Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa Claus' Reading List

by A. A. Milne

  “While it is a precious truth that all who finally repent and accept of Christ as their only Saviour, will inherit eternal life— a life of holiness and unspeakable happiness at God’s right hand,” answered her mother, “yet there will be a difference in the portions of those who have spent many years in the faithful service of the Master—­using their time and talents for the advancement of his cause and kingdom, and striving to win others to know and serve him, and themselves to grow in grace and conformity to his likeness and his will— and that of others who have been saved only at the last and so as by fire. All will be perfectly happy but some will have a greater capacity for happiness than others.

  “According to the teachings of God’s word sin is the greatest folly, the service of God the highest wisdom.

  “’Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?… Riches and honor are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver!

  “’They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever.’

  “Rosie, my darling, it is the dearest wish of my heart to see you engaged in that work; but you cannot teach others what you do not know yourself; you must first give your heart to God and learn for yourself the sweetness of his love. Will you not do it now? at once? Oh listen to his gracious invitation, ‘Give me thine heart.’”

  For some moments a deep and solemn hush seemed to fill the room, Rosie still kneeling there with her head pillowed on her mother’s breast, Elsie’s heart going up in an almost agonizing petition for her child.

  At length Rosie lifted her head looking up into her mother’s face with dewy eyes and a very sweet smile.

  “Mamma,” she said in low tremulous tones, “I have tried to do it; I have asked the Lord to forgive all my sins, to cleanse me from mine iniquities, and to take me for his very own; and I think he has heard and granted my petition.

  “You know when the leper came to him saying, ’Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean,’ Jesus at once put forth his hand and touched him saying, ‘I will; be thou clean’; and immediately the leprosy departed from him. Mamma, I have been praying the leper’s prayer, and I think the dear Lord Jesus has said the same words to me.”

  “I am sure of it,” Elsie said with emotion, “for he is the unchangeable God; ‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever’; as ready to be moved with compassion for a sin-sick soul to-day, as he was for the leper when on earth. And he has said, ’Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’”

  Clasping her hands and looking upward, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” she exclaimed; “‘and all that is within me, bless his holy name!’”

  Chapter 13

  “Lu! Lu! five o’clock, time to get up!” called a harsh voice in loud, shrill tones.

  “Who, who was calling?” asked Eva starting out of sleep.

  “Only Polly,” laughed Lulu.

  “Get up, get up!” screamed the bird. “Time for breakfast. Polly wants her coffee. Polly wants a cracker.”

  “What a smart parrot! how plainly she talks,” said Eva.

  “Yes; but so loud. I’m afraid she will wake everybody in the house.”

  “How has she learned your name so soon?” asked Eva.

  “I don’t think she has,” said Lulu. “Papa says there was a girl named Louisa in the place where Polly used to live, that everybody called Lu, and the parrot learned to call her so too.”

  “Happy New Year!” screamed Polly.

  “Oh just hear her!” cried Lulu in delight. “Papa must have been teaching her that, or having somebody else do it, while we were away. I think she’s going to make a great deal of fun for us all. Happy New Year to you, Eva dear,” giving her friend a hug, as they lay side by side in the bed.

  “The same to you, dear Lu,” returned Eva. “How nice it is to be here with you lying on this easy couch with this down cover and these soft blankets over us. I never lay on a more delightful bed. Everything about it is beautiful and luxurious too.”

  “Papa was very particular to get the very best of springs and mattresses for all our beds,” replied Lulu. “Oh but he is a dear, good father, always careful for the comfort and happiness of all his children!”

  “And of his wife?”

  “Oh yes indeed! I’m quite sure no man could take better care of his wife, or be more loving and kind to her, than papa is to Mamma Vi. And I’m pretty sure he was just the same to my mother; he says he loved her very dearly and loves his children— I mean Max and Gracie and me— because they were hers as well as because they are his very own.”

  “Lu! Lu! get up! Time for breakfast!” screamed Polly again.

