Add files from ibiblio as of 2025-03-07 20:42:24HEADmain

1 files changed, 3370 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/42961-0.txt b/42961-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8bcaa9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/42961-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3370 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42961 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 42961-h.htm or 42961-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42961/42961-h/42961-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42961/42961-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      https://archive.org/details/housewithsixtycl00chil
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE HOUSE WITH SIXTY CLOSETS
+
+BY FRANK SAMUEL CHILD
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. RANDOLPH BROWN]
+
+
+[Illustration: THE CHILDREN TAKE POSSESSION OF THE HOUSE. Page 13.]
+
+
+THE HOUSE WITH SIXTY CLOSETS
+
+A Christmas Story for Young Folks and Old Children
+
+by
+
+FRANK SAMUEL CHILD
+
+Author of "An Old New England Town" "The Colonial Parson
+of New England" "A Colonial Witch"
+"A Puritan Wooing" etc.
+
+With Illustrations by J. Randolph Brown
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Boston
+Lee and Shepard Publishers
+1899
+
+Copyright, 1899, by Lee and Shepard
+
+All rights reserved
+
+THE HOUSE WITH SIXTY CLOSETS
+
+
+
+
+    To
+      Frank
+          and
+            Bess
+                and
+                  Arthur
+                      and
+                        Theodora
+                            and
+                              Grace
+                                  and
+                                    Ruth
+                                      and
+                                         Amy
+                                           and
+      the "Little Judge"
+              and
+                  All
+                        Their
+                              Merry
+                                     Friends
+
+
+
+
+ALL ABOUT IT
+
+
+  A
+
+        PAGE
+  HOUSE, PEOPLE, THINGS                                       11
+
+
+  B
+
+  THE HOUSE THAT THE JUDGE BUILT                              15
+
+
+  C
+
+  THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE HOUSE THAT THE JUDGE BUILT       33
+
+
+  D
+
+  THE THINGS THAT HAPPENED
+  TO THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE
+  IN THE HOUSE THAT THE JUDGE BUILT                           53
+
+
+  I
+
+  PORTRAITS WALK AND TALK                                     57
+
+
+  II
+
+  CLOSETS TALK AND WALK                                       85
+
+
+  III
+
+  THE PROCESSION OF GOAT, DOG, CAT, BICYCLES, PORTRAITS,
+      CLOSETS, RUTH, AND THE "LITTLE JUDGE"                  113
+
+
+  IV
+
+  THE PARTY WITH SUPPER FOR SEVENTEEN, AND TOASTS WITH
+      A TOASTING-FORK                                        141
+
+
+  V
+
+  STOCKINGS FILLED WITH MUSIC, RAINBOWS, SENSE,
+      BACKBONE, SUNSETS, IMPULSES, GOLD SPOON, IDEALS,
+      SUNSHINE, STAR, MANTLE, FLOWERS,--AND THE LIKE
+      QUEER STUFF                                            185
+
+
+  E
+
+  HAPPY DAY                                                  215
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                           PAGE
+  THE CHILDREN TAKING POSSESSION OF THE HOUSE    _Frontispiece._
+
+  INITIAL O                                                  15
+
+  MRS. "JUDGE" PLANNING THE CLOSETS                          19
+
+  MRS. "JUDGE'S" LIVING-ROOM                                 24
+
+  CANDLESTICK AND BIBLE                                      29
+
+  INITIAL I                                                  33
+
+  NAILING FLAG TO CHIMNEY                                    41
+
+  THE CHILDREN TAKING A RIDE                                 44
+
+  INITIAL I                                                  57
+
+  RUTH SEES FIGURES IN THE FIRE                              59
+
+  STEPPING OUT OF THE FRAMES                                 61
+
+  SUSIE AND LITTLE JUDGE                                     67
+
+  ENTERING THE CLOCK                                         80
+
+  INITIAL T                                                  85
+
+  PLAYING TAG                                                87
+
+  CHAMPAIGN COMPLAINING                                      93
+
+  THE CLOSETS TALK AND WALK                                 103
+
+  THE JUDGE SITTING ON THE COG-WHEEL                        105
+
+  INITIAL I                                                 113
+
+  BILLY EATING FUNERAL CLOTH AND WREATH                     114
+
+  THE PROCESSION STARTS                                     121
+
+  BILLY, SATAN, AND TURK TAKING A RIDE                      126
+
+  MRS. "JUDGE" AND MAN IN MOON                              132
+
+  RETURNING FROM THE CHURCH                                 135
+
+  INITIAL W                                                 141
+
+  THE WALK AROUND                                           163
+
+  THERE WAS THE GREATEST CONFUSION                          180
+
+  INITIAL R                                                 185
+
+  RUTH AND SATAN                                            186
+
+  THE ROOM WAS A BLAZE OF GLORY                             187
+
+  THE ROOM STUDDED WITH TWINKLING, RADIANT STARS            211
+
+
+
+
+A
+
+HOUSE, PEOPLE, THINGS
+
+
+
+
+      _I will first describe the house._
+
+      _Then I will tell something about the people that live
+          in it._
+
+      _After that I will speak of the very strange things
+          which happened there the night before Christmas._
+
+
+
+
+B
+
+THE HOUSE THAT THE JUDGE BUILT
+
+
+
+
+B.
+
+THE HOUSE THAT THE JUDGE BUILT.
+
+
+ONCE upon a time there lived a good Judge in an old New England town.
+People said the reason that he was so good was because his father was a
+minister. But he may have gotten his goodness from his mother. I don't
+know. Or he may have had it from his uncle who took him into his family
+and sent him to college. For the minister was poor, and like many of his
+brethren he had a big family; so his brother who was a rich lawyer and a
+statesman helped his nephew get his education.
+
+Now, this son of a minister and nephew of a great man studied law and
+became a Judge. He was liked by every one who knew him. People felt that
+he was an honest, noble man who had mastered all the law books, and
+showed more common sense than any other person in the State. So they
+made him Judge. This man who started poor and had to make his own way in
+the world earned a great deal of money. People came to him from all
+parts of the country, and sought his advice. They put into his hands the
+most important law cases. Only sometimes he would not have anything to
+do with the cases that he was asked to manage because he thought them
+wrong.
+
+As years went by he saved his money, and the time came when he was ready
+to build a house. The Judge had become the most honored and the best
+known man in the State. He had many friends among the great people of
+the land. He enjoyed company, and was a famous host. So it seemed well
+to him and his wife that they build a house which should be large enough
+to hold their friends, and fine enough to satisfy the taste of the
+society in which they moved.
+
+The Judge was not moved by pride or a wish to make a show. He wished to
+do the right thing. Everybody said that he ought to have the largest and
+the finest house in town. He was not only a lawyer and rich, but he was
+deacon in the church and the leading man in society. He was likewise a
+great scholar; and many people said that he was the most eloquent
+speaker of his State. Such a person must live in a generous way. So the
+Judge built this house.
+
+Now, when it came to drawing plans the wife had a good deal to say about
+it; for the house was to be her home just as much as his; and he always
+tried to do what he knew was for the pleasure of his wife. "I think,"
+said she when they began to talk about building, "that it should have a
+great many closets." Had you been a friend of Mrs. "Judge" you would
+have seen why she said this. She was not only a woman who liked to have
+all her friends come to visit her, but she was also very liberal and
+kind. She was always doing some nice thing for people, and always giving
+presents.
+
+She was able to do this because she had the things to give away. I know
+men and women who would make a great many presents if they had the money
+to buy them--at least they say that they would. Such people like to tell
+how they would act if they had all the money that some neighbor has
+saved. They are great on giving away things that do not belong to them.
+
+Now, the Judge's wife was the best giver in town; and she gave to her
+friends, and the poor, and everybody that was in need, all sorts of
+things. But in order to do this she must buy the gifts that she
+scattered so freely; and when she bought things she wanted a place to
+keep them until the time came for her to give them away. This was why
+she spoke to the Judge about the closets.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Well, my dear," said the Judge (he was always kind and polite), "you
+may have just as many closets as you wish." So she began her plans of
+the house by drawing the closets. I don't know exactly how she managed
+to arrange it on paper. Very likely she said to herself, "I shall want
+thirty closets." And then she would divide the number into four parts
+and say, "Let me see, I suppose that four will be enough for the
+cellar. Then I shall need ten on the first floor, and twelve on the
+second floor, and six in the attic. That makes--why, that makes
+thirty-two. Dear me! I wonder if that will be enough?" And as she thinks
+over the various uses to which she will put her closets, and the many
+things she will store in them, she says, on the next day, "Well, I
+believe that I must have five or six more closets." So she starts her
+drawing by marking down thirty-eight closets. After she has settled it
+that the main floor shall have thirteen of them, she puts upon the paper
+some dots showing the size of each little room; then she draws the other
+rooms about them, and so she gets one story arranged.
+
+But no sooner does she begin the plans for the next floor, than she
+thinks of one or two more closets which she needs for the first, and so
+goes back to her work of yesterday, and does it all over again, making
+several changes. And so very likely the weeks are spent in making paper
+closets, and drawing the halls and parlors and bedrooms and other rooms
+about them, until she puts her plans by the side of the Judge's plans;
+then they get an architect; and then she asks for four more closets,
+which makes forty-four.
+
+After a time the men begin to build; and she sends for the builder, and
+tells him of course that she finds she will certainly need five more
+closets,--one in the cellar, two on the first story, and three on the
+second. He is a pleasant man; and the changes are made. But ere the
+house is half built other needs appear, and Mrs. "Judge" insists upon
+three new closets, which make fifty-two. And without doubt on the very
+week that the carpenters leave the handsome mansion, she asks them for
+several changes and three closets more. And will you believe it, they
+move into the new house, get nicely settled, and everything running in
+good order, when the generous housewife finds that the carpenter must
+come, for she still wishes five new closets, which added to the others
+make sixty. And so you have the house with sixty closets. It seems to
+me that I have made it clear how there came to be so many of these
+curious rooms and spaces in the Judge's house. At least you know all
+that I know about it; and I do not believe that ever another house was
+built in such a way.
+
+But I must tell you how the house was divided. A plan of each story will
+be the best means of fixing this in the mind; and then you can turn back
+to it whenever you lose your way in the house, and wish to get what are
+called "your bearings." We must begin at the bottom and work toward the
+top. The cellar was really three cellars,--a big one, a fair-sized one,
+and the wine cellar. There was a small closet in this deep, dark place
+where they kept certain kinds of liquor. The main cellar was divided
+lengthwise through the middle, and there were two closets for provisions
+on each side.
+
+The main floor had twenty-seven closets. For my own part, I think that
+woman is a remarkable person who can invent and arrange such a number
+of little nooks and rooms. But if this is a mark of genius, what shall
+we say when it comes to keeping track of all the closets and their
+contents? Why, I should be obliged to carry a plan of the whole house
+with me, and every few minutes I should pull it out and study it. The
+Judge's wife was a most wonderful woman. She built her closets, and then
+she filled them, and then she remembered all about them and their
+contents. Here is the plan of the first floor. A hall through the
+middle. On the left as you enter is the library. There was one closet
+connected with this room, and a door opened into it from the northeast
+corner. Back of the library was the dining-room. It had three closets
+connected with it; doors leading to them from three corners of the room.
+To the left of the dining-room you passed into a side entry. Three doors
+opened into three large closets. The kitchen adjoined the dining-room.
+There was one closet in it, and two closets out of it to the right, and
+these two latter had one closet and two closets respectively.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+On the right of the hall was the parlor. It had one closet. A large
+window reaching to the floor gave entrance to this room near the
+northeast corner. Back of the parlor was a long, dark closet which made
+a passage-way from the hall to the schoolroom. Back of this closet was a
+first-floor chamber with three closets. The third of these closets
+opened into the chamber from the north. It was formerly Mrs. "Judge's"
+store-room. Another large closet was connected with it, and these two
+large closets contained two small closets. To the east of this chamber
+was the schoolroom (formerly the Judge's library). This room had two
+closets in it, and two closets out of it. The room to the north of the
+schoolroom was the annex to the Judge's library, and it held his books
+bequeathed to the minister. It also held two closets. And now my first
+story is ended.
+
+The short hall on the second floor opens at the rear into a long, narrow
+hall. There are five chambers in this part of the house. The front room
+on the right as you look toward the street is the "Study," and it has
+two closets, one on each side of the big chimney. The two chambers back
+and to the left as you face the chimney are without a single closet; but
+the lack is made up when you pass to the other side of the house. The
+front chamber has two closets, one on each side of the chimney. As you
+pass into the one on the right (you face the chimney, remember) a door
+opens to the right and leads you into another large closet with a window
+in it. Going across this closet to the right another door opens into a
+big, dark closet; turning to the street and stepping back three paces
+you open a door into another closet; passing into this one (there is a
+small window in it) you open a door into the linen closet. Withdrawing
+from this series of small rooms, you get into the Betsey-Bartram room,
+and there you find on the south side two doors leading into two large
+closets. North of this room is another bedroom. One closet lies in the
+southeast corner, and one opens to you from the west side of the room.
+The thirteenth closet on this floor is at the end of the back hall, and
+the fourteenth is by the side of the chimney in the room above the
+down-stairs chamber. The attic was one big room with five closets
+scattered around the chimneys. They hung hams in the larger one. It was
+a fine place to smoke meat. There was always a greasy, smothered flavor
+to the air in that place.
+
+Now, if you have kept track of the closets you will see that we number
+only fifty-one. There had been three neat, retired little closets under
+the stairs in the first-floor hall. When the hall was enlarged these
+poor things were taken out. It was on this occasion that Samuel said:
+"See how rich we are; for we have closets to burn." And still there are
+six closets missing. Well, the closet with the skeleton in it is a
+mystery, and I do not like to speak of it. Three closets were found one
+day carefully tucked away in a corner of the attic. The other two
+missing ones have simply grown up and become big rooms with windows in
+them. They put on a good deal of style, and look down upon the other
+closets.
+
+What a lovely time the Judge's wife had in furnishing her new home. I
+have been reading the bills, yellow-stained and time-worn. She had a
+taste for handsome things. As the house was a colonial building, the
+grandest in that part of the country, she tried to get furniture that
+matched.
+
+There were mahogany chairs and tables, sofas and bedsteads, cabinets
+and stands. She paid $155 in gold for her gilt-framed looking-glass,
+which stood between the front windows in the parlor, and $125 for her
+Grecian sofa with cushions. There were twelve fancy-chairs and two
+arm-chairs. Her rocker cost $25. Then she had another little work-table,
+for which they paid $20.75.
+
+Her parlor carpet was made in England. The Judge had it made to order;
+so you may believe it was uncommonly fine. The curtains were yellow
+damask, lined with chintz. During the summer these curtains were stored
+away on long shelves in one of the closets, and lace curtains hung in
+their places.
+
+Every large room in the house had a fireplace, and the supply of
+andirons was enormous. Some of them cost $19 and $20. Then there were
+venetian blinds in the parlor; and on the centre table stood an astral
+bronzed lamp worth $18, and on the mantle, high silver candlesticks. A
+plated pair cost them $18, and the snuffers and tray $8 more. There
+were the best Brussels carpets, the most fashionable china and silver,
+the richest linen for the table,--a vast amount of things needed to make
+a house pleasant and comfortable.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+C.
+
+THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE HOUSE THAT THE JUDGE BUILT.
+
+
+
+
+C.
+
+THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE HOUSE THAT THE JUDGE BUILT.
+
+
+IT was on this wise that the present family came to live in the
+parsonage. The church had been without a pastor for several months, and
+the people were tired of hearing Tom, Dick, and Harry in the pulpit. But
+what was to be done? They had found no man that suited them. One
+minister was too young, and another too old. The first candidate had a
+very long neck, a sort of crane neck, and it made some of the ladies
+nervous. The last candidate was fat, and everybody said he must be lazy.
+Several were so anxious to come that the congregation turned against
+them. There was always some reason why each man was not liked. So it
+began to look as if they might never get another minister.
+
+The society finally asked the ladies their views upon the subject. It
+was one afternoon when the Dorcas Daughters were sewing for the poor.
+The president of the little band had been reading a missionary letter.
+"Well," she said, "I have heard so much about filling the pulpit that I
+am sick of it. I think it's about time that we filled the parsonage.
+Just see what kind of ministers we have had for the last thirty years.
+Two bachelors, and one married man without a chick or a child. I say
+that it's time for us to call a man to fill the parsonage."
+
+"Why, that's what I think!" remarked one of the mothers present. "It is
+a shame to have that great house given over to the rats and mice. And I
+know that not a minister has been in it for all these years that used
+more'n half or two-thirds of the room. But, dear me, it would take a
+pretty big family to fill the parsonage! Let me see; there are
+twenty-seven rooms and sixty closets, aren't there?"
+
+"So they say," replied the president. "I never counted them. But that
+would just suit some folks."
+
+"Where is that letter that you read us at the last meeting?" inquired
+one of the sisters. "How many children did that man say he had? I
+remember that we never sent another box like it to a home missionary in
+all the history of this church." "I've got the letter right here in my
+hand," said the president, "and I've had that man in mind for a week.
+He's got fifteen children,--eight of his own, and seven of his deceased
+sister. I shouldn't wonder if he was the very one we want." One of the
+younger women nodded. She was thinking of playmates for her boys and
+girls. "And then if they overflowed the house," continued the president,
+"there is the little building in the yard. They might start a cottage
+system. You know that is the way they do in schools these days. Divide
+up the young folks, and set them in small companies. The minister might
+do it; and if the family expanded we might build two or three extra
+cottages."
+
+"Now, Mrs. President," said one of the ladies, "I fear you are making
+fun. But I think that letter from the missionary with fifteen children
+in the family was the best we ever had. A man that could write such a
+letter must be very much of a man."
+
+"He is," replied the president. "I have looked him up in the Year Book,
+and I have written to the secretary of the Missionary Society. He's a
+very good man. Nobody has done better work in that frontier country."
+
+So the ladies said that they would ask the church to call this parson
+with the big family. When the meeting was held and everybody was
+talking, one gentleman arose, and told the people that the ladies had a
+candidate. His name being proposed, the president of the Dorcas Society
+explained how she felt, that they ought to have a man to fill the
+parsonage, and this man whom they named was the one to do it; therefore
+the meeting voted unanimously to call him.
+
+"I think we had better charter a train to bring them from the West,"
+said one of the deacons. But it was finally decided to engage a car; so
+everything was arranged, and in four weeks they came.
+
+When the train stopped at the station, the church committee was on hand
+with three carryalls. It reminded one of an orphanage, or a company of
+Fresh-air children. But a hearty welcome was given; they were hurried
+into the carriages, and soon the whole family was in the parsonage.
