's what I always said," agreed Mrs. Todd. + +"Well, I ain't one that can't yield when the majority's against me," +said the Deacon, "particularly when I'm treatin' John Trimble for the +colic. If you'll stop actin' so you threaten to split the church, Dick +Larrabee, I'll stop prayin' for you. The Lord knows how I feel about +it now, so I needn't keep on remindin' Him." + + + + +[Illustration] + +IX + + +"That's a bargain and here's my hand on it," cried Dick. "Now, what do +you say to letting me be Santa Claus? Come on in and let's look at +John Trimble. He'd make a splendid Job or Jeremiah, but I wouldn't let +him spoil a Christmas festival!" + +"Do let Dick take the part, father,"--and Mrs. Todd's tone was most +ingratiating. "John's terrible dull and bashful anyway, an' mebbe he'd +have a pain he couldn't stan' jest when he's givin' out the presents. +An' Dick is always so amusin'." + +Deacon Todd led the way into the improvised dressing-room. He had +removed John's gala costume in order to apply the mustard faithfully +and he lay in a crumpled heap in the corner. The plaster itself +adorned a stool near by. + +"Now, John! John! That plaster won't do you no good on the stool. It +ain't the stool that needs drawin'; it's your stomach," argued Mrs. +Todd. + +"I'm drawed pretty nigh to death a'ready," moaned John. "I'm rore, +that's what I am,--rore! An' I won't be Santa Claus neither. I want to +go home." + +"Wrop him up and get him into your sleigh, father, and take him home; +then come right back. Bed's the place for him. Keep that hot +flat-iron on his stomach, if he'd rather have it than the mustard. +Men-folks are such cowards. I'll dress Dick while you're gone. Mebbe +it's a Providence!" + +On the whole, Dick agreed with Mrs. Todd as he stood ready to make his +entrance. The School Committee was in the church and he had had much +to do with its members in former days. The Select-men of the village +were present, and he had made their acquaintance once, in an executive +session. The deacons were all there and the pillars of the church and +the choir and the organist--a spinster who had actively disapproved +when he had put beans in the melodeon one Sunday. Yes, it was best to +meet them in a body on a festive occasion like this, when the rigors +of the village point of view were relaxed. It would relieve him of +several dozen private visits of apology, and altogether he felt that +his courage would have wavered had he not been disguised as another +person altogether: a popular favorite; a fat jolly, rollicking +dispenser of bounties to the general public. When he finally discarded +his costume, would it not be easier, too, to meet his father first +before the church full of people and have the solemn hour with him +alone, later at night? Yes, as Mrs. Todd said, "Mebbe 'twas a +Providence!" + + * * * * * + +There was never such a merry Christmas festival in the Orthodox church +of Beulah; everybody was of one mind as to that. There was a momentary +fear that John Trimble, a pillar of prohibition, might have imbibed +hard cider; so gay, so nimble, so mirth-provoking was Santa Claus. +When was John Trimble ever known to unbend sufficiently to romp up the +side aisle jingling his sleigh bells, and leap over a front pew +stuffed with presents, to gain the vantage-ground he needed for the +distribution of his pack? The wing pews on one side of the pulpit had +been floored over and the Christmas Tree stood there, triumphant in +beauty, while the gifts strewed the green-covered platform at its +feet. + +How gay, how audacious, how witty was Santa Claus! How the village had +always misjudged John Trimble, and how completely had John Trimble +hitherto obscured his light under a bushel. In his own proper person +children avoided him, but they crowded about this Santa Claus, +encircling his legs, gurgling with joy when they were lifted to his +shoulder, their laughter ringing through the church at his droll +antics. A sense of mystery grew when he opened a pack on the pulpit +stairs, a pack unfamiliar in its outward aspect to the Committee on +Entertainment. Every girl had a little doll dressed in fashionable +attire, and every boy a brilliantly colored, splendidly noisy, tin +trumpet; but hanging to every toy by a red ribbon was Mrs. Larrabee's +Christmas card; her despised one about the "folks back home." + +[Illustration: HANDS THAT TREMBLED, AS EVERYBODY COULD SEE] + +The publishers' check to the minister's wife had been accompanied by a +dozen complimentary copies, but these had been sent to Reba's Western +friends and relations; and although the card was on many a +marble-topped table in Beulah, it had not been bought by all the +inhabitants, by any means. Fifteen cents would purchase something +useful, and Beulah did not contain many Croesuses. Still, here the +cards were,--enough of them for everybody,--with a linen handkerchief +for every woman and every man in the meeting-house, and a dozen more +sticking out of the pack, as the people in the front pews could +plainly see. Modest gifts, but plenty of them, and nobody knew from +whence they came! There was a buzzing in the church, a buzzing that +grew louder and more persistent when Santa Claus threw a lace scarf +around Mrs. Larrabee's shoulders and approached her husband with a +fine beaver collar in his hands: hands that trembled, as everybody +could see, when he buttoned the piece of fur around the old minister's +neck. + +And the minister? He had been half in, and half out of, a puzzling +dream for ten minutes, and when those hands of Santa Claus touched +him, his flesh quivered. They reminded him of baby fingers that had +crept around his neck years ago when he patiently walked the parsonage +floor at night with his ailing child in his arms. Every drop of blood +in his veins called out for answer. He looked above the white cotton +beard and mustache to a pair of dark eyes; merry, mischievous, yet +tender and soft; at a brown wavy lock escaping from the home-made wig. +Then those who were near heard a weak voice say, "My son!" and those +who were far away observed Santa Claus tear off his wig and beard, +heard him cry, "Father!"--and, as Mrs. Todd said afterwards, saw him +"fall on to the minister's neck right there before the whole caboodle, +an' cling to him for all the world like an engaged couple, only they +wouldn't 'a' made so free in public." + +No ice but would have thawed in such an atmosphere! Grown-up Beulah +forgot how much trouble Dick Larrabee had caused in other days, and +the children had found a friend for all time. The extraordinary number +of dolls, trumpets, handkerchiefs, and Christmas cards circulating in +the meeting-house raised the temperature considerably, and induced a +general feeling that if Dick Larrabee had really ever been a bit wild +and reckless, he had evidently reformed, and prospered, besides. + +Yes, no one but a kind and omniscient Providence could have so +beautifully arranged Dick Larrabee's homecoming, and so wisely +superintended his complete reinstatement in the good graces of Beulah +village. A few maiden ladies felt that he had been a trifle immodest +in embracing, and especially in kissing, his father in front of the +congregation; venturing the conviction that kissing, an indecorous +custom in any event, was especially lamentable in public. + +"Pity Letty Boynton missed this evenin'," said Mrs. Todd. "Her an' +Dick allers had a fancy for each other, so I've heard, though I don't +know how true. Clarissa Perry might jest as well have stayed with the +twins as not, for her niece that spoke a piece forgot 'bout half of it +an' Clarissa was in a cold sweat every minute. Then the niece had a +fit o' cryin', she was so ashamed at failin', an' Clarissa had to take +her home. So they both missed the tree, an' Letty might 'a' been here +as well as not an' got her handkerchief an' her card. I sent John +Trimble's to him by the doctor, but he didn't take no notice, Isaac +said, for the doctor was liftin' off the hot flat-iron an' puttin' +turpentine on the spot where I'd had my mustard.--Anyway, if John had +to have the colic he couldn't 'a' chosen a better time, an' if he gets +over it, I shall be real glad he had it; for nobody ever seen sech a +Santa Claus as Dick Larrabee made, an' there never was, an' never will +be, sech a lively, an' amusin' an' free-an'-easy evenin' in the +Orthodox church." + + + + +[Illustration] + +X + + +"Bless the card!" sighed David thankfully as he sat down to smoke a +good-night pipe and propped his feet contentedly against the little +Hessian soldiers. The blaze of the logs on his own family +hearth-stone, after many months of steam heaters in the hall bedrooms +of cheap hotels, how it soothed his tired heart and gave it visions of +happiness to come! The card was on his knee, where he could look from +its pictured scene to the real one of which he was again a glad and +grateful part. + +"Bless the card!" whispered Letty Boynton to herself as she went to +her moonlit bedroom. Her eyes searched the snowy landscape and found +the parsonage, "over the hills and far away." Then her heart flew like +a bird across the distance and beat its wings in gladness, for a faint +light streamed from the parson's study windows and she knew that +father and son were together. That, in itself, was enough, with David +sleeping under the home roof; but to-morrow was coming and to-morrow +might be hers--her very own! + +"Bless the card!" said Reba Larrabee, the tears shining in her eyes as +she left the minister alone with his son. "Bless everybody and +everything! Above all, bless God, 'from whom all blessings flow.'" + +"Bless the card," said Dick Larrabee when he went up the narrow +parsonage stairs to the room of his boyhood and found everything as it +had been years ago. He leaned the little piece of paper magic against +the mantel clock, threw it a kiss, and then, opening his pocket-book, +he went nearer to the lamp and took out the faded tintype of a +brown-haired girl in a brown cape. "Bless the card!" he said again, +with a new note in his voice: "Bless the girl! And bless to-morrow if +it brings me what I want most in all the world!" + +[Illustration] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Romance of a Christmas Card, by +Kate Douglas Wiggin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF A CHRISTMAS CARD *** + +***** This file should be named 17456-8.txt or 17456-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/4/5/17456/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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