  “I suppose it is morning, or she wouldn’t be making such a fuss,” said Lulu.

  “Yes,” said Eva, “I see a little light coming in at the window.”

  “I’ll light the gas in the sitting-room, and give her a cracker to stop her screaming,” said Lulu, getting out of bed and feeling about for her warm slippers and dressing gown. “Then I’ll run and catch papa and Gracie.”

  “Lulu,” said the captain’s voice from Gracie’s room.

  “I’m here, papa. Oh a happy New Year to you!”

  “Thank you, dear child. I wish you the same; but I want you to give Polly a cracker as quickly as you can to stop her screaming; for I fear she will wake both guests and babies.”

  “Yes, sir; I will. I was just going to,” replied the little girl. “Then shall I stay up?”

  “I think you may as well go back to bed and try to take another nap,” he answered. “It is very early yet.”

  Lulu hurried into the sitting-room where Polly’s cage was hanging, and struck a light.

  “What you ’bout? Where you been?” demanded the parrot.

  “Sleeping in my bed as I have a right to, Miss Saucebox,” returned Lulu, laughing as she opened a cupboard door and brought out a paper of crackers. “There, take that and see if you can hold your tongue till folks are ready to get up.”

  The bird took the offered cracker and began eating it, standing on one foot, on its perch, and holding the food in the claws of the other, while it bit off a little at a time, Lulu looking on with interest.

  “You’ll have to behave better than this, or you’ll get banished to the attic, or the kitchen, or some other far-off place,” she said, shaking her finger threateningly at Poll.

  Then, after turning down the light, she ran back to bed.

  “Are you asleep, Eva?” she asked in a whisper.

  “No dear; wide awake.”

  “Then let’s talk; for I’m as wide awake as I can be.”

  “But didn’t your father say you were to try for another nap?”

  “I understood him to mean only that I might if I chose, not that I must; but perhaps he meant that he wanted me to; so I’ll keep quiet and try.”

  She did so, saying to herself, “I just know it’s no use, for I was never wider awake in my life,” but to her great astonishment the next thing she knew it was broad daylight and Eva up and brushing out her hair before the mirror over the bureau.

  “Why, I’ve been asleep and I hadn’t the least idea of such a thing!” cried Lulu springing out upon the floor and beginning to dress in all haste.

  “Oh, you’ve had a nice nap and will feel the better for it all day, I’m sure,” returned Eva laughing in a kindly way; “and that is your reward for trying to do as your papa probably wished you to. But need you hurry so? isn’t it a good while to breakfast time?”

  “Yes, but I have to dress and say my prayers; and I always like so much to have a little time to chat with papa before the bell rings.”

  “Lu! Lu!” screamed the parrot, “time for breakfast! Polly wants her coffee.”

  “Just hear Polly,” exclaimed Lulu; “it does seem as if she must have sense. I suppose she does think it’s time for breakfast.�
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  “Does she drink coffee?” asked Eva.

  “Yes; she is very fond of it. She gets a cup every morning.”

  “She’s a very amusing pet, I think,” remarked Evelyn. “What fun it will be to teach her to say all sorts of cute things!”

  “Yes,” sighed Lulu, “but papa says if she should hear angry, passionate, or willful words from my lips she may learn and repeat them to my shame and sorrow. But oh I hope I never shall let her hear such!”

  “I don’t believe you ever will say such words any more, dear Lu,” Eva said with an affectionate look into her friend’s face. “I don’t believe you have ever been in a passion since— since the time that little Elsie had that sad fall.”

  “No, I have not been in a rage, but I have said some angry words a few times, and oh— as you must remember that I told you— some very rebellious and insolent ones to my dear papa— not so long ago. Oh dear, I’m afraid my tongue can never be tamed!