+
+A nice dinner had been prepared by the ladies of the parish. After the
+travellers had washed and made some slight changes, they all sat down to
+the feast.
+
+It was a happy thing that the church and the Judge furnished the
+parsonage. This poor, large-hearted missionary brought nothing with him
+but books and children; his library was really a very fine one, and it
+had filled the small house in the West. His own family of children had
+been increased by the seven orphans left when his sister and her husband
+died. There was nothing for him to do but adopt them; so they had been
+packed into the little home until one was reminded of a box of sardines.
+But this sort of kindness was like the good man. He was ready to share
+the last crust with any one who needed it.
+
+"Why, what a big house it is!" exclaimed Grace. "Just see; I guess we
+could put the whole of our Western house right here in the parlor." And
+I think they could if they had only brought it along with them. When
+dinner was over the children scattered all through the mansion and the
+grounds.
+
+What a delightful sense of freedom and importance they had. Could it be
+possible that all these things belonged to them? Were the ten acres of
+lawn, garden, orchard, field, and pasture really for their use and
+pleasure? As parents and children wandered through the big rooms, and
+peered into the sixty closets, and looked out of the numerous windows,
+it seemed to them like a dream. And yet the dreamy sensation soon
+passed; for the parson and his wife, happening to look out of a front
+window, were struck with the expression of alarm, amusement, or interest
+shown by several people going along the street. It was caused by the way
+in which the family was showing its presence and possession. There were
+three children on the front piazza standing in a row gazing at the sea;
+four of the younger ones were climbing in and out of the windows on the
+second floor, running along the tin roof of the piazza; two boys had
+already climbed a tree looking for birds' nests; three children had
+hurried through the attic to the roof, and leaned against the big
+chimneys that towered over the house. With curious interest they were
+taking a general survey of the town and country, quite unconscious that
+their rashness attracted any attention. The other youngsters were
+having a frolic in the yard, walking along the top of the picket-fence,
+jumping from one gate-post to another, shouting with healthful lungs,
+and making the very welkin ring.
+
+Had a pack of wild Indians swooped down upon the house, they could not
+have made themselves more evident, or excited any greater concern in
+town. It was clear that the minister who was called to fill the
+parsonage answered the purpose. He filled it; and the contents were
+overflowing from doors and windows on to piazzas and roofs, or into yard
+and trees and street. What a waking up for the rats and mice it was! The
+mere racket and clatter were enough to drive them out of their holes.
+But what a shaking up for the old town!
+
+The house stood on the main street. It was an object of historic
+veneration. Everybody knew all about it, and had a sort of watch-care
+over it. Anything that went on in that house belonged to the whole
+neighborhood. So that it was not long before all the people were
+talking about the new arrivals. Men, women, and children felt an impulse
+to walk or ride by the parsonage on that eventful day. And it was a
+startling sight; for the minister's family seemed to think that the
+house really belonged to them, and they were to enjoy it just the way
+they pleased. This running all through the many rooms, and popping out
+of the many windows upon the piazza, and climbing up to the roof, and
+playing tag in the yard, and hunting for birds' nests, and walking on
+the tops of the pickets along the fence, was their way of enjoying the
+place.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Let's nail the flag to the chimney," shouted Harry, the third boy. They
+had carried the flag in hand all through their journey from the West.
+"Yes," shouted the other boys, who were wildly patriotic. "Come on! come
+on!" So they all came on except the youngest; and she finally came in
+the arms of her father, who followed the mother, who followed the
+children, to see what was doing in the attic or on the roof. And just at
+this time the most important man in the church and town drove by with
+his family. Do you wonder that this important man and his family gazed
+with surprise and alarm at the sight? There on the roof of the house was
+the whole family. Henry was nailing the flag to the tallest chimney. But
+when the children saw this kind man pass along the street (he was one of
+the committee that met them at the station, and it was his horses that
+had carried them to the parsonage), they waved their hands, and shook
+their handkerchiefs, and shouted "Hurrah! hurrah!" with such spirit that
+the gentleman must needs take off his hat, smile and bow, and turn to
+his family with some pleasing remark. There was no doubt in his mind or
+in the mind of the passer-by that the town was captured. The West had
+made a sudden onset; and the standard of victory now floated from the
+chimney of the Judge's mansion. The only thing for the natives to do was
+to submit and make the best of the situation.
+
+As I said, the good people of the parish furnished the parsonage. The
+carpets were down, and the chairs, tables, sofas, bedsteads, stands,
+book-cases, and other things, were put in their places. All the
+minister's wife had to do was to unpack her trunks, and divide up their
+contents among the closets. All the minister had to do was to unpack his
+boxes, and arrange his books in the study. So they were settled in a
+trice.
+
+Here is the picture of the children. You must know them in order to
+understand what happened in the house. Elizabeth was the oldest. She
+must have been seventeen or eighteen. She was ready for college. It was
+hard for the mother to get along without her, since she had brought up
+all the younger ones, and given her mother a chance to go round with her
+father in his work. Elizabeth was very mature, but she had all the
+frankness and cordiality of a typical Westerner. She seemed almost too
+free and easy in her manners for the slow East. But you couldn't help
+liking her. A little Western gush does good in the town.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Samuel came next. He knew everything. He was ready for college too. He
+was slow, and not always just as agreeable as one would like to have
+him. It has been said that somebody stepped on his toes when he was a
+very little child, and that he still has spells of being angry about
+it. Samuel was a mechanic. He kept things in order,--machines, carts,
+clocks, and like objects,--when he hadn't any girls to tease; for he was
+an awful tease, and so was liked in a general way by all of them. His
+manner toward the younger members of the family was rather severe and
+overbearing. But what would you expect from a big boy who knows so much,
+and has such a host of children to live with?
+
+Helen was the third one. She was literary, and gave a great deal of time
+to books. She hated to darn stockings above all things, and would often
+read a story to the children, or write one for them, if she could get
+somebody to do her darning for her. I think she will make an author. The
+family hadn't been in the house one day before she said that the closets
+must be named. Her mother or the children would never be able to keep
+track of them, unless they were reduced to a system, and properly
+numbered like rooms in a hotel, or labelled like drugs in a store.
+
+Henry and Miriam were twins. They were just about as unlike as you could
+make them,--one light and the other dark; the first lean and the second
+fat; he quick and she slow. And so we might go through a long list of
+things, and find that one was opposite to the other. For this reason
+they got along well together and were very happy.
+
+Then came cousin George, who was fond of music and could sing like a
+lark; and Theodora, who was born to be a lady, and always took the part
+of Mrs. Rothschild or Mrs. Astor in their plays; and cousin Herbert, who
+will be a doctor, and who was so ingenious about getting into mischief
+that I think he will be able to invent enough bad doses to cure the very
+worst sicknesses; and cousin Ethel, the pink of propriety, who never got
+a spot on her dress, and always said, "Will you please give me this or
+that?" or "Thank you," when she took anything; and cousin Grace, the
+demure and quiet puss who had a wonderful faculty for stirring up the
+whole family, and yet freeing herself from trouble; and cousin Susie,
+who is always sweet and good-tempered, and loves everybody; and cousin
+William, the precocious (I mean very smart), who will be president of
+the United States; and cousin Nathaniel, who was said by his brothers
+and sisters and cousins to be "just too cute for anything," flying
+hither and thither like a humming-bird, never two minutes in one place
+except when his aunt got him into his nest at night. How many does that
+make? Let me count them up. Have I mentioned them all but Ruth? Ruth was
+seven years old. She could ask more questions in five minutes than any
+lawyer in cross-examining witnesses. And when she was tired of asking
+questions she would tease for more things in a second five minutes than
+any twenty children rolled into one. And not only would she ask the same
+question seventeen times at once, or tease for the same thing thirteen
+times without stopping, but she did it in just the same unvarying,
+shrill tone of voice; so that it was like the monotonous rasping of a
+saw, and had a tendency to drive a sensitive person out of his head. How
+many times did the older members of the family run from her as though
+she had a contagious disease, so that they might get relief from that
+endless asking and teasing? And yet she had many good traits, and was
+certainly very bright. If there had been some comfortable way of putting
+a muzzle upon talkative and tedious children, her parents would probably
+have done it; but they simply used all the powers of restraint that they
+had and let it go at that. Ruth was evidently cut out for a poet or a
+woman's rights speaker; for she was all the time getting up rhymes, or
+talking in a high key and impulsive way to such members of the family as
+would listen to her.
+
+When the baby came everybody said that he must be called "The Little
+Judge," in honor of the good man who gave the house to the church for
+the minister.
+
+No sooner was the family really settled than the children began to ask
+about this famous Judge. They had never lived in an old, historic house
+before, and they were interested. They knew how the Judge and his wife
+looked, for their portraits hung in the east parlor. What fine old
+people they must have been! If those oil paintings did them justice they
+were about as nice-looking as anybody that you see preserved in oil in
+the great galleries of the world.
+
+Whenever the children stood before the pictures, they asked questions:
+Who was the Judge? what did he do? how much of a family did he have? did
+he like children? when did he die? who attended the funeral? where was
+he buried? what became of his things? and a hundred other questions. So
+the minister began to read about the Judge and his work. And the more he
+read, the more he admired and loved. The enthusiasm which the minister
+showed in his attempts to learn all he could about the generous giver of
+the parsonage excited the curiosity of the children to such an extent
+that they begged their father and uncle to write a book about him.
+Helen herself talked about doing something of the kind.
+
+"I've found out more things in the life of the Judge," the minister
+would say; and then all the children gathered around him just after
+supper, as the fire burned gayly on the hearth in his study, and he
+would tell them some fresh incident, and add a few lines to his pen
+portrait of the man. So the months chased each other; and the Judge and
+his wife made not only the most common topic of conversation, but they
+became as real to the young people in the parsonage as the boys and
+girls they met on the street. I suppose it was because they thought and
+talked so much about them that the strange things which I am to relate
+happened (or didn't happen) in the house.
+
+They had not lived many weeks in the house before they got into all
+sorts of trouble about the closets. They kept losing something, or
+losing themselves, or losing the closets.
+
+"We'll number them," suggested Herbert.
+
+"No; let's name them," cried William. They had all met to talk the
+matter over; so it was decided to do both. When names run out they would
+fall back on numbers.
+
+"I feel like Adam when he named all the cattle and the fowls and the
+beasts," exclaimed Helen.
+
+"We'll hang a plan of the house on each floor, and then we can refer to
+it without running up-and down-stairs." This was Samuel's remark. He was
+always for saving steps. So names were suggested, plans were drawn,
+every closet was given its dues, and the atmosphere was thick with
+Champagne, Darkest Africa, Turpentine, Leghorn, Daisy, Pansy, Violet,
+Rose, Panama, China, Greece, Dublin, Clementine, Serpentine, Argentine,
+Morocco, and other appropriate names.
+
+
+
+
+D.
+
+THE THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE HOUSE THAT THE
+JUDGE BUILT.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+PORTRAITS WALK AND TALK.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+PORTRAITS WALK AND TALK.
+
+
+IT was Christmas Eve. Excitement had reached fever heat. The children
+knew nothing about Christmas in the East; and their Western festivals
+had always been simple, for there was little money to use in buying
+gifts. But this year friends had remembered them, and they had also
+earned several dollars by various kinds of work; so that they were sure
+of many nice things. Had they not been buying presents for each other
+these ten days? and was not every closet in the house made the
+hiding-place for some treasure?
+
+The nervous strain on the parents was great. Such confusion and anxiety
+passed words. Was it possible ever to get the house and the family
+settled down to plain, every-day living again?
+
+It happened that the children had all met in the east parlor. This was
+the room where the pictures of the Judge and his wife adorned the wall.
+The two portraits hung on the right of the fireplace, you remember, just
+over the piano. A lamp was giving a faint light on the marble
+centre-table, and a cheerful wood fire was burning on the hearth. In
+front of the piano was the music stool.
+
+The children were all talking. The hum and buzz of their many voices
+filled the room. One said, "I wonder if Santa Claus will bring me a
+doll;" and another said, "There is no such person as Santa Claus;" and a
+third said, "I want a new sled;" and a fourth said, "Father promised me
+a book about birds;" and so the talk continued.
+
+But Ruth for once kept still. She was worn out with excitement. As she
+flung herself into a big arm-chair, she turned her head towards the
+fire, and began to see all sorts of funny creatures dancing in and out
+among the coals. Ruth was a poet, you remember, gifted with a wonderful
+imagination; and she could see more strange things, and tell more wild
+stories, than any other child in the family; and that is saying a great
+deal, for they all had a way of telling about things which they had
+heard and seen that constantly reminded their neighbors of Western
+largeness and exaggeration.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+As Ruth watched the queer creatures playing in the fire her eyes grew
+heavy; and then she turned her head away for a moment, and her eyes
+became fixed upon the pictures of the Judge and his wife. Did her head
+droop to one side, and did it fall softly upon the cushion against the
+arm, or did her eyes suddenly open wide with surprise, and did she gaze
+with startled look upon a strange scene before her?
+
+For both the Judge and his wife seemed to be moving; and they looked so
+natural and pleasant when they smiled and bowed, that Ruth said to
+herself, "Why, they must be alive." And the Judge reached out his hand
+from the canvas which held him, and took the hand of his wife, who had
+responded to his motion, and said, "My dear, wouldn't you like to step
+down and out for a little while?"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Yes, thank you," she replied; "I think it would rest me." And then he
+laid down the pen, which he holds in the picture, and stepped lightly
+upon the piano, still keeping her hand in his; and then he helped her
+down upon the piano, and then he stepped down to the music stool, and
+finally on the floor, and she followed. This was all done with the grace
+and dignity that marked the usual movements both of the Judge and his
+wife. And it seemed the most natural thing in the world for them to step
+down and out.
+
+Ruth sprang toward them on the instant that they stood upon the floor.
+She rubbed her eyes to make sure that she was not dreaming; and then as
+she saw them really before her, looking for all the world like natural
+folks, she greeted them with delight.
+
+"Why, how do you do?" she exclaimed. "I always thought you looked as if
+you would like to talk. That, I suppose, is why people say that your
+pictures are a 'speaking likeness.' But I never thought you'd get out of
+the pictures. How did you do it?" But the Judge and his wife were too
+much absorbed in the scene before them to reply immediately. The old
+room had changed since their day; they were noting the changes. And then
+this roomful of children took them by surprise.
+
+"My dear," said the Judge to his wife, "this is delightful." "Yes,"
+continued Ruth, "they all belong to us. I heard the president of the
+Dorcas Society say that when the church called this minister they
+expected him to fill the parsonage just as much as the pulpit. And we
+did it."
+
+"Yes, this is delightful," repeated the Judge. "How many are there?" He
+said this to his wife, but Ruth answered.
+
+"Oh! there are only fifteen of us when we are by ourselves. There are a
+good many more when the neighbors' children come in; and then don't we
+have grand times!"
+
+"It almost takes my breath away." Mrs. "Judge" was speaking to her
+husband. "My dear, have you my fan in your pocket?" And the Judge felt
+in his pocket, but he didn't find any fan.
+
+"Why, it's Christmas! You don't want a fan," said Ruth, who was bound to
+take part in the conversation, and play the hostess on this wonderful
+occasion. And then the Judge and his wife stood stock-still, and gazed
+with increasing pleasure and interest upon the scene.
+
+Their descent from the picture had been so noiseless and unexpected
+that Ruth was the only one to observe it. But when this keen, talkative
+sister began to question the guests, the other children turned their
+heads, and they beheld the curious sight. There stood the Judge and his
+wife exactly as they appeared in the portraits. Only they had their legs
+on them, and the pictures didn't. But the children noticed even the
+smallest details of dress, and they were the very originals of the
+portraits.
+
+Suddenly the whole company stood up.
+
+"Why, it's just like a reception or a wedding," said Ruth. "I think
+they're all waiting to be introduced." And the children advanced one
+after another, or Ruth led the Judge and his wife to different parts of
+the room, and each brother and sister and cousin was properly presented.
+
+"How did you get out?" inquired Ruth a second time. Everybody in the
+room was now standing, and all eyes were looking for the next move in
+this strange parlor drama.
+
+"We just stepped out," replied the Judge, who seemed prepared at length
+to talk with Ruth or the other children.
+
+"But where did you keep your legs all the time?" When Ethel asked this
+question Mrs. "Judge" blushed. Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, pushed
+her way forward, and said, "S-s-s-s-h!" and Samuel said, with a nudge of
+the arm, "Keep still, can't you?" But you might as well tell the
+steaming teakettle to stop boiling as it sits upon a lively fire.
+
+"We are very glad to see you," interrupted Helen. She was a most
+hospitable girl, and she had read a great deal of history; although
+Henry knew more history than she did, and he had read everything about
+the Judge that he could lay his hands on.
+
+"We are very glad to see you, and should like to ask about the 'Hartford
+Convention,'" said Henry.
+
+"He's been talking about it for a month," continued Ruth. "I wish you'd
+tell him all about it, and then maybe he'd keep still. I don't care
+anything about it, neither do the other children. But Henry thinks he's
+very smart in such things ever since he got a prize in history."
+
+"Did you say these were all the children?" It was Mrs. "Judge" that now
+spoke. And as she made the inquiry Susie ran out of the parlor, and
+disappeared in the gloom of the hall.
+
+"Why, we forgot all about the baby!" exclaimed Ruth. "He's up-stairs
+asleep, I guess. Dear me, you must see the baby. He's the cutest little
+thing you ever saw."
+
+"Yes, we should like to see him, of course. We both like babies, good
+babies."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Babies that don't cry I suppose you mean," said Ruth. "Well, he doesn't
+cry much,--only when he's hungry, or a pin sticks into him, or he gets
+mad, or somebody lets him fall, or hits his head against the door or a
+chair." Here Ruth paused for breath. Then she exclaimed, "Why, of
+course, you must see the baby! Why, he is named for you!" This was said
+to the Judge with greatest excitement. And just as Ruth was saying it
+everybody turned toward the door, and there stood little Susie hugging
+the baby to her breast, his nightdress dragging on the floor, her short
+arms barely reaching around his plump body; both baby and Susie having
+their faces wreathed in smiles. Staggering under the burden this
+youngest sister pressed through the company with her precious armful;
+and as the Judge saw her approach he stepped forward, bent down above
+her, and took the little fellow into his arms, where he settled with a
+most contented and happy expression. It was a very pretty sight,--this
+stately old gentleman holding a beautiful baby on one arm, and reaching
+over to the lovely, dignified wife by his side with the other arm; for
+she had taken hold of his hand again after he had fixed the baby
+comfortably on his arm, and Ruth had stationed herself close by the
+Judge's wife on the other side, and taken possession of the lady's free
+hand.
+
+"And this is the baby, is it?" inquired Mrs. "Judge." "What a dear
+little boy he is! And what did you say you called him?" For the lady was
+either deaf or absorbed so that she did not hear all that Ruth had said
+about the baby's name.
+
+"Why, we call him after your husband. Didn't you hear me say so? He is
+the "Little Judge." Just see how he clings to his namesake. Is he the
+Judge's namesake or the Judge his namesake? I don't know which is which,
+only it's something about namesake, and he's named for the Judge." This
+latter talk on the part of Ruth was quite as much to herself as to the
+visitors. And all the time the Judge was gazing down into the infant's
+face with earnest, wistful look, seeming almost to forget that he was
+once more standing in the old east parlor. Yes, for a moment he had
+really forgotten where he did stand; for he was thinking of the many
+years ago when two other baby boys had been placed in his arms, and with
+what hope and tenderness he had handled the small, helpless pieces of
+humanity.
+
+"Don't you like the name?" interrupted Ruth. "We thought it would please
+you. What makes you look so solemn? Oh, I know!" Now, Ruth did not
+intend to be cruel. She was simply thoughtless like many other children.
+
+"You had a baby boy once, didn't you? Two of 'em, didn't you?" And then
+she saw that Mrs. "Judge" seemed to feel bad too, and that she let go
+the Judge's hand for a moment, and dashed away some tears from her eyes.
+
+"I'm sorry if I've hurt your feelings," said Ruth. "I didn't mean to. I
+was just thinking about your two baby boys. They would have been awful
+old if they had lived till now, wouldn't they? and we never should have
+lived in this house if they had lived, would we?" A hush had fallen on
+the company. Neither the Judge nor his wife made any reply. They were
+lost in thought, while the children watched them with breathless
+interest.
+
+"We didn't dare give him your full name," continued Ruth. "That's what
+Dr. Blank did to one of his baby boys, and it died. Mother was afraid if
+we called our baby after you, with the three long names, that it might
+kill him, so she said; so we dropped the middle one, and I think it much
+better, don't you?"
+
+"Dear little boy," said the Judge affectionately, as he looked down into
+his face again. "Dear little boy." And then the Judge bent down and
+kissed him, and the baby beamed with delight. It was almost like a
+baptism in church.
+
+"I thought maybe you were going to pray over him. That's the way father
+does, you know." But the Judge didn't seem to hear.
+
+"My dear," he said, turning to his wife and holding the baby toward her.
+She knew what he meant, for she likewise bent down over the little
+fellow and printed another kiss upon his sweet, upturned, dimpled face,
+and then another, and a third, while the Judge stood looking on with
+happy indulgence; and all the children noted every motion in this
+singular drama.
+
+"What did your boys die of?" asked Ruth, who did not wish to lose any
+time, since she had so many questions to ask, and she feared that her
+visitors might not stay as long as she wished them.
+
+"Ruth!" exclaimed Samuel, who had drawn near the young inquisitor, and
+felt it was time to stop her; "aren't you ashamed of yourself?" He said
+this in a low tone, thinking that the Judge and his wife might not hear.
+They were watching the baby with such eagerness that they had almost
+forgotten the rest of the company.
+
+"I think," remarked Mrs. "Judge," as she lifted her head from the baby
+and glanced around the room, "that it is very pleasant in the old
+house."
+
+"Oh, yes; we think so too." It was Ruth again speaking. The other
+members of the family had little chance to say anything. "Can't get in
+a word edgewise," whispered Henry to Helen. "What a perfect nuisance
+Ruth is!"
+
+"Wouldn't you like to go over the house?" Of course it was Ruth who
+asked the question. She was always taking people over the house. It
+might be Monday morning when everything was in dire confusion, and all
+the younger children still in bed, or it might be early evening after
+the baby and Susie had been playing in crib and bed, and things were
+assuming their wonted appearance of disorder. If the notion took her she
+was always ready to seize a caller by the hand, and lead him from cellar
+to garret.
+
+"I think I would like to look around a little," replied the lady. "I am
+wondering how many closets you have now in the house."
+
+"Oh, there is an awful lot!" exclaimed Ruth.
+
+"We have sixty," observed Elizabeth, who liked to be precise.
+
+"That's right, that's right," continued Mrs. "Judge." "I had that number
+put in. I was afraid you might have given away some of them." When she
+said this the children looked rather queer. Who ever heard of giving
+away closets? One might think they were flowers, or eggs, or peaches.
+
+"You used to give away a great deal, didn't you?" exclaimed Ruth. "But I
+don't see how you could give away closets."
+
+And now the whole company started on a tour of sight-seeing in the old
+house. Samuel and Elizabeth naturally took the lead, being the oldest
+and quite the lady and gentleman. The Judge with the baby on one arm and
+his wife leaning on the other followed. Ruth still clung to the right
+hand of Mrs. "Judge." Then the remaining children came in a dense crowd
+just behind them.
+
+"The parlor looks much as it did when we left it, except the furniture,"
+said the lady. "Now let us see if they have kept the other rooms as
+well."
+
+They passed next into the hall.
+
+"Dear me! what is this?" exclaimed the Judge. "Where are we?" For it was
+not the old hall at all. That had been rather short and small. This was
+long, reaching through the house.
+
+"Why, what has become of my bedroom?" inquired the lady. "They have made
+it into this hall. And where are all the nice little closets under the
+stairs? You certainly have given them away. Oh, dear! oh, dear! I'm so
+sorry."
+
+"I guess you're tired," said Ruth. "It makes you nervous to walk much,
+doesn't it? Why, yes, I know, because they say you never went up-stairs
+for ever so many years. Oh, I know what we'll do! You can ride." All
+this time Mrs. "Judge" was looking about her in a dazed way, quite at
+sea in respect to her surroundings. For the hall had been completely
+changed until it appeared about as different as different could be. And
+the good lady was really shocked.
+
+"Do you see those things under the stairs? They are our bicycles."
+
+And the Judge and his wife gazed with perplexed faces in the direction
+indicated. There was a whole row of them. Seven, altogether,--full-grown,
+half-grown, or any size you might wish. It was like a carriage shop.
+
+"I think you might ride one all through the house down-stairs," said
+Ruth to the lady guest. "Then you wouldn't have to walk."
+
+And as the suggestion was made, Ruth's eyes flashed, and her cheeks grew
+flushed with excitement. What fun it would be to push the good woman on
+a bicycle from room to room, and show her the present arrangements of
+the beloved house. But Mrs. "Judge" was horrified. She clung very
+closely to her husband, as if she thought that she might have to perch
+upon one of the machines whether she wished it or not. Her breath came
+fast and short. Her cheeks grew hectic.
+
+"You don't mean to say that people ride those things!" she finally
+exclaimed when her first flurry of agitation was past.
+
+"Yes," replied Ruth delightedly; "we all ride 'em."
+
+"Not your father and mother,--the minister and the minister's wife?"
+
+"Why, yes, and the Episcopal minister too, and his wife."
+
+"Are you sure, Judge, that you didn't bring a fan with you?" The good
+woman seemed very faint, and she looked beseechingly toward her husband.
+"Here's one," shouted Susie, who ran to the cabinet and found a lovely
+piece of feather work, which scattered very fine feathers over your
+clothes and through the room on every motion you made with it. And as
+the Judge's wife waved it back and forth the feathers began to fly.
+
+"It looks like a snow-storm," whispered Herbert to Theodora. And soon
+the feather flakes adorned their garments and floated through the air,
+so that one was really reminded of a fresh fall of snow.
+
+It took the good lady a long time to get her breath. The hall closets
+were all gone; and in their places stood seven things called bicycles,
+upon which the minister, his wife, and the children were said to ride.
+It was awful. And Ruth was urging her to try one. Alas! the hall was
+too much for her self-possession.
+
+"Let us go into the west room," she said faintly. So they all came into
+what is now the family sitting-room and library. Here everything was
+strange. The door into the kitchen was covered with a high book-case
+filled with literature. The small cubby-hole through which dishes and
+food had been passed from dining-room to kitchen was now made into a
+door. But there was one familiar object before them. In the far corner
+stood the clock, grave and stalwart sentinel for the house.
+
+"My dear, do you see the clock?" It was the Judge speaking to his wife.
+He knew there must be many changes in the house. He accepted them very
+quietly; but he was glad to see this old familiar friend. He had
+expected to find it in the hall where it had always stood during his
+day; but he was just as glad to see it here in the old dining-room. That
+clock had been present on all the great occasions of life. It had
+marked the hours for every event connected with the history of the
+house. When the long line of famous men and women entertained by the
+Judge and his wife came to mind, it was to be recollected that the clock
+had seen them all, and winked and blinked at them morning, noon, and
+night, and sounded his warning notes in their ears, when it was time to
+rise or retire, or to eat, or to go to court, or to drive to town, or to
+start for church. It was like meeting a tried and beloved friend. Both
+the Judge and his wife were overjoyed.
+
+It might have been that some indifferent family had lived in the house,
+and thrown the clock out of doors or stored it in the attic. There are
+people so dull and unimaginative, people with so little sentiment, that
+they never care for keepsakes or heirlooms. They want everything fresh
+and new about them. Antiques are a perfect bore or nuisance. Happily the
+minister's family was not one of this kind. They all had a great deal of
+what is called historic sense. They liked old things; and the clock was
+their most sacred possession. How much they had talked about it, and
+dreamed about the scenes which had passed before it! While Ruth had
+invented more wild stories in connection with that one object than could
+be told in many a day.
+
+The other things in the room attracted little attention. The visitors
+made their slow and stately way across to the corner where the clock
+stood. As they looked up into its serene face, the object of their
+interest looked down upon them with a very knowing expression, seeming
+to recognize them on the instant, extending them a very hearty welcome;
+for the tick, tick was louder than ever before, the very frame of the
+huge thing began to tremble with suppressed excitement, and then eight
+long, loud strokes sounded through the entire house, as much as to say,
+"They've come," "How'd do?" "Glad t'see you," and other kind greetings.
+The children had all followed the Judge and his wife, and they were
+eagerly watching for the next movement on the part of the visitors.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It made quite a striking picture,--the tall, solemn clock in the far
+corner of the room, the Judge and the baby on his arm, and the wife
+holding Ruth by the hand, standing in front of it; then the throng of
+alert and wondering children bringing up in the rear, for they all felt
+that something out of the ordinary was about to happen. In fact, the
+whole visit of these former inhabitants of the house was rather unusual,
+so that the children would naturally expect fresh marvels at any moment.
+It was clear that Mrs. "Judge" was getting tired; nobody had offered her
+a chair, and she had refused to get on a bicycle.
+
+Suddenly the door of the clock swung open.
+
+"I think you had better rest, my dear," said the Judge; "we'll step in
+here."
+
+And as he made the remark he put his foot into the clock and gave a
+lively spring, filling the small doorway.
+
+"Oh, please don't take the baby away!" screamed Ruth, as she saw them
+both disappearing. "Who'll nurse him? And mamma'll feel so bad."
+
+But it was all done so quickly that Ruth never finished her speech, for
+the Judge still held his wife's hand and helped her into the clock; then
+as Ruth held all the faster to the lady's hand, she was caught up too,
+they all went into the clock and the door shut upon them.
+
+The other children were struck dumb with amazement.
+
+"I always thought it looked like a coffin," exclaimed Samuel; "but I
+never expected to see four people buried alive in it."
+
+"I've wanted to hide in it a hundred times," said Helen, "but I never
+supposed"--
+
+"Ten thousand times are hid in it," interrupted Henry.
+
+"Times out of mind," whispered Herbert.
+
+"Time, time," cried Samuel; and soon they indeed had a "time."
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+CLOSETS TALK AND WALK.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+CLOSETS TALK AND WALK.
+
+
+THE first thing that the children who were left behind did was to
+examine the clock. They all made a rush for it, and pulled open the
+door. "Tick, tock, tick, tock," went the huge machine. They saw the
+pendulum swing back and forth. And that was all they did see. The Judge,
+his wife, Ruth, and the baby had disappeared.
+
+"I believe this house is bewitched, or we are!" exclaimed Helen. She had
+read about the strange things said and done in the old town more than
+two centuries ago, when witches rode through the air on broomsticks, and
+very lively times stirred up the people.
+
+"It was on this very spot, I've heard father say, that one of the
+witches lived."
+
+"Oh, pshaw!" cried Samuel, who knew everything; "there isn't any such
+thing as witchcraft. They've just stepped out for a moment, and they'll
+come back soon."
+
+"I think they've stepped in," replied Henry, who stood close to the
+clock when their visitors disappeared with Ruth and the baby. "Let's
+play 'tag' while we're waiting for them to come back." This was a good
+way to work off their nervousness; for they were all more or less
+nervous, either because they really thought that the witches might be
+upon them, or because they would have to answer to their parents for the
+absence of Ruth and the baby.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"We'll start from the piano," said Samuel. It was Christmas Eve, you
+remember, and everything seemed rather uncommon and surprising. So they
+all jumped upon the piano,--thirteen of them altogether,--and it made
+the old instrument shiver and rattle, and try to shake them off. Then
+they started on the game of "tag." Samuel sprang from the piano to the
+cabinet, from the cabinet to the mantle, and from the mantle to the
+glass book-case in the corner; and they all jumped after him and each
+other. Then he swung himself over to the hall door, for his arms and his
+legs were simply prodigious. From the top of the door he leaped to the
+big picture frame between the front windows. How it swayed and creaked
+and screamed! So he dropped down upon a low book-case beneath, and
+balanced himself on the edges of a crystal loving-cup. But Henry and
+Herbert had started in the other direction from the piano, and they came
+face to face with Samuel on the loving-cup. Then this elder brother
+sprang over to the marble centre-table, and then across to the piano
+again, and upon the high set of book-shelves in the southwest corner of
+the room. Here he began to grab the books, and throw them at the other
+children as they came near him. Then they threw books back at him. And
+what a commotion there was! Children were passing and repassing with the
+speed of the wind. They were leaping from picture to picture, and mantle
+to table, and piano to book-case, and table to chairs, and cabinet to
+door; books were flying in every direction, the piano was groaning and
+shaking and scolding, and there was the din of many voices, shoutings,
+laughter, cries, boys' clothes and girls' clothes woven into a perfect
+mass of changing colors and shapes, the bang and rattle of moving
+furniture, and whatever you may be pleased to imagine.
+
+All this time the Judge, his wife, Ruth, and the baby sat composedly
+behind the face of the clock, and looked down delightedly upon the
+hilarious scene. There was a hole in the clock's face which served them
+for a window. Ruth had often observed it; and she had told her mother
+more than a few times that she was perfectly sure there must be a big
+room up there, and lots of people in it, for she had seen the flash of
+their eyes when they peeped down into the room and watched (wouldn't it
+be more proper to say clocked) the people. Ruth, of course, was right;
+for wasn't there a big room in the top of the clock? and didn't the
+Judge and his wife know all about it? It was there that they had gone to
+rest.
+
+The first thing they did was to put Mrs. "Judge" to bed. This they did
+with her shoes on. The next thing was to get the baby to sleep. So the
+Judge sat down in a rocking-chair, and began to sing to his little
+namesake; and when he got tired of singing the Judge whistled. The baby
+was just as good as he could be. He laughed, and cooed, and hit the old
+gentleman on the cheek with a tiny hand, and tried to pick his eyes out
+one by one, count all his teeth, and pull off his eyebrows, dig into his
+ears, and find what he did with his nose, and how he kept his cravat on.
+Meanwhile Ruth was looking down upon the children, and reporting their
+doings to her visitors.
+
+"I think it will do them good to have a little frolic," said the Judge.
+
+"Yes, let them play," replied Mrs. "Judge." "It makes me feel as if we
+were once more back in the old home, and had children to fill it and
+bring us joy."
+
+"But you wouldn't let your children play like that," said Ruth. "Why, I
+think they're going to break every thing to pieces. And what will the
+church committee say? They have charge of the house, you know."
+
+"Let's see what they are doing!" exclaimed the Judge. So he put the baby
+down by his wife while he looked through the eye of the clock. Just at
+that moment the children had all jumped upon the centre-table; and it
+was crowded with thirteen of them, and the lamp in the middle. There was
+a brief struggle, then the lamp went out, and the noise of a great fall
+and crash sounded through the room, after which darkness and silence
+prevailed. Something had evidently happened.
+
+"Don't you think we might visit the closets now?" inquired Ruth. The
+Judge turned to his wife to see what she answered.
+
+"I am too tired to go through them," she said. "But I should like to
+have them come to me." Now, this was quite an original idea; but it
+pleased Ruth.
+
+"Why, yes, I think they would like to come." Ruth was speaking with
+great animation. "We've named them, you know; and I think if I should
+call them by their names they'd all be glad to see you. Can you sit here
+by this hole in the clock?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" replied Mrs. "Judge." "That would be very nice. And the
+closets can all pass in front of us, and I can have a little talk with
+them." So Ruth looked down again into the room where the children had
+been playing, and saw that it was quite light and the children were all
+gone. At once she called the closets.
+
+"I've got a list of their names in my pocket," she explained to Mrs.
+"Judge." "We can't remember as you can. Even as it is, mother's all the
+time losing something in some of the closets, and she tries so hard to
+think where she puts things. She ought to carry a blank-book with her,
+and set everything down." The Judge's wife was rested now, so that she
+sat up and took her place before the hole in the clock. The baby was
+back again in the arms of his namesake. Then Ruth shouted out the names
+of the closets. "Champagne," she cried. This was the name of the
+wine-closet. It was a big black hole in the main cellar, just under the
+parlor. Very soon there was a heavy tread in the west parlor where the
+clock stood, and in swung Champagne. Although such a great closet he
+looked very thin and dismal.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Good-evening," said the Judge's wife.
+
+"How do you do?" replied Champagne; and there was a great deal of pain
+in his voice.
+
+"You don't seem happy," said Mrs. "Judge."
+
+"I'm thirsty;" and the closet's voice sounded as if a fever had parched
+it. "Poor folks live here now. They haven't put a bottle of wine into
+me in forty years. I'm drying up. I shall cave in one of these days."
+
+"That would be dreadful, wouldn't it?" exclaimed Ruth. "Would the house
+go down if the wine-cellar caved in?"
+
+"Hope so," answered Champagne testily. "Don't even keep wine for sick
+folk. Somebody did put a couple of bottles of something into me when the
+children had the measles, but somebody else came and stole it out of me.
+I thought I'd help bring the measles out, but they didn't give me a
+chance."