  “Papa made me learn that third chapter of James that says ’the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity and that no man can tame it.’ Then he talked to me so nicely and kindly about learning to rule my tongue and make it always speak as it ought— wise, kind, pleasant words. And he told me the only way to do it was by getting my heart right— by God’s help— because, as the Bible tells us in another place, it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaketh.”

  “Your father takes a great deal of pains to teach and help you, dear Lu, doesn’t he?” said Eva.

  “Yes, yes, indeed!” returned Lulu, with warmth; “all his children, but especially me, I think, because I’m the naughtiest and have the hardest work trying to be good. I’m often surprised at papa’s patience with me and the trouble he takes to help me in my hard fight with my passionate, wilful temper.”

  Just then Grace’s voice was heard at the door, “Happy New Year, Eva and Lu! May I come in?”

  “Yes, come. Happy New Year to you,” cried both girls, Lulu running and taking her sister in her arms to hug and kiss her.

  “You darling child! You look bright and well. Are you?”

  “Yes, you old woman,” laughed Gracie, returning the hug and kisses; “and I’m all ready for breakfast. Are you?”

  “No, not quite.”

  “I am,” said Eva. “Shall we go into the sitting-room, Gracie, and wait there for Lu?”

  “Yes,” answered Grace, leading the way; “and I’ll be learning my Bible verse while we wait for her and papa and the breakfast bell.”

  Lulu and her father joined them at the same moment.

  The captain kissed the little girls all around and presented each with a pretty little portemonnaie.

  Eva thanked him with smiles, blushes and appreciative words; his own two with hugs and kisses in addition to the thanks given in words.

  “Mine’s ever so pretty, papa,” Lulu said, turning it about in her hands.

  “I am glad you are pleased with it,” he said, smiling, “but are you going to be satisfied with looking at the outside? don’t you want to examine the lining also?”

  “Why, yes, sir?” opening it. “Oh, oh, it isn’t empty!” she laughed, beginning to take out the contents— two clean, crisp one dollar notes, and a handful of bright new quarters, dimes and five cent pieces. “Papa, how kind and generous you are to me!”

  Grace had her purse open by this time and found it lined in like manner with Lulu’s. “Dear papa, thank you ever so much,” she said, looking up into his face with eyes full of love and gratitude. “It’s a great deal for me to have beside all the rest you gave me.”

  “You are both as welcome as possible, my darlings; only make good use of it, remembering that money is one of the talents for which we must give account to God at last,” he answered to both.

  “Eva, my dear,” turning to her, “you will find the same in yours, and I hope will accept it from me as though you were one of my daughters. Do me the kindness to let me be in some respects, a father to you; since your own is absent in the happy home to which I trust we are all traveling.”

  She was standing near, the present he had given her in her hand. She had been looking from it to Lulu and Grace, thinking the while how good it was in the captain to treat her so much like one of his own, and now at these kind words spoken in tender fatherly tones, both heart and eyes grew full to overflowing.

  He saw that she could not speak for emotion, and taking her hand, drew her to his knee and kissed her, saying, “Don’t try to thank me in words, my dear; your speaking countenance tells me all you would say.”

  “What you ’bout?” screamed Polly at that instant, just as if she were calling the captain to account for his actions.

  That made them all laugh; even Evelyn, who had been just ready to cry. Then the breakfast bell rang and everybody hastened to obey its summons.

  Many a “Happy New Year,” was exchanged among them as they gathered— a bright faced, cheerful set— in the pleasant breakfast-room and about its bountiful table.

  Each had a gift to show, for all had been remembered in that way by either the captain or Violet, some by both, and each one had received or did now receive, something from Grandma Elsie— a book, toy or game.

  The gifts seemed to give universal satisfaction and all were in gayest spirits.

  Shortly after breakfast— almost before the children had done with comparing and talking about their presents— the other guests began to arrive, and by ten o’clock everybody who had been invited was there.

  Then began the fun of arranging themselves in groups and having photographs taken; after that the acting of the charades.