+
+"Poor fellow!" exclaimed Mrs. "Judge." "I'm sorry for you. But these are
+days of total abstinence, you know. You mustn't expect much wine. Don't
+they keep butter in you?"
+
+"No, they don't make any. And when they get some in the house it goes as
+fast as it comes. This family eats an awful sight of butter."
+
+"Well, I'll see what I can do for you, Champagne."
+
+"We can fill him up with water," whispered Ruth. "For the cistern leaks
+now, and father says the overflow all goes into the wine-cellar. I'll
+call 'Greece' next." Champagne stepped one side, and stood by the front
+door.
+
+"Greece, Greece." The name was spoken with shrill, positive tones; and
+Greece came hurrying down-stairs. This closet was in the attic. They
+smoked the hams in him, and they sometimes put bacon and dried beef up
+there.
+
+"How do you get along?" inquired Mrs. "Judge," as the closet shambled
+into the west room.
+
+"How'd' do, ma'am?" There was a strong smell of ham when Greece made his
+appearance.
+
+"I've mostly given up smoking these days. I'm a poor, ham-sick fellow.
+They are trying to starve me to death. I haven't had anything in me for
+months. They won't let me say anything. They shut me up all the time."
+
+"I think Greece smells bad, don't you?" said Ruth as she turned to her
+guest. And then Ruth put her thumb and forefinger up to her nose to keep
+out the bad odors that seemed to come up from poor Greece. "I'm going to
+call 'China.'" So Greece stepped one side without one kind word. "China,
+China, China." There was a very loud rattling of dishes, jingling of
+glasses, and much music, as the long closet between the kitchen and the
+dining-room stepped briskly before them.
+
+"I'm glad to see you," said the Judge's wife by way of greeting. She was
+a lover of fine ware, and the house had been filled with it.
+
+"I'm very glad to see you," replied China. "I am living a wretched
+life."
+
+"Dear me, don't talk like that!" exclaimed the good lady, much annoyed
+at all this mourning and fault-finding.
+
+"I guess you'd talk worse than that if you had been cut down, torn to
+pieces, burnt up, and boxed as I have been. Don't you see that there is
+hardly anything left of me? As likely as not to-morrow they'll set to
+work and do something else to me,--make me smaller yet, or drive me out
+of the house. I can't tell what a day will bring forth. And just look at
+the dishes. Did you ever see such a lot of nicked, broken, mismatched,
+cracked, blackened, ugly old ware as they keep on my shelves? It makes
+me sick. I wish you'd come back." All this time China had been talking
+in a most despondent tone, giving a fresh shake of discontent to the
+curious assortment of ware displayed on the shelves. It made the Judge's
+wife nervous. She didn't like it. Neither did Ruth. It was not what they
+expected. Such talk was hardly in keeping with Christmas Eve.
+
+"China, you just go right out-doors and wait in the cold," said Ruth.
+"I'm going to call 'Panama.' That, you know, is the closet that connects
+father's study right over this room with the bedroom behind it. Come,
+Panama," she cried. There was a great rustling of papers, and dust
+filled the room as Panama entered.
+
+"What does this mean?" inquired Mrs. "Judge," who began to sneeze and
+feel very thirsty.
+
+"Why, this is the closet where father keeps his sermons. I think they
+must rustle and make so much noise because they are dry."
+
+"Good-evening," said the lady in the clock as she bowed.
+
+"Good-evening," replied Panama. "It's a long time since we've seen you,
+Madam. Have you come back to stay?" And one could detect anxiety in the
+manner and speech.
+
+"Oh, no! We are here just for the evening. We thought it would be
+pleasant to step down and out for a little while. We were in the
+portraits on the east parlor wall, you remember. When the wind gets in
+the east we shall be obliged to go back." Then Panama began to cry; and
+as fast as he cried he drank up his tears.
+
+"I don't see what's got into the closets to make them talk so and act
+so!" exclaimed Ruth. "They just seem bent on being disagreeable
+to-night. And I thought we'd have such a nice time with them. They're a
+discontented and complaining lot. I'm going to call 'Leghorn.'"
+
+During this little talk the Judge's wife was lost in thought. Her chin
+had dropped down upon her breast, and a far-away look appeared in her
+eyes.
+
+"Leghorn, Leghorn, come here!" shouted Ruth.
+
+The children had given this name to the east-corner closet in Mrs.
+"Judge's" bedroom. She used to keep her bonnets there. One of them was a
+white, beautiful Leghorn, which cost more than twenty-five dollars. This
+closet was full of shelves, and it proved very useful to the minister's
+family.
+
+"Good-evening," said the lady.
+
+Leghorn looked up with surprise. He recognized her voice.
+
+"How do you do? When did you come? What's the news?" Leghorn spoke in a
+very familiar way; for he had always stayed close to the head of the
+bed in the room, and overheard all the conversation between the Judge
+and his wife. There was no better informed closet in the house than
+Leghorn.
+
+"You look quite cheerful," said the lady.
+
+"Yes'm," he replied; "I keep very busy, and have really more than I can
+'tend to. You know, we have a perfect crowd of girls here in the house,
+and their hats just fill me up to the brim. Hear 'em fuss as I shake
+'em." And as the folks in the clock listened they heard such a racket of
+straw and such a shrill chirping that they were quite startled.
+
+"Dear me, what is that queer noise?" inquired Mrs. "Judge." "Have you a
+flock of birds inside of you?"
+
+"Oh! I know what that is," explained Ruth. "I can hear it above the
+rustling of the straw. It's all the birds we have had on our hats. They
+are feeling so good. For we have joined the Audubon Society, and we
+can't wear any more birds. How they flutter and sing, don't they?"
+
+"You don't mean that you really wear whole birds on a hat or a bonnet,
+do you?" One could tell from the way she spoke that the visitor was
+horrified.
+
+"Why, yes; and you ought to see folks come to church with them. I've
+counted seventeen kinds of feathers and nine pieces of birds on the
+girls and ladies while father was preaching his sermon. We've had a
+bird-class here, you know, and I can tell a great deal about 'em. There
+was a blackbird and there was a bluebird; and one lady had a hawk's
+wing, and another a rooster's tail, and Elizabeth had the breast and
+beak of a scarlet tanager, and Helen wore heron's feathers, and mother
+had ostrich plumes; and you ought to see the beautiful plumage we took
+from a wild turkey sent us from the West; and we put it on Susie's hat,
+and it was just too lovely for anything. But we've all joined the
+Audubon Society now, and can't kill any more birds or wear many
+feathers."
+
+"I'd like to join too," interrupted Leghorn. "I'm sick of birds in me.
+They make such a noise, and keep me stirred up all the time, so I don't
+get good sleep. I'm very nervous, but I'm quite happy."
+
+"There, we've found one happy closet anyway," said Ruth. "You just sit
+down here and make yourself comfortable."
+
+"Darkest Africa next," shouted Ruth. This was another of the closets
+connected with the down-stairs bedroom. He came stumbling and grumbling
+along.
+
+"What do you want?" he said in a grumpy, disagreeable way. "You've kept
+me in the dark so long, I've lost the use of my windows."
+
+"Well, you needn't be so cross about it," answered Ruth. "Don't you see
+it's Mrs. 'Judge' that's come back to see you?"
+
+"What? what?" cried Darkest Africa, rubbing his eyes and speaking in his
+natural voice. "Where is she?"
+
+"Why, up here in the clock, of course. Haven't you any sense?"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Oh, such a life as we're living!" he said, turning toward the visitor.
+
+"You remember how you used to keep all your groceries in me, and how my
+shelves were heavy with every good thing,--tea, coffee, spices, fruits,
+and a thousand things. Well, now they've shut the blinds, and covered
+the windows, and turned me into a photograph-room. It's very nasty. Bad
+smells hang all about me. Stove-pipe, pans of dirty water, chemicals,
+and I don't know what, make me very unhappy. And the children run
+through your bedroom just as if it were a public street. Such goings on
+you never did see. I want to leave this world."
+
+"I'm ashamed of you to talk that way, Darkest Africa. You go out on the
+piazza, and wait in the cold, too, until I call you. Such talk makes
+Mrs. 'Judge' feel real bad." And this closet withdrew, still mumbling
+about his troubles.
+
+"I'm going to call three together now," said Ruth; "for the baby'll wake
+up before we get through, if I don't hurry." The Judge had really sung
+and whistled the baby to sleep; and there the good man sat on the edge
+of a cog-wheel, holding the little fellow in his arms.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Come, 'Pride,' 'Vanity,' and 'Ophir,'" screamed Ruth. One of these
+closets held the clothes of the older girls--that was Pride; Vanity was
+filled with the many dresses of the younger girls; and Ophir was the
+closet where the present family kept their small stock of valuables,
+like jewelry, silverware, and family heirlooms. These three closets came
+prancing down together, and they certainly felt good. It was Christmas
+Eve, and they knew it, for they were running over with all sorts of
+packages; their shelves were filled; their hooks were burdened with
+garments; the very floors were piled high with stuff. Mrs. "Judge" did
+not know them so well by night, for she hadn't visited them for many
+years before her going away. She bowed to them, and they bowed to her;
+but they kept their hands in their pockets.
+
+"Why don't you say something?" It was Ruth's remark to them as they
+stood in a row before the clock.
+
+"We're waiting for you to say something first," was the reply.
+
+"How do you feel?" This was by way of starting the conversation.
+
+"We feel jolly. Don't you?" Mrs. "Judge" smiled. This was pleasant to
+hear, and she was very cheerful. She could see thirty-seven or fifty
+dresses. There were all sizes, colors, materials, and patterns. Their
+brightness and variety fascinated her.
+
+"Look here, my dear," she said, turning to her husband.
+
+"I can't. I should wake the baby," and he smiled in a very happy,
+dignified way.
+
+"I'll call 'Morocco,' too," said Ruth. "There's plenty of room, and I
+like to see them together."
+
+"Morocco, Morocco." And then there was such clattering and pattering of
+shoes that it seemed as if the baby must wake up; for Morocco was the
+shoe closet, and there were so many pairs of old shoes in the place that
+it reminded one of a cobbler's shop. There were little shoes and big,
+slippers and rubber-boots, patent leathers and copper toes, high-heeled
+shoes and no-heeled shoes; there were blacking and brushes and
+shoe-strings and button-hooks and dirt. And as Morocco walked in, every
+shoe and boot and slipper and brush was in a most frolicsome mood,
+jumping hither and thither, knocking the sides of the closet, and
+raising a great dust. The Judge's wife looked from Pride to Vanity, then
+from Ophir to Morocco. As the clothes shook and rustled, as the silver
+and the old-fashioned jewelry jingled, as the foot-gear banged and
+rattled, Ruth began to sing and dance, and the lady nodded her head to
+keep time; and then the Judge caught the movement and beat time with his
+foot, and whistled an old tune; and then the baby woke up, clapped his
+hands, and cooed with delight.
+
+But time was passing very quickly, and there was a great deal to do
+before midnight came or the east wind arose. So Ruth hurried the closets
+along in their march before the guests.
+
+"'Valentine,' 'Argentine,' 'Serpentine,' 'Clementine,' and 'Turpentine,'
+come along with you," she shouted urgently. These were the five closets
+which belonged to the Judge's library. Valentine had nothing but broken
+furniture in him; Argentine was loaded down with old and useless silver
+(plated ware) and like stuff; Serpentine contained aged newspapers and
+magazines; Clementine was pretty well filled with a variety of dolls,
+and they played merrily as the closet came into the room, and stood
+first on one foot and then on the other; Turpentine brought a good deal
+of dust with him. He used to hold the Judge's private papers. They were
+dry as dust. The Judge was so interested in the baby that he paid no
+attention to the closets.
+
+"I'm going to call the closet with the skeleton in it," whispered Ruth.
+"We named him the 'Wandering Jew;' we've never seen him, you know.
+Somebody told us that the key was lost, and then the keyhole, and
+finally the closet itself, and it must be so; for where that closet was
+in your day there isn't anything now." During this remark Mrs. "Judge"
+looked very restless and sorrowful. "I just want to see what a skeleton
+in the closet is like. I've heard that every family has got one, but
+they keep them out of sight. Wandering Jew, Wandering Jew," whispered
+Ruth with suppressed excitement; and almost on the instant the lost
+closet walked into the room from nowhere. He was quite small; as he
+walked something rattled in him. The child shivered. Was it the
+skeleton? and would she see it? Then she remembered that the key and the
+keyhole were both lost.
+
+"What's in it?" whispered Ruth. And then she noticed for the first time
+that the lady was weeping. There was a strange silence. Mrs. "Judge"
+put her hands upon Ruth's head, and looking down pathetically into her
+eager eyes said gently, "I would rather not put any questions to the
+Wandering Jew, or try to make him say anything. Let him pass along out
+of my sight." And Ruth, who was quite awed by the grief of Mrs. "Judge,"
+told the closet to hurry out of sight as soon as possible. So she never
+knew whether it was blasted hopes or withered love, or the ghost of a
+chance or the dry bones of scholarship, or something else that was
+locked in that strange little haunted room.
+
+And now the closets were hurried along as fast as Ruth could name them.
+But Mrs. "Judge" seemed to have lost her interest. The closet with a
+skeleton in it had thrown her off her balance. She had little or nothing
+to say to any of the others; and Ruth herself grew tired, so that she
+was very glad when they had all made their bows and said their short
+say, and something else might be done for the entertainment of her
+company.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+    THE PROCESSION OF
+    GOAT,
+    DOG,
+    CAT,
+    BICYCLES,
+    PORTRAITS,
+    RUTH,
+    AND
+    THE "LITTLE JUDGE."
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+THE PROCESSION OF GOAT, DOG, CAT, BICYCLES, CLOSETS, PORTRAITS, RUTH,
+AND THE "LITTLE JUDGE."
+
+
+"[Illustration: I] THINK it would be real nice for us to take a little
+ride about the town, don't you?" Ruth was speaking to the Judge and his
+wife.
+
+"Yes, I think I am rested enough to go a short way," was the lady's
+reply. "But what shall we do with the Judge and the baby?"
+
+"Why, take them along with us!" Ruth was always ingenious, and she had
+plans for every occasion.
+
+"I think we might take a ride in the closets."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Mrs. "Judge."
+
+"I am going to hitch up the closets and have a procession," exclaimed
+Ruth. "You leave it to me and it'll come out all right. I'll call the
+cat and the goat and 'Turk,' and tell them to get out the bicycles and
+fasten them to the closets, all in a row, and then they shall take us to
+ride." On any other occasion or under other circumstances this would
+have appeared a curious arrangement, but to-night it was quite in
+keeping with all that had happened.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Here Billy, Billy, Billy, Turk, Turk, come Kitty, come Kitty," cried
+Ruth; and the goat appeared on the minute, and with him Satan the black
+cat and with him "Turk," the bird-dog. "You must hitch up the bicycles,
+and hitch on the closets, and take us a-riding," ordered Ruth. Now,
+Billy was an obliging goat, although his taste was not of the best; for
+when one of the neighbors died, and crape and flowers were hung on the
+front door, he went over and climbed up to the interesting objects, and
+ate both the cloth and the wreath. He lacked taste, but he did enjoy
+running up and down the street. Satan, the black cat, was very fond of
+Ruth, and would do anything she told him when he didn't want to do
+anything else, and he knew what she was talking about. Turk was always
+on hand ready for a frolic.
+
+So Billy, Satan, and Turk got the bicycles fastened together; and then
+Ruth called out the names of the closets, beginning with the very
+smallest in the house. The goat and the cat took a spool of red
+cotton-thread, and tied all the closets in a row or a tow (just as you
+see boats in a row and a tow when a tug pulls them up the river). When
+all was ready, Billy and Satan and Turk took their places at the head of
+the procession, and stood waiting for their passengers.
+
+"I think we had better put the baby in the first closet," said Ruth.
+"That is the smallest, you know, and he will fit in like a bug in a
+rug."
+
+"What have you got to put around him?" inquired the lady. There had been
+a slight fall of snow in the evening, and then it had turned cold. "I'm
+afraid he will get chilly, you know."
+
+"Oh! I'll wrap him up in an envelope. Paper is very warm, I've heard.
+I'll just put him into the envelope, and then cut two holes for his
+eyes, and then seal him up like a letter." So the "Little Judge" was
+fixed. But it occurred to Mr. Judge at this point that his wife was not
+prepared for winter. She was a delicate person, and she wore the same
+clothes that she had on when her portrait was painted. The cap with
+frilled border was very pretty, but it was not warm.
+
+"My dear," said the Judge to his wife, "you are not properly clad for a
+ride."
+
+"I've got plenty of clothes and things in my pocket," said Ruth. "Now,
+here is a nice postage-stamp with a picture of the queen upon it. That
+will do for a bonnet. I'll stick it on tight." And she did. "Here is a
+lot of red crinkly paper that we use to make lamp-shades. I'll do her up
+like a bundle from the store. There, doesn't she look well?" And the
+child wound the bright paper all about the matronly form of Mrs.
+"Judge," and fastening it under her chin with a big safety pin, stood
+off and admired the brilliant result. "There won't any cold creep in
+through that red stuff," exclaimed Ruth. "Isn't she pretty?" But the
+Judge only smiled and looked interested.
+
+"Now you must be fixed," and Ruth turned toward the Judge. "I'll tie
+this handkerchief over your head, and use a piece of red thread for a
+muffler. And here is a nice white canton-flannel bag in my pocket that
+Herbert has used for his marbles. You jump into that, and I'll tie you
+up."
+
+"But how shall we get down into the closets?" The Judge seemed
+perplexed.
+
+"Fall down, of course," exclaimed the child. "And I'm going to wear
+mother's feather-bed. Then, if it 'thunders and lightens' I won't be
+afraid." So at length everything was ready, and they stood on the weight
+of the clock, and went down to the door which swung open into the west
+parlor; and then they tumbled out into the room, and made their way to
+the front piazza like boys engaged in a bag-race. And there before the
+house stood the procession of the closets.
+
+"What's become of the old portico?" asked the lady. "You must have made
+it into this long sitting-place." She glanced up and down the roomy
+piazza. "What color do you call this?" she asked, referring to the brown
+paint upon the house. "We always had it white."
+
+"This color doesn't show the dirt," said Ruth. "All the dust of the
+town flies this way, mother says." At that moment there was a rumbling,
+hissing, and flashing in the distance. The house shook and the sky
+brightened. Was it an earthquake, or what?
+
+"My dear," whispered Mrs. "Judge," "I feel a little timid. I think it's
+because I've been in the picture so long. I'm shaking all over. It seems
+to me as if something dreadful was going to happen. What is that awful
+noise; and I see strange flames of pale blue light shoot into the sky."
+
+"Oh, don't be scared!" said Ruth; "that's nothing but the trolley. See,
+there it comes!" Down the street towards them swept a thing of light,
+shaking the very earth beneath, and speeding past into the night like
+some meteor. It was several seconds before the lady was able to speak.
+
+"Child, what did you say it was?" and she trembled with fright.
+
+"Why, it's the trolley-car. We ride on it. It runs by electricity, the
+same as lightning." And Ruth popped her head in and out of the
+feather-bed as she replied, the feathers sticking to her hair and
+fluttering about her face in a most comical way.
+
+"I think we'd better start before another car comes, for Billy and Satan
+might run away. Sometimes they're afraid."
+
+"Yes, let us get right into our places," said the Judge, who was sorry
+to see his wife distressed. So the baby rolled into the little closet
+next to the seven bicycles, and Ruth jumped into the next one, and the
+Judge and his wife shuffled into the third.
+
+"I think we must make a real funny show," exclaimed Ruth, as she lifted
+her head out of the feathers again, and gave orders to Billy and Satan
+and Turk.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Get up there, boys!" she said to this remarkable team. And then they
+were all in motion,--the billy-goat and the black cat and the dog, the
+seven bicycles, the little closet with the baby in the blue envelope,
+the second closet with Ruth in a feather-bed, the third closet with the
+Judge in a white flannel-bag and a handkerchief over his head, and Mrs.
+"Judge," done up in red paper, wearing a postage stamp for a bonnet,
+followed by fifty-seven closets of all shapes, sizes, patterns,
+conditions. There was a banging of wood, a slamming of doors, a creaking
+of windows, a dancing of shoes, a rattling of dishes, a rustling of
+clothes (starched clothes), a fluttering of sermons, a pounding of pots
+and kettles and pans, a rolling about of fruit glasses and jelly jars
+and canned food, a falling of hams, and a rising of flour, and a decline
+in vegetables simply frightful.
+
+"This is a very fine road," observed the Judge. "It's just as smooth as
+a floor. What an improvement over the roads in our day!"
+
+"Yes," answered Ruth as she peered out from her feathers, "we are very
+proud of our roads. They are--what is it you call them? Adam, cadam, oh!
+I've got it now, macadam roads. They cost thousands of dollars. But
+we've some very good men in town, just the kind you are, I suppose, and
+they've given us miles and miles of it. You ought to see how we skim
+along the road now on a bicycle. It would fairly make your head swim."
+
+"My head does swim," whispered Mrs. "Judge." "It's so long since I took
+a ride in the fresh air, and I've staid such a time in the picture and
+become so stiff, that the motion makes me dizzy. I think we'd better
+stop for a few minutes."
+
+"What is this?" exclaimed the Judge. They had gone only to the corner
+of the Green. There was a very thin covering of fluffy snow on the
+ground. Suddenly the clouds broke away, and the moon flooded the scene
+with light. And there, standing distinct and stately against the black
+background, glistening and shimmering in the mild radiance, was the
+church.
+
+"Where is the old meeting-house?" and the Judge rubbed his eyes, and got
+the handkerchief loose upon his head; and Mrs. "Judge" in her agitation
+dislocated the postage-stamp that served for a bonnet so that she felt a
+cold draught in her left ear.
+
+"Why, Judge, we aren't here, are we? We must be somewhere else." Then
+Ruth uncovered her head, and let a few feathers fly back in the face of
+her guest and laughed merrily.
+
+"That's the new church. Our new stone church. Isn't it lovely? Did you
+ever see anything like it? Whoa, Billy and Satan and Turk! Wait a
+minute! We want to take a look at things."
+
+"You don't mean to say you have another meeting-house, do you? What's
+become of the old one?"
+
+"Oh! that was set on fire. You ought to've seen it burn. Father said it
+was the saddest, beautifulest sight he ever saw. It was like a church
+built of fire; and it blazed away,--walls, roof, floor, all glorious
+without and within, and then it was caught up into heaven, so father
+says. It made us think of Elijah going up in his flaming chariot. And
+then we built this stone church. Don't you like it? Why, of course you
+do; why, I heard father say that you wanted a stone church, and gave
+something for one."
+
+"Like it, child, of course we like it! And we did want a stone church,
+and we tried to get the folks to build one, but they thought they
+weren't rich enough. Like it! why this is one of the happiest moments of
+my life. What a striking building it is!"
+
+"Yes; and there is some of your money in it, for I've heard father say
+so. They got pay for the old church when it burned, and that went right
+into the new. And it was an English company that had to pay the
+insurance; and folks said it was no more than right that the English
+should pay it, for they burned down the one in 1779 when they burnt up
+the town, you know."
+
+"You know a great deal about history and things, don't you?" It was Mrs.
+"Judge" that made the pleasing remark.
+
+"Yes, I know many things. It's because I ask so many questions, I
+suppose. But mother says I lack 'capacity.' I don't know what she means;
+it's something dreadful, I suppose. Perhaps I'll make it up when I get
+big. Wouldn't you like to stop at the church and go inside? I've got a
+key right here in my pocket. Samuel and I carry keys to about
+everything."
+
+"I think we might take a little rest here," said the Judge. "Do you
+think the team will stand?" And his eyes twinkled curiously as he looked
+out upon Billy and Satan and Turk.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Oh, yes! they'll be all right. If they get tired of waiting they can
+take a short run on the bicycles. Go up there to the front door.
+'Whoa!'" This was said to the team. When they came to a stop Ruth
+tumbled out first, then the Judge and his lady followed, scuffing along
+as best they could. They unlocked the door; and Ruth rolled back to the
+first closet, picked up the envelope with the baby in it, tucked him
+into the feather-bed by her side, and returned to the vestibule. They
+observed that the church was all lighted and warm. So Ruth slipped off
+the feather-bed, although a thousand feathers stuck to her, making the
+child appear like a new kind of overgrown fowl. The Judge took the baby
+on his arm, for he had also slipped out of Herbert's marble bag, and
+then Ruth led them through the building. Every part was explained,--the
+windows, the organ, the gaslights, the carved pillars, the glass screen,
+the chapel, the piano, the library, the parlor, the furnaces; everything
+was noted.
+
+"Why, how lovely it is to be warm in meeting," said Mrs. "Judge." "You
+know we used to have foot-stoves, or hot baked potatoes, or a piece of
+stone. That was all."
+
+"You don't mean to say that they gave you hot baked potatoes with butter
+in meeting, and that was the way you kept warm?"
+
+"Oh, we didn't eat them!" interrupted Mrs. "Judge." "We held them in our
+hands, or put them to our feet. But the little stoves were better. And
+then finally we had stoves, big stoves, in the meeting-house. I thought
+I should faint dead away when they first used them. It seemed to me so
+hot and stuffy in the room. And then I remember that my husband laughed
+at me when I drove home (I always had to ride, child; I wasn't able to
+walk so far for many years); for he said there hadn't been any fires
+kindled yet in the new stoves. But I got used to them after a time, and
+they were real comfortable. But I should certainly faint away to see the
+heat coming right up out of the floor, and think that underneath me was
+a raging fire."
+
+"Why that's the way we warm the parsonage," said Ruth. "Didn't you see
+the registers?"
+
+"Have you got one of those fires in the cellar?" asked Mrs. "Judge."
+
+"Dear me, Judge, I shall never feel safe again so long as we hang on the
+east parlor wall. Why, we shall be liable to burn up any moment. Think
+of having one of those awful things, full of fire, right under your
+feet. I'm so sorry that I know anything about it."
+
+"Oh, you'll get used to it! You have got used to it, haven't you? There
+has been a furnace in the parsonage ever so many years." They were all
+seated in the minister's pew in church at this time. The Judge was bowed
+in thought.
+
+"He looks as if he was going to pray," whispered Ruth, somewhat
+awe-struck by his expression and the stillness of the place as well as
+the solemnity of the occasion. But it was hard for her to keep from
+asking questions. "Did you see the man in the moon as we came into
+church?" she turned to Mrs. "Judge."
+
+"The man in the moon!" exclaimed the lady; "he's the very person that I
+want to speak to. I think it's years since I've seen him."
+
+"Well, he's out to-night in great style. It must be because it's
+Christmas Eve. Did you hang up your stocking when you were a little
+girl?"
+
+"Do what?" inquired the lady.
+
+"Hang up your stocking, to be sure, for Santa Claus to fill it with
+presents." The Judge's wife looked with astonishment upon the child by
+her side. It was impossible for her to imagine what was meant.
+
+"I never heard of such a thing," she replied. Then Ruth enlightened her.
+
+"You know that Jesus was born on the twenty-fifth of December?"
+
+"Yes, my child."
+
+"And you know God gave him to the world?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, don't you think it's nice for us to give things to each other on
+that day? and don't you believe that Santa Claus comes down the chimney
+and brings us lots of presents?"
+
+"Why, I never thought of it." And the dear old lady began to think a
+good deal about it.
+
+"We keep it right here in church too. We have a Christmas-tree, and sing
+carols, and all the children get presents and candy, and ever so many
+nice things; and everybody is just as happy as can be. Don't you think
+that is a nice way to remember the coming of Jesus and God's gift to all
+of us?"
+
+"Well! well! well! and so to-night is the very night, is it? Judge, did
+you know that our folks now keep Christmas in their churches and their
+homes? Do you think there is any sin in it?" He was startled out of his
+reverie by the question, and Ruth was obliged to explain to him what she
+had said to his wife. Then he thought upon it for a little time, and
+replied to Mrs. "Judge." It pleased him. He wished to see what it was
+like. "Why, I think, my dear, that it might be made a very happy,
+helpful festival. Why couldn't we have one over at the house to-night?"
+
+"We are going to have one there in the morning," exclaimed Ruth. "We all
+get up bright and early, and our stockings are filled, and there is a
+little tree, and candles, and oranges, and shiny balls, and beautiful
+things; and we dance around, and sing, and have oh! such a happy, happy
+time. I wish you would stay and see it."
+
+"My dear," the Judge was now speaking to his wife, "don't you think you
+could get up a little party for the children to-night? We can't stay
+until morning, you know. We must go back into the pictures. And the
+east wind may rise at any hour."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Judge, I'll step out a moment and speak with the man in the moon. He's
+out to-night, Ruth says, and perhaps we can arrange something. I'll be
+back very soon." So she walked down the aisle, and passed into the
+vestibule with all the liveliness of a young dame.
+
+"I think this must be the very spot where I used to sit in the meeting."
+The Judge was talking to himself as much as to Ruth. "I wonder what they
+did with the old box pew that belonged to me? How times have changed!
+But this is very rich and dignified, and satisfies me." As this was
+said he surveyed the chaste and elegant interior with approving eye. "I
+am glad to see it. But I wish it had been in my day. There are some
+ideas that I should like to have embodied in stone on this spot. Strange
+world this." And then he bowed his head in thought again.
+
+"I'm going to meet Mrs. 'Judge,'" said Ruth, "unless you will stand up
+and make a speech to me. Do you think you are as good and wise and great
+as people say? I've heard father tell how you could speak better'n any
+minister or lawyer in New England. Could you? Because I'd like to hear
+you if you could." The Judge blushed to hear such praise.
+
+"I'm out of practice," he replied. "I believe my voice has lost itself.
+It's very trying on the vocal organs to hang in a picture for a hundred
+years or so. But I will say a few words." Then the Judge walked up into
+the pulpit, made a very graceful bow, and began to recite psalms. His
+voice was remarkably rich and sympathetic. He put so much soul into the
+words that Ruth sat perfectly still, a thing she had never been known
+to do before in all her life. Had it not been for the floating about of
+feathers as she breathed, and drove them hither and thither, she would
+have appeared like one dead. When the Judge finished he came down from
+the pulpit, and Ruth was so overcome that she didn't say one word for as
+much as a minute and one half. Then the spell was broken. Mrs. "Judge"
+came hastily in, saying that she was ready to go, and the team had just
+returned from their run on the bicycles; then they all came out of
+church, and the organ played, and the bell rang, and the gas fixtures
+jingled, and when the company was fixed in their closets they continued
+on the ride.
+
+"Did you see the man in the moon?" inquired Ruth.
+
+"Oh, yes!" replied Mrs. "Judge"; "I've made all the arrangements; and
+when we get back the house will be ready, and we'll wake up the
+children, and it will be our first real Christmas party. I am going to
+invite only the closets and the children. I want to get the closets all
+filled up again for once; and then I want to see every one of you
+children so full of happiness that you'll run over and make other people
+happy too."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+As they were passing the Town Hall the Judge was again reminded of old
+times; for that was the very place where he had argued many of his
+cases, and won some of his greatest victories.
+
+"My dear," he said, "I could almost imagine we were set back to the War
+of 1812, and I was going over to the Court House to express my views to
+our citizens."
+
+"It looks as though they'd done something to the building," remarked the
+lady. "How they change everything these days!" And then they swung down
+Beach Lane, and came to the old cemetery.
+
+"Look at that!" exclaimed Ruth. "Isn't it fine?" She referred to the
+thick, solid, stone wall enclosing the grounds, and the beautiful
+lich-gate that stood over the entrance.
+
+"We're right up to the times here," continued the child. "The Daughters
+of the American Revolution and some of our ladies did that. We can sit
+on those stone seats hot summer days, and it's just as cool as cool can
+be. And it's such a nice place to play 'hide-and-seek' behind the
+grave-stones and the wall among the trees."
+
+"Now, this is what I love to see," observed the Judge. "This shows the
+true spirit of reverence. I am proud of these good Daughters. What did
+you say they were called? Daughters of the American Revolution? Why,
+they must all be dead by this time."
+
+"Oh, no!" explained Ruth; "these are their daughter's daughters, you
+know. And they have such good times. Why, mother is going to their
+meetings a good deal of the time. They talk about the Revolution and
+things, and wear flags and pins, and have refreshments and papers, and
+elect officers, and get up plays, and go to Washington, and keep
+inviting each other somewhere, and all the while say ever so much about
+Washington's Birthday and the Fourth of July and the Battle of
+Lexington. Why, we children know so much about history that it seems
+sometimes as if we'd lived all through the whole fight, and seen the
+town burned, and helped drive the British away. Don't you think we're
+smart?"
+
+"I shall have to be very careful how I talk about these things, or you
+will catch me in some mistake, I suppose." The Judge looked serious, but
+there was that funny twinkle in his eyes. "Suppose we now drive around
+the new cemetery, and see if everything is as trim and neat there. We'd
+like to look at our own graves, and see how things are."
+
+"Well, I think that's a very unpleasant way to spend Christmas Eve; and
+I'm sure that Billy and Satan and Turk will be afraid to go into that
+place, and so shall I; and you can't see much from the road; so let's
+drive up to Round Hill, and watch for Santa Claus."
+
+"Oh! just as you please," continued the Judge. "This is your circus, not
+mine." And he smiled indulgently upon Ruth. So they turned about on the
+Beach Road, and slipped up to Round Hill. While they were viewing the
+scenery, the man in the moon winked at Mrs. "Judge," as much as to say
+that the house was all ready, and it was time for the party to return.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+THE PARTY WITH SUPPER FOR SEVENTEEN, AND TOASTS WITH A TOASTING-FORK.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+THE PARTY WITH SUPPER FOR SEVENTEEN, AND TOASTS WITH A TOASTING-FORK.
+
+
+WHEN they returned to the parsonage, Billy unhitched himself and opened
+the front door. The Judge and his wife with Ruth and the baby hastened
+into the warm rooms as fast as the feather-bed, the white flannel bag,
+the blue envelope, and the red paper would permit them.
+
+"Why, what a change there is here!" exclaimed Ruth. "It must be exactly
+as you used to have it."
+
+"Yes," replied Mrs. "Judge"; "I told the man in the moon to make things
+look natural. This seems really like coming home. I feel very much as I
+did whenever I drove down to New York, and came back to the dear house.
+It is so nice to see these beautiful carpets again, and the same chairs
+and tables and sofas; the very damask curtains I made; my little
+sewing-stand; the clock right there in its place near my bedroom door;
+and there is the refrigerator. I always had it stand in my bedroom, you
+know. That made it very convenient. And I kept all the stores in"--
+
+"Me," groaned Darkest Africa, who still remained in front of the house
+awaiting the orders of Ruth.
+
+"Yes, in you," continued Mrs. "Judge"; "and I expect to see you very
+happy again to-night. I never kept Christmas. We didn't approve of such
+things when I was a child." She was now talking to Ruth. "But if they
+have a Christmas-tree in the meeting-house, and the minister thinks it's
+all right, it must be so. I am really quite glad to get up a party
+to-night. I shall have it to think about when I go back into the
+picture. And that reminds me, child, that I want you to come into the
+parlor very often and speak to me. It's very very lonely staying there
+day and night, summer and winter, year in and year out. Why don't you
+ask the Judge and me to play church with you and the rest of the
+children some of the times when you come into the parlor?"
+
+"Why, I never thought of that!" exclaimed Ruth. "I'll do it the very
+next time (which will be Sunday, I suppose) that we have church again."
+By this time they had taken their wraps off and put them up. That is to
+say, Ruth got out of the feather-bed, and had Turk carry it up-stairs,
+while she took the handkerchief and the marble-bag off from the Judge,
+and the postage-stamp and the red crinkly paper off from Mrs. "Judge,"
+and put these things in her pocket. Then they all went into the lady's
+chamber, and took the baby out of the envelope, laying him on the bed,
+and covering him with a soap-dish and a hair-brush to keep him warm, for
+he had gone to sleep.
+
+"Now we must get ready for the party," said Ruth, "and then I'll call
+the children and dress them. But, dear me! what will you and the Judge
+wear? We've got tired of seeing you in the same clothes all the time.
+Oh, I'll tell you! Let's play dress up just as we children do, and then
+I can fix you out in fine style."
+
+"Just as you say, child. It's your party, and you can do much as you
+please. And the truth is that I am pretty tired of wearing the same
+clothes all these many years. I don't think it makes so much difference
+to a man. But we women like to have something new once in a while, say
+once in fifty or seventy-five years."
+
+"Oh! won't it be fun?" cried Ruth. "We'll have 'Providence' come in here
+and show us what he's got in him. You know Providence is the big closet
+in the corner of the Betsey-Bartram room. Come here, Providence." This
+closet ambled into the bedroom, and Mrs. "Judge" took a silver
+candlestick with a wax candle in her hand, and stepped into the closet
+followed by the Judge and Ruth. What a medley of stuff they found!