  The picture suggested by Violet was taken first. In it Grandma Elsie was seated between her father on one side, and her namesake daughter on the other, Mrs. Leland having her babe in her arms, while little Ned leaned confidingly against his great-grandfather’s knee.

  The captain and Violet, with their two little ones, made another pretty picture. Then the captain was taken again with his older three grouped about him. Then Grandma Elsie again with her son Edward and his Zoe, standing behind her, Rosie and Walter one on each side.

  She thought this quite enough, but her college boys insisted on having her taken again, seated between them.

  It was then proposed that the other members of the company should be taken in turn— singly or in groups;— but all declined, expressing a decided preference for spending the time in a more amusing manner, such as forming tableaux and acting charades.

  The older people took possession of a large parlor and sat there conversing, while the younger ones consulted together and made their arrangements in the library.

  Misconstrue was the first word chosen. Presently Evelyn walked into the parlor, followed almost immediately by Harold with a book in his hand.

  “You are here, Miss?” he said glancing at Evelyn. “And you, Miss?” as Sydney Dinsmore came tripping in from the hall.

  “Yes; and here comes another Miss;” she replied, as Lulu appeared in the open doorway.

  “I too, am a miss; there are four of us here now,” said Rosie, coming up behind Lulu.

  “I am a miss,” proclaimed Maud Dinsmore, stepping in after Rosie.

  “And I am a miss,” echoed Lora Howard, coming after her.

  “Well, stand up in a row and let us see if you can say your lesson without a miss,” said Harold.

  “Oh it’s a spelling school— all of girls!” remarked Grace in a low aside to her little friend Rosie Lacey; they two having chosen a place among the spectators rather than with the actors on this occasion.

  “Yes,” returned Rosie; “I wonder why they don’t have some of the boys in the class too.”

  “When did Columbus discover America, Miss Maud?” asked Harold.

  “In 1942,” returned Maud with the air of one who is quite confident of the correctness of her reply.

  “A miss for you,” said Harold. “Next. When did Columbus discover America?”

  “In 1620,
just after the landing of the pilgrims,” answered Sydney.

  “Another miss,” said Harold. “Next.”

  “Something happened in 1775,” said Eva meditatively.

  “Oh!” cried Rosie, “Columbus’ discovery was long before that— somewhere about the year 1000, was it not, Mr. Travilla?”

  “A miss for each of you,” replied Harold, shaking his head. “What year was it, Lulu?”

  “It must have been before I was born,” she answered slowly, as if not entirely certain— “Yes, I’m quite sure it was, and I can’t remember before I was born.”

  “A miss for you too,” said Harold. “You have every one missed and will have to con your task over again.”

  At that each girl opened a book which she held in her hand, and for several minutes they all seemed to be studying diligently.

  “Ah, ha! ah ha! um h’m! mis-con,” murmured Cousin Ronald, half-aloud; “vara weel done, lads and lasses. What’s the next syllable? strue? Ah ha, um h’m! we shall see presently,” as the books were closed and the young actors vanished through the door into the hall.

  They were hardly gone when Zoe entered, carrying a small basket filled with flowers which she began to strew here and there over the floor.

  “Ah ha! ah ha! um h’m!” cried Cousin Ronald, “she strews the flowers; misconstrue is the word na doot.”

  “Ah Cousin Ronald, somebody must have told you,” laughed Zoe, tripping from the room.

  “Oh!” cried Rosie Lacey, “I see now why the boys didn’t take part this time; because they couldn’t be miss.”

  “Here they come now, boys and girls too,” exclaimed Grace. “Why how they’re laughing! I wonder what’s the joke?”

  They were all laughing as at something very amusing, and after entering the room did nothing but sit or stand about laughing all the time; fairly shaking with laughter, laughing, laughing till the tears came into their eyes, and the older people joined in without in the least knowing the exciting cause of so much mirth.

  “Come, children, tell us the joke,” said Mr. Dinsmore at length.