+There were silks and satins of all colors and kinds. There was velvet
+and calico, lawn and broadcloth, furs and flowers, laces and linens,
+swallow-tail coats and fancy vests, a waterproof, a riding-habit,
+bicycle suits, pajamas, flags and bunting, forming an infinite
+assortment or mixture of everything under the sun in the shape of dry
+goods.
+
+"You don't keep an old-clothes exchange, do you, child?" asked the
+astonished visitor.
+
+"Oh, no! these are mother's treasures (that's what she calls them). We
+get 'em when her ship comes in. It always seems to come in the night. We
+children have watched for it ever since we lived West and could
+remember. But the first we know is that mother tells us some day how the
+ship has come in, and another cargo has been unloaded in Providence.
+Then we all make a rush and overhaul the cargo; one thing fits one
+child, and another thing fits another child, and what doesn't fit we
+make over, and then we appear in our new outfits. You ought to see us
+go into church a week or two after a fresh cargo of treasures has been
+distributed. It's great fun." During this talk Ruth was rummaging about
+in the trunks or on the shelves in search of something becoming to her
+guests.
+
+"I think the Judge ought to have something solemn on, don't you?" she
+said, addressing his wife. "Now, this long, black waterproof is the
+thing. And he can wear Samuel's bicycle stockings and shoes. Then,
+here's a broad purple ribbon for a necktie; and I'll put this ermine boa
+around his neck, for don't judges sometimes wear ermine? Doesn't he look
+cute?" She had helped him on with the things while Mrs. "Judge" stood by
+smiling her approval.
+
+"I think this green velvet waist and this red silk skirt will look well
+on you." Ruth was speaking to the lady. "Then I'll do your hair up with
+this white lace and these yellow flowers. It's so cold I think you had
+better wear mittens. I think you ought to have a train to your dress.
+I'll take some safety-pins, and fasten a few yards of this white satin
+on behind. Doesn't it look elegant? You must have a corsage bouquet."
+And she twisted up some dry grasses and pink roses, and pinned them to
+her belt. "And this white gauze veil will add to the effect." So it was
+spread over the lady's head, and fell in scant folds across her brow.
+
+"I shall get into this pink crape," Ruth continued, "slip these muffs up
+my ankles, and take this black fur cape and that lovely, lovely lavender
+bonnet. I'm going to wear white kid gloves, and have a train of that
+yellow satin. Will you, please, tie this bow of nile-green velvet about
+my neck? And I must have a veil too. This one with little red spots like
+the measles all over it will suit me, I guess. There, now, don't I look
+just too nice for anything?" Both the Judge and his wife bowed and
+smiled.
+
+"I'll put this black lace one side for the baby when he wakes up. We'll
+dress him up with that and some tissue paper I've got in my pocket. And
+now let's go and take a look at the house again." But their talking
+roused the baby; so they dressed him as Ruth had planned, winding the
+paper and lace about his body as though he were a mummy; and then they
+started for the parlor, the Judge carrying his namesake on one arm and
+supporting his wife on the other, with Ruth dragging on behind, clinging
+to the right hand of Mrs. "Judge."
+
+At the foot of the stairs Ruth proposed that she go and call all the
+children. For at this late hour they had gone to bed. But the visitors
+thought it better to wait.
+
+"We must ask a few questions and find out what the children want for
+Christmas," said Mrs. "Judge." So they passed into the parlor, and sat
+down on the Grecian sofa. A soft, gentle light fell from the astral lamp
+and the wax candles on the mantle-piece. The wood fire on the hearth,
+the heavy damask curtains at the windows, the rich mahogany furniture
+scattered about through the room, the handsome pictures upon the walls,
+gave the place a very inviting appearance.
+
+"Now, Ruth, we're going to put something in each child's stocking." Mrs.
+"Judge" was speaking. "It seems to me a foolish custom, but now that you
+all do it we will follow suit. Tell us what to get."
+
+"Father says there's a difference between what we want and what we need.
+We want a great many things, but we need only a few."
+
+"That's sound talk," observed the Judge. "Your father must be quite a
+man."
+
+"Oh!" was the reply, "he weighs almost a hundred and ninety pounds. I
+heard mother tell the teacher the other day that she thought I lacked
+capacity. I don't get along in school at all. There are so many things
+to do besides study that it takes all my time. I think mother would be
+pleased if you gave me something of the kind. That's what I need I
+suppose. But what I want is to know about everything. That's why I ask
+so many questions and tease to go all the time. I'm trying to find out
+things for myself. How should I learn how old a girl or a lady is if I
+didn't ask? And what's my tongue for if it isn't to use in talking?"
+
+"To be sure," replied Mrs. "Judge." "But I used my tongue for eating
+too, until I got into the picture. I think it's almost a hundred years
+since I had anything to eat."
+
+"Mercy! aren't you hungry?" exclaimed Ruth. "But you don't look thin,
+and you certainly don't grow old. I've heard folks say so when they
+looked at your picture. 'Why, how nice and fresh and lifelike they
+seem.' That's what our visitors say when we take them into the parlor to
+see the portraits. But, dear me, we shall never get through the list if
+I keep on talking. I can't help talking. I seem made for it. I've heard
+father say that several of his family were deaf, but none of 'em were
+ever dumb." The Judge and his wife appeared quite interested in this
+lively flow of speech on the part of the child, so they nodded their
+heads with encouragement, and Ruth continued.
+
+"Now, there's Helen, she's always talking about writing a book. I think
+she wants to write a book above all things. You might give her the book
+she is going to write. But what she really needs is curls. That straight
+black hair makes her look horrid. I wish you'd bring her a whole lot of
+curls. Isn't it queer that we can't have a baby with curls? We've had a
+regular cry over it more than once. Not a single curl in all the
+fifteen. Every hair of our heads as straight as a string. Don't you
+think you'd better write the things down as I tell them to you? But then
+you've got such an awful memory I suppose you can remember everything.
+Now, there's Samuel. You tell him two things and father says he's sure
+to forget three. Mother says if his memory was as good as his forgetery,
+he'd make something remarkable."
+
+"I think if you will lend me a piece of paper,--that red crinkly stuff
+that the baby has on,--and a stick of candy or a poker, I will write
+down the articles you mention." It was the Judge speaking.
+
+"Why don't you take the quill and the paper that you hold in the
+portrait, and use them?" inquired Ruth.
+
+"To be sure!" exclaimed the Judge. "What a bright girl you are!"
+
+"Father doesn't think so. I don't know how many times he's said to me
+when I've done something queer, 'Ruth, you don't seem to have any
+sense.' Susie said one day, 'Well, I'll give her my two cents.' And she
+did, and I spent it for candy. Father would be so pleased if you gave me
+some sense for a Christmas present, I know." The visitors smiled as the
+child prattled, and let her continue without interruption.
+
+"I know what Samuel wants. I know a lot of things he wants. Mother says
+he always wants to go home with the girls. But you couldn't call that a
+present, could you? Oh! I know one thing he wants very much. Whenever he
+tries to race with any of the boys, and he comes out a long way behind,
+he says he wants wind. Just put that down, please. But I think the
+thing he needs most of anything is courtesy. At least father keeps
+talking to him about it. If you would bring a big lot of it I'm sure
+we'd all be pleased. It must be something very nice, for father says
+something about it every day of his life." The Judge nodded his head,
+and wrote with his quill upon the sheet of paper. "Theodora is always
+wanting clothes. She's never had enough. I don't know how many times
+we've heard her say she had nothing to wear. And then father says she'd
+better go to bed. I wonder if she'll have all the clothes she wants in
+heaven?" Neither the Judge nor his lady ventured to answer. "What
+Theodora really needs, I think, is a gold spoon. Mother says she was
+certainly born with a gold spoon in her mouth; but the spoon has been
+lost, for I've never seen it, and it would be such a nice thing to give
+her one in its place. Or, maybe, you could bring her the very one she
+had when she was born. I should like to see what kind of a spoon it
+was." So the Judge put that down.
+
+"It's easy enough to tell what Ethel wants. She's always talking about
+it. She wants some _new_ clothes. She says she's sick to death of
+second-hand stuff. Mother's always having something made over for her or
+some of the younger girls. We've never seen anything real fresh and new.
+Father says we ought to be thankful to have clothes at all. I suppose we
+had. What Ethel needs is application. Her teacher says so, and so does
+everybody else. She doesn't stick to a thing."
+
+"Poor child," said the Judge. "She'll have a hard time, I fear. I'll see
+what we can do for her."
+
+"Now, Miriam hasn't any gumption, father says. I wonder what that is? I
+think that must be the thing she needs the most. She's such a
+chicken-hearted girl Samuel says. And that makes me think what it is
+Miriam always wants. She tells mother, I don't know how many times a
+day, that she wishes she'd have some spring chicken. You don't know how
+fond she is of 'em. But they're very high here, you know. And spring
+chickens enough to go around in such a family as ours would soon ruin
+us, mother says. But Ethel is so fond of them. How she wants 'em! Do you
+think you could fill her up for once?"
+
+"Why, spring chickens are not in my line of treasures, my child; but I
+might find something that would take the place of such fowls."
+
+"Henry says Elizabeth's a regular old goose. And Samuel calls Susie
+'duckie.' I wonder if you couldn't help Grace. She needs balance,
+everybody says. I think she's smart enough, but she's a high-flyer. You
+never can tell what will happen next when she's around. Please bring
+some balance for a present. But what she wants is Frederick. He's the
+boy in the next block. I don't think it's right to think so much of boys
+unless they're your brothers. Elizabeth says her brothers are her
+bothers. And I think so too." Ruth looked very severe. The Judge simply
+continued his writing.
+
+"Do you think you could bring all of us a very great deal of sweetness
+of disposition? I've heard so much about that thing that I'm real tired
+of it; but I know it would please both father and mother, for they have
+talked about it ever since I can remember. I know a little baby girl
+down South who is so sweet they call her 'Sugar.' Samuel says if we
+named our children as they ought to be named, some of them would be
+called 'Vinegar.' But he's 'funning,' I guess. Mother says his bark is
+always worse than his bite.
+
+"Now, George needs heart. Samuel says George will never die of heart
+disease, because he hasn't any heart. He has a gun, and Elizabeth calls
+him Nimrod. He wants to go to war. But we're afraid he might get shot in
+the back. But he's a real good boy after all. I should hate to see him
+going around with a hole in his back." Just at this point the Judge
+coughed and looked queer.
+
+"Henry is crazy about music. He wants a violin, but mother says he
+needs an ear for music. I should like to know what he'd do with a third
+ear. Would you put it on the top of his head? And he wants to sing; but,
+dear me, father says he needs a voice. He has voice enough, _I_ think.
+You can hear him all over town. Did you write it down?" Ruth looked
+keenly at the Judge as his pen flew with the speed of a snail over the
+paper.
+
+"Yes, here it is in white and black."
+
+"Now, William is an awfully forward boy. He's so forward father says
+that he's growing round-shouldered. He wants to be President. That's
+ever since he went to the White House with mother. It was a very cold
+day, the day he went; and William had his mittens on, and mother
+couldn't get to him to take 'em off when he shook hands with the
+President. Neighbors say that what he needs is training. But they don't
+train now as they used to. Father says they used to train out here on
+the Green several times a year. I know the best thing you could bring
+William is a training. And Susie, she wants something she hasn't got. I
+don't think it makes any difference what it is. Mother says if she
+hasn't got it she wants it. And then she snivels when she doesn't get
+it. I heard some one say the other day that what she needed was a
+spanking. But I don't think that would be a very nice present, do you?"
+
+"Well, not for Christmas, anyway," whispered Mrs. "Judge."
+
+"There's Nathaniel, he always wants to go somewhere. Father says that if
+we lived in Beersheba Nathaniel would want to move into Dan, and when he
+got into Dan he'd be sure to start the next day for Beersheba. He needs
+a good deal of watching, mother says. Samuel, Elizabeth, Helen, Henry,
+and Miriam have all got watches; but you see we can't all have them at
+once.
+
+"Now, just look at Elizabeth. You'd think we all belonged to her,
+wouldn't you? She wants to _run_ everything. And then she runs so much
+that mother says she runs down. But father says she needs experience,
+and then everything will come out all right. If you could bring her that
+ripe experience that I've heard folks talk about, I think it would make
+father and mother feel real pleased.
+
+"Herbert needs backbone. I felt of his back the other day, and I didn't
+see but that he had just as much bone in it as the rest of the children,
+but father says not. Mother says you can twist him around your little
+finger. That would be a queer sight, wouldn't it? Herbert is always
+talking about a good time. That's the thing he wants. Could you bring
+something of that sort to him?"
+
+"Well, my child," answered the Judge, "I am thinking about bringing a
+good time to every one of you. It's such a pleasure to see the old house
+full of children that I should like to do anything in the world possible
+to make them happy." When this was said Mrs. "Judge" beamed an approval,
+and seemed very happy herself. "But you haven't told us what to give the
+baby."
+
+"Dear me, why that's the best of all! But everybody knows what the baby
+ought to have. I've been a-looking to see if you've brought it along
+with you. When folks come to see the baby they smile and trot him on the
+knee and kiss him, and then say, 'I'm so glad you named him for the
+Judge. He was a good, great man. May his mantle fall upon his namesake.'
+And then they kiss him again and go away. It's your mantle that we
+expect you to give the baby. But you didn't bring it with you, and I'm
+so sorry. And it isn't in the picture either. For I've looked there a
+great many times. I thought maybe it was left in the house, but we never
+hear anything about it. Now you're right here with the baby I thought if
+you only had it you might give it to him at once. Could you send it to
+him? It must be something very fine. Even father talks about it." A tear
+stole down the cheek of the Judge. It was chased by another and a third.
+He seemed deeply moved. For the Judge was human like the rest of folks,
+even if he did stay a hundred years in a picture. And who does not like
+to be remembered with such loving words and beautiful praises? Can one
+help feeling kindly and grateful? The Judge's voice choked with emotion
+as he replied to the noble sentiments of the child. It was very hard for
+him to express himself.
+
+"My little Ruth," he stooped and looked down into her face with wondrous
+and pathetic tenderness, "you have done me more good than all that I can
+do for you. These very words that you have just spoken are more precious
+to me than all the money in the world."
+
+"Why, you don't mean it, do you?" interrupted the child. "I was saying
+what everybody says. I don't know how many times I've heard father say
+that your memory was a--a--a benediction, that's the word. A very big
+word for such a little girl as I am; but, dear me! I've heard folks use
+it so many times about you that I can speak it all right. It must be
+something very good. Why, of course, that's what they call the end of
+church service. I think it's the very best part of going to meeting. I
+always feel so happy when they come to the benediction. I think
+everybody else does too. And now about the mantle. Will you send it to
+the baby?"
+
+"Why, Ruth, I think it must be pretty nearly worn out. Only what you say
+about it, and what you say others say, makes me think that perhaps it
+might be worth saving, so that I could give it to the baby if folks
+think best. I'll look it up and talk with my wife, and perhaps I'll give
+it to the dear little fellow. I wish it were a better mantle, however.
+I'd like to see him wear one more worthy than mine."
+
+"Don't you think it's time to call the children?" said Ruth.
+
+"Send Turk," replied the Judge, with that same funny twinkle in his eye.
+So Ruth took the dog, and ran up-stairs and down-stairs and in the
+lady's chamber, and wakened the children, telling them to hurry right
+down to the party.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+They didn't have time to dress much. The boys all put on their trousers
+and stockings and slippers, and then they wrapped around them whatever
+was most handy. Samuel wore his father's loud, red, double gown. Henry
+pulled on a canvas shooting-jacket. Herbert did himself up in a rose
+blanket. George had on an afghan. Nathaniel brought with him a
+crazy-quilt. William got into his mother's golf-cape.
+
+The girls were a little more particular. They put on all their clothes
+except dresses. Then they wound sheets about themselves, and tied their
+heads up in pillow-cases. When the boys tumbled down-stairs they looked
+like a lot of escaped lunatics. When the girls came pushing into the
+parlor they made one think of ghosts.
+
+The first thing was a walk around headed by Turk and the black cat. You
+couldn't fancy a more startling procession.
+
+Then they played games, and sang songs, and told riddles, and looked for
+a needle in a haystack, and turned the house upside down and inside out.
+
+The great event of the party was the supper. Mrs. "Judge" had told the
+man in the moon what she wished for the occasion, and while the children
+were rollicking in the east parlor the clock sounded out the alarm for
+the feast.
+
+The Judge carried his namesake on the left arm, while his wife leaned
+upon his right. Ruth still kept hold of the lady's hand. The rest of
+the company followed in a good deal of disorder, for they were all
+curious to see what sort of a supper would be given them.
+
+When they came into the west parlor or dining-room they saw a long
+table, but there was nothing on it. The children looked at each other
+and at the Judge and his wife in blank amazement. They expected to sit
+down to a table laden with all the goodies of the land. But there wasn't
+even a table-cloth before them.
+
+The Judge took the head of the table, and his wife sat at the foot with
+Ruth. The baby was put in a clothes-basket, and sat on my lady's
+work-table by the side of the Judge. The other children took the places
+that were most convenient to them.
+
+"Where's the feed?" exclaimed Ruth.
+
+"The what?" replied Mrs. "Judge" curiously.
+
+"Why, the things you were going to give us to eat." Just then "Dublin,"
+the linen closet, came meandering into the room, made a bow, and emptied
+out a long, white, snowdrop tablecloth.
+
+"Why, it must be that we're to set the table ourselves," cried Ruth, as
+she started to undo the cloth and shove it along.
+
+"Here you give that to me, will you?" said Samuel, with a tone of
+authority any commanding officer in the army or navy might envy. Then he
+took one end of it, and Elizabeth the other, and they spread it
+carefully over the table.
+
+Just then China came rattling into the room with the dishes. It was easy
+enough for him to get into the room; but it was quite another thing for
+him to move gracefully about the table, for China, you remember, was
+thin, long, and rather narrow. But he managed to get to the Judge, and
+drop a plate before him and the baby; and then he twisted around like a
+snake, and got down to the end of the table, and dropped a plate before
+Mrs. "Judge." Then he went from one child to another, and banged down a
+plate before each one of them. After this was done, China stepped back
+and stood by the side of Dublin, near the wall.
+
+El Dorado came next. He brought the silver, and there was a fine display
+of it. Beautiful knives and forks and spoons for every person in the
+room, and ever so many little furnishings that helped to brighten the
+table. How these things rattled and jumped and rang as they were tumbled
+hither and thither into their rightful places. The children didn't have
+to move a hand or a finger to put them in order. Every knife, fork,
+spoon, salt-cellar, or other article seemed to know where to go, and got
+there in less time than one could say "Jack Robinson." Then the silver
+candlesticks from the mantle jumped over to the table, and took their
+places with a good deal of brightness and sprightliness.
+
+At this point the antique sideboard stepped close up to the table, and
+rolled seventeen very thin cut-glass goblets upon the board. They made a
+right merry sound as they jingled out their Christmas greetings.
+
+"Don't let the baby have a goblet!" shouted Ruth. "He'd bite a piece
+right out of it. That's what Elizabeth did when she was a baby, mother
+says. Isn't it a wonder she didn't die?" But everybody was watching this
+extraordinary way of setting the table, so that the child's remark fell
+unnoticed. There was a most lively and musical ringing of bells at this
+stage of the table setting. Turpentine came dancing into the room.
+Turpentine was the closet in the Judge's study that had been used to
+store the church-bells in. When the last wooden meeting-house had burned
+they took the old bell, which rang for the last time the sad alarm of
+fire on the memorable night, and they sent it away to be melted up and
+made into five hundred little bells. There were dinner-bells and
+tea-bells and call-bells and sleigh-bells and play-horse bells on lines,
+and I don't know how many other kinds. Nearly all of these had been
+sold, but thirty or forty remained in the closet. Turpentine came into
+the room playing with these, and rolled one down in front of each person
+at the table.
+
+"How would you like to have the dinner served, Ruth?" inquired Mrs.
+"Judge."
+
+"Oh, served of course," she replied.
+
+"Bells first course," shouted Samuel. The older children all snickered.
+"I think you ought to call Turpentine 'Bells-ze-bub!'" Samuel whispered
+to Helen. "See?" For by this time the children had all come to a
+familiar footing with their visitors, and they were expressing
+themselves with a good deal of freedom and having a right good time.
+
+The Refrigerator entered the room now, and tramping heavily over to Mrs.
+"Judge," swung open his door, and flung gracefully upon the table a big
+dish of half-shells. No sooner were they placed where they belonged than
+they began to roll about to the different plates, like a lot of marbles,
+only they seemed to know how to divide themselves up so that every one
+had a proper share. Then the Refrigerator dumped out another large dish
+of something fresh and green; and this stuff sailed along the table, as
+one sees seaweed float back and forth on the tide.
+
+"I know what it is. They grow down by the brook. Caresses. Aren't they
+nice and fresh?"
+
+"Third course, caresses," shouted Samuel. And then he bent over and
+kissed the girl next to his side; the Judge kissed the baby, Ruth kissed
+Mrs. "Judge," and the rest of the children kissed each other.
+
+"Awful sweet course!" exclaimed Henry. "Very much of it makes a fellow
+sick."
+
+This was followed by the entrance of the kitchen closet number one. A
+fine brass kettle popped out upon the table. There was a great rattling
+and clashing. Everybody tried to look into the bottom of it.
+
+"That's a pretty kettle of fish," said Samuel, who was the first to get
+a glance at the contents. And sure enough it was; for there were
+seventeen tin fishes, such as you see floating around after a magnet on
+some basin of water at Christmas time.
+
+"Look out for bones," cried Herbert. "What next?" And then Vanity came
+down-stairs, giggling and simpering, and passed something around.
+
+"Crimps," said Ruth, "hot and steaming, straight from the irons." A very
+strong odor of scorched hair pervaded the room.
+
+"Goodness me, what a treat!" exclaimed Henry. "Give 'em to the girls.
+They are fond of 'em." Kitchen closet number two came hurrying into the
+room. China rushed forward with bowls which he had borrowed from the
+bowling-alley; and each bowl was filled with bean porridge hot, bean
+porridge cold, bean porridge in the pot nine days old.
+
+"Here comes the spring chicken!" exclaimed Herbert, as the Refrigerator
+distributed one spring with chicken attached.
+
+"Do-nots for old-fashioned boys and girls," wheezed out Darkest Africa,
+as he pushed his way into the room. The company was getting pretty
+large, for all the closets had come. One stood behind each person at the
+table, and the other forty-three were pressing against each other,
+trying to see the table and hear the conversation, or do any little
+waiting upon the merry party.
+
+They were all busy eating, talking, drinking, having the best time in
+all the world. There was an abundance of everything. I don't know what
+all. But as the courses were brought on the Judge and his wife became a
+little restless. They felt that the east wind was rising. And when the
+clock struck twelve it was necessary for them to be back in the
+pictures, whether there was any east wind or not. So there was some
+confusion, considerable crowding, and a good deal of haste during the
+latter part of the feast.
+
+"I'm afraid the children will get dyspepsia, Judge," observed the
+cautious lady. "The children are eating too fast. The closets are
+bringing on too many things at a time."
+
+"Time and tide wait for no man," replied the Judge, who had caught the
+hilarity of the company, and was enjoying every moment of the fun. "I
+wish to see this board cleared up before we clear out." Now, Mrs.
+"Judge" was the least bit shocked at such undignified speech on the part
+of her husband. But she knew he didn't mean any harm. He was only
+entering into the spirit of the frolic. Yet she felt that he ought to
+set an example of sober conversation, so that they would remember him
+with the highest respect. The Judge, however, had a sense of humor that
+could not be held altogether in check.
+
+"I think we ought to have some toasts," said Samuel. "All in favor of
+the nomination say, 'Dickery, dickery dock, the mouse ran up the clock,
+the clock ran down, the mouse came down, dickery, dickery dock;' and
+Samuel rose to propose the first toast. Kitchen closet number three came
+forward, and put into his hand a nice, big toasting-fork. Flourishing
+this about his head, and hitting Henry on the right ear with it, Samuel
+lifted a goblet filled with hot air to his lips, and proposed the health
+of the Judge and his wife. The applause was overwhelming. The children
+clapped their hands, and lifted their voices on high. The dishes jumped
+like mad. The bells rang so that you couldn't hear yourself think. The
+closets creaked and groaned, and slammed their doors, and shook their
+shelves, until it seemed that they must fall in pieces. The Judge
+gathered his waterproof about him, pulled on his necktie for a moment,
+cleared his throat, and then responded.
+
+"Children and closets," he said. The children all rose and bowed, the
+closets all turned around twice and stood on one corner. "This is in
+some respects the greatest day of my life."
+
+"You mean night, don't you, Judge?" interrupted Samuel.
+
+"Oh! I beg pardon, night of my life. Correct, my son." He bowed
+good-naturedly to the critic. "We haven't stayed in those portraits on
+the east parlor wall for nothing all these years. We've been waiting for
+such a time as this. I think the east wind is rising, and soon we shall
+have to go back to our pictures; but I am glad to say that this is the
+sort of family that I always had in mind when I built this house. It's
+lonesome to live without children. This is a strange world. I have
+observed generally that the people who want children don't have them.
+And the people who have them don't always want them. And the people who
+know the most about bringing them up are the people who never had any,
+and never lived in a family of children when they were young. But I
+really believe that one never gets much out of this world except it
+comes to him through children. And now I hope that you will be such
+children that when you grow to be men and women we shall not be ashamed
+of you. My wife and I expect to stay in the portraits. We shall always
+be on the watch for you and sometimes in the clock. There isn't anything
+in the world that would give us such pleasure as to see you children
+grow and become the best men and women in all the nation. I suppose you
+have enough boys to make a foot-ball team, and enough girls to drain a
+common pocket-book and spread it all over your backs; but you are going
+to make something better than idlers and spendthrifts. Some of you will
+take to one thing, and some to another, but you will all take to the
+right. I expect to see you filling up the house with nice friends, going
+off to college, and bringing back good company and great honors. By and
+by you will all settle in life, and have homes of your own; but we shall
+keep at home here on the wall, and look for your frequent visits. Ruth
+has made me very happy. I'll tell you how. She has said some of the
+things to me that people have said to her about me,--kind things, sweet
+praises, words of happy remembrance. Now, I hope that you will live and
+love in such a true way that when you get into a picture and stay a
+hundred years, and then step down and out for a little while, people
+will say just as noble things about you. 'Tis sweet to be remembered.
+And I feel very anxious to do something for all you children. This is
+the first time we ever kept Christmas. We're going to make you some
+Christmas presents. But they shall be put in your stockings."
+
+"I'll hang up my hip boots," interrupted Samuel.
+
+"I'll hang up my golf stockings," exclaimed Henry.
+
+"I'll hang my trousers; and you, Elizabeth, can hang your bicycle
+bloomers." The Judge smiled, and waited a moment, and then continued.
+"These presents are different from the ordinary gifts you receive.
+You'll have plenty of candy and dolls and such things. We shall give you
+things that you can always keep and carry with you. And they will be
+worth more than money, in case you use them according to directions. And
+remember that we give them because we have learned to love you, even if
+we do live in pictures, and that we expect you will honor the house, the
+people, and the State." The Judge swallowed a tear. "We never had boys
+and girls to go out into the world to make their mark. Our two boys,"
+and here the Judge's voice was feeble and trembling, and he stopped for
+a moment and wiped away two or three tears, "Our boys were sick, and
+after quite a good many years they went away forever. Children, I want
+you to fill their places, and more. I expect that you will go out into
+the world, and do so much good, and serve your country with such zeal
+and wisdom, that people will by and by come here to see the house, and
+say, 'This is where Samuel and Henry, George or Herbert, William,
+Nathaniel, or the "Little Judge" lived, and were brought up.' Or 'This
+was the childhood home of Elizabeth, Helen, Miriam, Theodora, Grace,
+Ruth, Ethel, or Susie. I wonder who slept in that room, and if this was
+the favorite window, and which one of the family planted this shrub or
+vine or tree, and what was the best-loved play nook,' and all sorts of
+questions. Don't you think it will be nice? And then my wife and I will
+say, or try to say, or make them understand in some way, that you
+belonged to us next to belonging to your parents, and that we guarded
+the house day and night, for you know that in the picture we are always
+awake; come into the east parlor at any hour of the twenty-four and we
+always have our eyes open, and we know everything that is going on.
+We'll make them understand that a part of the love and thanks they feel
+belongs to us, and we shall be so happy, and when we meet again we
+shall have so many things to tell each other. Now Ruth will see to the
+presents, for we are not educated up to a belief in Santa Claus. Ruth
+will"--Just at this point the clock began to strike twelve.
+
+Now, the Judge and his wife were the most polite, really the
+best-mannered people in all the world. But that striking of the clock
+seemed to knock all the manners out of them. The Judge sprang from the
+table quick as a flash, and in his haste turned the clothes-basket with
+the "Little Judge" in it bottom side up. Mrs. "Judge" jumped up as spry
+as a girl, and ran toward the Judge, who grabbed her by the hand, and
+pushed her hard against the closets in the way, and struggled to get
+into the hall.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+There was the greatest confusion imaginable in the house. The children
+were all hitting the dishes, scattering the silver, overturning the
+goblets, tumbling over the chairs. The closets all made a rush for the
+door, and jammed themselves so close together that Samuel and Henry had
+to raise the front windows, and jump out on the piazza, and climb in at
+the parlor windows, and the other children followed them pell-mell.
+There was the greatest noise you ever heard in a house. The clock
+sounded with terrific strikes. The front door-bell, the dinner-bell, and
+all the other bells rang an alarm. Things in the closets seemed breaking
+themselves to pieces or going into fits. The piano roared and shrieked
+like a hurricane. Every board and brick and nail and bit of glass,
+metal, or wood squeaked or rattled. The very carpets shook with dust and
+fear. And then, as the children caught a glimpse of the Judge and his
+wife back again in the portraits, the clock struck the twelfth stroke,
+the lights all went out, the children were back in bed, and silence
+reigned throughout the old mansion.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+    STOCKINGS
+    FILLED
+    WITH
+    MUSIC,
+    RAINBOWS,
+    SENSE,
+    BACKBONE,
+    SUNSETS,
+    IMPULSES,
+    GOLD SPOON, IDEALS, SUNSHINE,
+    STAR, MANTLE, FLOWERS,--AND
+    THE LIKE QUEER STUFF.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+      STOCKINGS FILLED WITH MUSIC, RAINBOWS, SENSE,
+      BACKBONE, SUNSETS, IMPULSES, GOLD SPOON, IDEALS,
+      SUNSHINE, STAR, MANTLE, FLOWERS,--AND THE LIKE QUEER
+      STUFF.
+
+
+RUTH was the only one left awake in the house. And it was very lonesome
+for her. But she had promised to distribute the presents. Mrs. "Judge"
+told her that the man in the moon would bring them at twelve o'clock,
+and that he would put them in Turpentine.
+
+Ruth didn't like to go into the Judge's old study, but that was where
+she would find Turpentine; so she ran and got the baby, who had red
+hair, and served the purpose of a light, and then she bravely went into
+the far away part of the parsonage. She took Satan, the cat, because his
+eyes were like coals of fire, and helped to drive away the darkness; and
+she had Turk for company's sake. The baby was soon astride his back,
+crowing like a good fellow.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+When they got into the old study the light shone right through the door
+that led into Turpentine. It frightened Ruth. She thought the house
+might be on fire. But the door swung open of itself; and she and the
+baby, Satan and Turk, all entered. The little room was a blaze of glory.
+She had to put her hands up to her eyes and shade them, because the
+light was so strong. It all came from a row of packages arranged on the
+shelves. And such a wonderful, mysterious, lovely sight you never saw.
+The packages were various shapes and sizes. They were all done up in
+nothing with greatest care, and each was tied with a narrow piece of
+something or other. Several packages had strings of blue sky around
+them, ending in curious bows. Three packages were tied with real little
+rainbows. They were beautiful objects. The rest of them had sunsets
+twisted about them, gorgeous colors streaming from them in all
+directions. Do you wonder that Ruth's eyes were dazzled?
+
+A singular thing about the packages was, that being done up in nothing,
+and bound with such tenuous and transparent stuff as blue sky, sunsets,
+and rainbows, one could see straight through these coverings and
+fastenings, and gaze upon the beautiful things within. Each present had
+a label of light above it. For instance, there were the shining letters,
+S,A,M,U,E,L, worked upon the background of darkness over the present for
+Samuel. The letters seemed to hover above the package just as you see
+light hover above children's heads in some pictures of the old masters.
+So it was very easy for Ruth to pick out the different gifts, and put
+them where they belonged. There were seventeen of them. One for each
+child, one for the minister, and one for his wife.
+
+"How nice to remember father and mother!" said Ruth to the dog, the cat,
+and the baby. "I never thought of that. Now, how shall I carry them?"
+For she felt that she would like to show them to the Judge and his wife.
+So she raised the window that connected this closet with the parlor, and
+taking each gift, carried it to the piano, and arranged the whole show
+where Mr. and Mrs. "Judge" might see it from the pictures. The baby,
+Turk, and Satan watched her while she made the change. The parlor was
+warm; and just as soon as she brought the marvellous presents into the
+room, every nook and cranny was a perfect splendor of brightness. "Dear
+me!" exclaimed the child, "I must go up-stairs and get some colored
+glasses or I shall lose my eyesight." She was gone and back again in one
+minute and thirteen seconds. The green goggles gave her a wise and aged
+appearance, and she seemed to feel the importance of the occasion.
+"Here are the presents, Judge." She was now addressing the pictures.
+"They are just too sweet for anything. How nice it is that I don't have
+to undo any of them, but can look right straight through their covers,
+and see what's in every package!" The Judge and his wife were both wide
+awake, taking in every word that Ruth spoke.
+
+"Now, what is this for Samuel? A flower, I do believe. He can wear it in
+his buttonhole. Oh, how sweet and beautiful it is! The house seems full
+of its sweetness. I love it." Ruth bent over to kiss the airy, fragile
+thing. "Why, here's a name under it, and a sentence. Did you write it
+Judge?" And the picture seemed to nod as much as to say "Yes."
+"Courtesy." "To be worn all one's waking hours. It will make the wearer
+welcome."
+
+The next package was shaped round like a ball. The bow on it was blue
+sky. "It looks to me like a--what is it you call it, when you look into
+a mirror? Oh! I've got it. It's a reflection. Now, that must be for
+Helen. Yes, I see her name in fine letters of flame above. H,E,L,E,N.
+You didn't send the curls, did you?" Ruth looked anxiously at Mrs.
+"Judge." "I suppose you thought that as Helen was going to write a book
+she needed reflection more than the curls."
+
+The third package was long. The thing within was long, and it looked
+like nothing that one had ever seen.
+
+"What can it be?" said Ruth to herself. As she took it and felt of it,
+she found that it was sensitive, yet quite firm. The object was pure
+white, not a spot or wrinkle on it. The floating label above the package
+spelled out the letters H,E,R,B,E,R,T. Ruth read the name. "That can't
+be backbone. It's too light for that. And yet how strong it is. How in
+the world can he ever get that inside of him where it belongs?" The
+fourth package was about seven inches in length, rather narrow, and
+larger at one end than the other. "I do believe it's a spoon," shouted
+Ruth. "It must be for Theodora. They've found her gold spoon, and sent
+it to her. And yet it doesn't look like gold. How funny! When I feel of
+it I don't feel of anything. It isn't so pretty as I thought it would
+be. It has a kind of dull look. But how much better one feels to hold
+it." Ruth had taken the curious object in her hand, and was putting it
+up to her lips, and going through various motions with it. "Here is some
+writing. The spoon is marked. What big letters they are! Theodora hasn't
+all those initials. C,O,N,T,E,N,T,M,E,N,T. Well, that beats me. But I
+suppose she'll know what it means."
+
+The child now picked up her own present. They all seemed so bright and
+wonderful that she had forgotten to choose her own first. Ruth's package
+had a great many sides to it. Every color imaginable appeared on the
+surface. It was tied with several little rainbows, and there were ever
+so many streamers and rosettes upon it. She saw her name above; and she
+saw some letters printed into the leaves of the flower, for it was a
+lovely, shining little blossom that was contained within her package. It
+seemed to her that all the colors of all the rainbows in the sky had
+been woven into this matchless posey. There were nine leaves to it, and
+each leaf was made up of half a dozen shades of one or another color.
+And then on each leaf there was distinctly seen a letter done in diamond
+embroidery; so that the light which shot forth from such delicate
+tracery was almost as bright as the sun. One leaf had S, a second E, a
+third N, a fourth T, a fifth I, a sixth M, a seventh E, an eighth N, and
+the ninth and last T. Ruth spelled it out carefully. S,E,N,T,--here she
+paused and thought a moment. "Why, to be sure!" she exclaimed; "it has a
+very sweet scent. I think it smells quite as good as Samuel's. But I
+told you, you remember" (she was now addressing the pictures), "that
+father said I needed sense. I'm afraid he'll say that one 'sent' isn't
+enough." Then she continued her spelling. "I, MENT. Well, now, isn't
+that queer? 'I meant.'" She repeated it several times. "I meant cent.
+Were you trying to correct me, Judge? When I said sense did I mean (what
+is it they call it), oh, singular, not plural? Everybody says I've got a
+great deal of imagination, but I lack (father says sense but that isn't
+what I mean now)--I lack."... And then Ruth looked at the flower again;
+and spelled the word, and spoke it aloud. "'SENTIMENT,' that's it.
+Sentiment. I know what it is. I shall certainly be a poet. They all say
+so. Thank you, dear Judge and Mrs. 'Judge.' I'm going to begin to-morrow
+and write poetry. I feel as if I could write some now. But I must go
+through the presents and put them in the children's stockings first." So
+Ruth put down her package of "Sentiment," and examined the other gifts.
+
+She took the one marked H,E,N,R,Y into her hands, and the room was
+filled with the most heavenly music. The package was the shape of a
+cylinder. It had a transparent cylinder within it. And this cylinder
+was written all over with strange characters, exactly as you see or feel
+on the cylinder of a graphophone. Only it didn't seem to be made of
+anything, and when Ruth took the object into her hands it was like
+holding a pinch of air. It appeared to run of its own accord. Ruth was
+enchanted with the melodies. They made her think of everything good "in
+the heavens above, and in the earth beneath, and in the waters under the
+earth." She was so happy that she cried. Every tear that she dropped
+went into the machine, and made the music all the sweeter. Then she read
+the words under the package. "Music in the soul;" and she felt as if it
+were really stealing into her, and as if it were impossible to keep it
+there, and she must let this music in the soul go in every direction.
+
+"Isn't this lovely!" she exclaimed. "I never dreamed music in the soul
+was so sweet. Why Henry'll be the happiest boy in all the world."
+
+Ruth then took into her hands a heart-shaped package. It was tied up
+with a sunset that was gorgeous with a great many shades of red. "I
+know what's inside that package without looking," she said. Although of
+course she had looked, and seen the form of the present, and noted the
+colors used in tying it up. "That's a heart; and it's for George. Isn't
+it cunning? Why, what a little thing it is? and it's soft. Will this
+make George soft-hearted and tender-hearted and good-hearted? I hope so.
+It's real nice of you to send it."
+
+The next present was for Elizabeth. It was circular shape, like a small
+hoop; some parts of it were light and some dark, some very beautiful and
+some almost ugly. Yet the darkest, ugliest spots upon it were
+illuminated and glorified by brilliant flashes of what looked like
+lightning playing around the hoop. When Ruth held the object this
+singular brightness would flame up into her face. It didn't hurt. It
+fascinated her. She felt like sitting down and watching every change.
+The words underneath the circle read, "Experience is the best teacher."
+She spelled it out, then her eyes beamed with delight. "It's the very
+thing that Elizabeth needs. I was afraid you couldn't give it to her. I
+have heard it was hard to pass on experience to other people. Now
+Elizabeth can run the house and mother can travel. That will be real
+jolly."
+
+"Here is something for Susie," cried Ruth, as she put down Elizabeth's
+package, and took up the next one. "It's a cup made of--of--of--why,
+isn't that queer?--made of wishes. This is the first time I ever really
+saw a wish. Now, Susie always teases for the wish-bone. And here's a cup
+made, not of wish-bones, but of wishes. I wonder if she can drink out of
+it. She's always telling how 'thursday' she is. We're sometimes afraid
+she'll drink the well dry. Why, the cup is full of something. It
+sparkles. 'A Draught of Bliss.' That's what it says under the cup. I
+know what that means. It means to feel as good as one can feel. Well,
+I'm glad she's going to have it. If the cup spills over we'll catch some
+of the drops. And if she feels good we'll all feel better." Thus wisely
+remarked the child to the pictures.
+
+The next package had a dream wrapped up in it. You never saw anything
+more curious. It was as light as a feather, as bright as a button, as
+sweet as a rose, as gay as a lark, as true as steel, as deep as the sea,
+as high as heaven, as wise as an owl, as you like it. It had all the
+hues of the rainbow. It was as odd as Dick's hatband. It went floating
+against the blue sky. It dipped down into several sunsets as you see
+swallows dip down or fly up when a storm is coming. It seemed well
+suited to Nathaniel, the humming-bird sort of a boy. And there were the
+letters in shotted light over against the gloom, N,A,T,H,A,N,I,E,L.
+
+"Dear little Nathaniel," said Ruth, as she handled the dream carefully,
+putting it back in its wrappings of nothing, and tying it up again with
+blue sky, sunsets, and rainbows all mixed together. "Won't he be
+surprised to see a real dream, and carry it all around town to show
+folks. And it's a good dream, a nice dream, I know. I can tell by
+touching it and feeling of it all over."
+
+The next package was a large one; and it was for Grace, although she
+was not one of the largest girls. It was shaped like a triangle, and
+when you took hold of it the thing seemed to stretch bigger and bigger.
+"What can it be, I wonder," mused Ruth. And then looking keenly through
+the nothing that covered it, she discovered that there were a great many
+little, charming, luminous objects packed into the package. They were
+different shapes and colors and sizes. But every one of them was
+pleasant to the touch, alluring to the eye, and melodious to the ear.
+Whether each one contained a music-box or not, it was impossible to say,
+but strains of angelic songs kept escaping. It reminded Ruth of Henry's
+"Music in the Soul." Underneath the triangular box she read these words:
+"A fine Assortment of Generous Impulses. Warranted Pure." The big words
+she skipped, except the two, generous impulses. She knew them at once,
+for she had heard her father say a great deal on that subject.
+
+"Judge, it's very good of you to send these dear, blessed things to
+Grace. I'm perfectly sure she'll divide up and give every one of us as
+many as we like. I should think there might be a hundred in the box. I'm
+a-going to climb right up here on the piano and kiss both of you." And
+she did; and she carried the generous impulses with her when she did it.
+
+When Ruth jumped down on the floor again she examined Miriam's package.
+It held a star, a real star. The man in the moon brought it down from
+the sky.
+
+"Isn't this wonderful beyond anything!" exclaimed the child. "How many
+times we've said 'Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you
+are,' and now here you are." The little, shrewd, cunning fellow sparkled
+and glistened so that Ruth's eyes ached in spite of her green goggles.
+He seemed a very intelligent creature. He could almost talk.
+
+"I heard father say something about plucking the stars from heaven the
+other day, and then he repeated something about the stars growing cold.
+This star isn't cold, I know. And there's his name down at the bottom.
+'A Star of Hope.' Hope so. Now Miriam will be proud enough. We shall see
+her going around with her star. I've heard about babies being born under
+some star or other. I see now how they could get under. Judge, will
+Miriam be a star herself now? Do you think she will star it? 'Star of
+Hope.' This beats me."
+
+Ethel's present was next. The package was so bright that it was
+impossible to tell the shape of it. From every direction the light rayed
+forth in dazzling brilliancy.
+
+"I'm sure it is a box of glory," cried Ruth. The writing underneath the
+shining, beautiful thing said "Sunshine."
+
+"Haven't we been singing 'Rise, Shine?' How lovely it will be to have
+Ethel go about the house scattering sunshine! What strange stuff it is!"
+As she said this Ruth took a handful of it out of the package and
+examined it very closely. "It keeps slipping out of the hands and
+dropping down to the floor or rising up to the wall. Dear me! how shall
+I get it back?" She chased it in ten ways at the same time. "But I can't
+catch it," she continued; "and see, there is quite as much of it left as
+there was in my hands and the box before it floated away. Oh! won't this
+be nice on rainy days? We can have the house filled with sunshine, even
+if it does rain, and the sky is black with clouds. I do think I never
+saw such elegant, wonderful presents in all my life, and I don't believe
+any other children in all this world ever got such things as we have for
+our Christmas."
+
+The next present was for William. As Ruth looked at it she seemed lost
+in thought. She was studying it out. There wasn't any shape to the
+thing. The package itself didn't have any shape. It was a beautiful mass
+of light. Yet the longer you looked at it, the more lovely, attractive,
+and real it appeared. Finally it did take a shape; and when you made up
+your mind that it was round or square or octagonal or irregular or
+something else, the shapeliness of the thing vanished.
+
+"I wonder if it's a thought?" the child said to herself. "I've often
+thought I'd like to see what a thought looks like. I hear so much about
+thought and thoughts, that I'm real curious. Father told mother the
+other day that I was a very thoughtful child. If I'm thought_ful_, seems
+to me I ought to see a good many or feel 'em." Then she looked down
+under the package, and read, "A Bundle of I,D,E,A,L,S."
+
+"Why, I don't see any bundle," she exclaimed. But that moment the mass
+of light changed into strands of willowy brightness, and she could see
+there was a neat little bundle of these shining threads. She took the
+bundle into her hands and pulled out one. This first strand was straight
+as an arrow, and there suddenly showed itself at the bottom of it a
+chain of letters. The strand of splendor, in fact, appeared to grow out
+of these letters. They were M,A,N,L,I,N,E,S,S. The letters were made in
+quaint forms, and they were indescribably beautiful. Ruth pulled out
+another strand from the bundle. This seemed larger and more solid than
+the first, and quite as precious. Letters soon formed into a chain at
+the lower end, and these were W,O,R,T,H. She pulled out the third
+strand. It seemed almost alive, being in constant motion. The chain of
+letters beneath it was as follows: S,E,R,V,I,C,E. A fourth strand had
+the letters H,O,N,O,R entwined about one end. And there were many other
+similar strands. Ruth had on her thinking-cap (made of nothing
+particular, and trimmed with everything in general) all the time that
+she was examining them. Of a sudden the word "Ideals" struck her.
+
+"I know now what these bright, lovely things are," she cried. "I've
+heard father preach about them, and he has told us children I think
+hundreds of times. He says we must all have them, and have the best too.
+Why didn't you think of it before? Judge, you're just as good as you can
+be." Ruth was talking to the pictures. "Father and mother will be very
+thankful that you have brought all these into the family. I know what an
+Ideal is. It's what you want to be, and try to be. Haven't I heard
+Samuel and Elizabeth and the older ones talk about high ideals?" As she
+spoke she shook the radiant little bundle, and saw all sorts of great,
+noble men and fine, lovely women spring right out of the brightness,
+taking form before her face and eyes. "I do declare that looks like
+William." She was gazing at one of the tiny, luminous faces that
+appeared against the shadows. "We shall all pop into the light like
+that, I expect. That must be what father calls attaining one's Ideal.
+Isn't it grand? Yes, there come the other children. One springs out of
+one Ideal, and another out of another. It's just like a fairy tale. But
+I never dreamed what curious things Ideals were. How rich we shall be?"
+Then Ruth gathered the Ideals together, and put them back where she
+found them.
+
+The next present was for her mother. It was resting on an air-cushion
+in a casket of love. It seemed to Ruth that the sun and moon and a good
+many stars had got into that package. It took more rainbows than you can
+shake a stick at to tie up the package securely, so that nothing could
+get to it. The present was a crown, and underneath were the words "A
+Mother's Jewels." There were fifteen of them, no two alike. The crown
+was a cloud with a silver lining. Ruth took it in her hands, and putting
+it on her head, felt the light running all down her head and over her
+face. It wasn't the least bit uncomfortable. But the top of the crown
+was the most wonderful. All the fifteen jewels studded it, so that, as
+one wore it, anybody standing by would almost think that the brightest
+lights in the heavens had been borrowed, and wrought into this
+head-dress. And each jewel had a name all about it, the letters being
+made of the very smallest stars that you can find out of doors. The
+child was too astonished and delighted to talk as she examined this
+gift. She put it back in its casket without one word. It took her
+breath away, so that she couldn't say anything.
+
+By the side of this package was one for her father. She was glad to turn
+to it, for it was not so splendid and marvellous that it dumfounded her.
+His package had a bottle in it.
+
+"I believe it's made of forget-me-nots," said Ruth. She took it into her
+hands, and found it was woven like basket work, a sort of wicker bottle.
+Only the stems of the plants were so intertwisted that the blossoms all
+came to the outside. But both stems and blossoms were perfectly
+transparent, so you could see straight through into the inside.
+"E,S,S,E,N,C,E of C,H,E,E,R,F,U,L,N,E,S,S. To be taken eternally." This
+was written beneath, and Ruth spelled the two big words slowly. "I know
+what that means," she continued. "The Judge is going to give father some
+more sense. For essence, of course, is only another kind of sense. Oh! I
+forgot the essence man. He brings us peppermint and vanilla and cologne.
+We season things, and make ourselves smell good. Now, that's what
+you've sent to father, isn't it? Essence of Cheerfulness. You want him
+to season things with cheerfulness, don't you, and make himself and all
+the rest of us fragrant? And he'll do it. He's always saying that we
+ought to be cheerful. But what kind of stuff is it?" and Ruth tipped up
+the bottle to taste of its contents. She smacked her lips and beamed
+with delight. "I do believe it's a spirit. Father says, you can't see
+spirit but you can feel it. I can't see anything but light in that
+bottle, but I can feel something all through me. I must dance a little,
+I feel so good. Oh, dear me! that's the way people sometimes act when
+they've drunk from bad bottles. But I can't help it." She caught her
+skirts in each hand, and airily waltzed up and down the room.
+
+"I must see if the mantle is here," she suddenly exclaimed. "How strange
+that I've just thought of it!" And then she stopped to look at the
+baby's present.
+
+"It can't be that the Judge's mantle would go into such a little
+package as that." So Ruth remarked as she took the tiny thing in hand.
+It was tied with the most brilliant sunset that eyes ever saw. The
+streamers attached to the bow were much bigger than the package itself.
+When Ruth undid it, and held the singular object before her eyes, it
+seemed to grow large and long. It was truly the Judge's mantle. As she
+shook it out, and let its folds drop down to the floor, the pictures
+fairly beamed with glory. "Silver threads among the gold," exclaimed the
+child, as the beauteous garment flashed its splendors into her eyes. For
+the warp was the pure gold of character, while the woof was the fine
+silver of influence. And they were woven into a fabric of surpassing
+richness. Then this matchless weaving was covered with fairest
+embroidery. Every color that imagination ever conceived appeared upon
+the garment. There was the white light of truth, the red of sacrifice,
+the purple of royalty, the greens of fresh life, the pink of propriety,
+the red that you see in a green blackberry, the blue of a minister's
+Monday, and true blue, auburn from a child's head, hazel from a child's
+eyes, black as thunder cloud, pale as death, the lemon of lemon ice,
+orange from orangeade, and a great many others. And these colors were
+worked into words, flowers of rhetoric, scenes indeed, pictures of love,
+kindness, wisdom, and peace. It was also adorned with quite a number of
+gems of poetry, and it had a pearl of great price to fasten it at the
+throat.
+
+The first thing which Ruth did was to try it on, but it dragged on the
+floor. It occurred to her that the baby must wait until he was grown up
+before it fitted him. Still, she tried it on the baby. No sooner did she
+wrap it around him than it seemed to shrink to his size.
+
+"Why, we can use it for a winter coat," she said. And the "Little
+Judge," who had fallen asleep before the fire, where he had crawled with
+Turk and the cat, cooed and laughed when the mantle was wrapped about
+him, seeming to feel that it was the very thing that would make him
+happy and comfortable. All the time that Ruth was handling the magic
+thing, it continued to throw off little points of light and countless
+mites of color, and these settled down on the furniture and carpet and
+the curtains and the walls and the ceiling, until the room was like a
+palace studded with twinkling, shifting, radiant stars; and every
+present on the piano was shining and scattering light, the air being
+filled with music, and Ruth was wild with delight and excitement.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The next thing was to carry the gifts to the stockings where they
+belonged. Wherever she went, there was the brightness of noonday, so she
+never had a fear. Even the closet with the skeleton in it did not make
+her tremble. Beginning with father and mother, she visited every
+stocking, and put each gift in its proper place; then she carried the
+baby to bed, and left Turk and Satan snuggled up together in front of
+the fire; and then it seemed to her that she floated away in a sea of
+light; and then mounting upon the wings of the wind, she suddenly met
+the sand man who pushed her into the Land of Nod.
+
+The last that she remembered was blue sky, gems of poetry, rainbows,
+shooting stars, flowers of rhetoric, strains of music, sunsets, closets,
+stockings, Christmas cheer, sunshine, and a great many other things, all
+standing around the type-writer in her father's study, telling the
+machine what to say, and begging that everything might be set down in a
+book and live forever.
+
+
+
+
+E.
+
+HAPPY DAY.
+
+
+
+
+E.
+
+HAPPY DAY.
+
+
+NOW, when it grew toward morning Ruth awakened first, and what did she
+do but jump out of bed and feel of her stocking; the thing which she
+found was a book, and she knew without looking into it that the book
+told all about the Judge and the pictures, the house and the children,
+and the strange things that had happened on this eventful night.
+
+Later there was the sound of many voices, scores of "I wish you a merry
+Christmas," went flying through the air, carols burst upon the ear, and
+a whole host of happy, loving children shifted from one room to another,
+and finally gathered beneath the pictures of the Judge and his lady. Did
+the good man lift his hands in benediction? Did he beam with the joy of
+the Christ-life? The light was rather dim in the parlor, for it was
+early in the morning. But the children were constantly turning their
+eyes to the portraits. It seemed to them that new life throbbed within
+their souls, that grand purposes had been awakened, that charity and
+tenderness, the love of God and the love of one another, were moving to
+all kinds of well-doing. They felt as never before that they were living
+in the home of this great, good man, and that they must go forth into
+the world as his manly and womanly representatives. Peace not only
+filled the house, but it rested upon them. It was the most joyful day of
+all the years. Never a quarrel darkened a heart. Never a harsh word fell
+from any lips. Never a mean thought rose in their breasts. It was real
+Christmas cheer. And I believe that every child of them was made richer
+by the blessed presence (presents) of the Judge and his lady.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Repeated chapter titles were retained as some were laid out differently
+than at the chapter itself.
+
+Page 58, "Clause" changed to "Claus" (as Santa Claus)
+
+Page 71, "to" changed to "too" (think so too)
+
+Page 88, "bookcase" changed to "book-case" to match rest of usage in
+text (a low book-case beneath)
+
+Page 95, extraneous quotation mark removed before (I'll call 'Greece')
+
+Page 109, "surpressed" changed to "suppressed" (with suppressed
+excitement)
+
+Page 145, "everthing" changed to "everything" (everything under the sun)
+
+Page 152, single closing quotation mark changed to double (and use
+them?")
+
+Page 192, closing quotation mark added (it means.")
+
+Page 201, closing quotation mark added (is!" As she said this)
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42961 ***