Wool blankets kept the horses warm.
The children looked at the wagon curiously. “I didn’t think Mother was expecting any more deliveries,” Anna said.
One of the men jumped down and jogged toward the house with two flat packages in his hand.
“Why, that’s Erik!” Ted hurried toward the front door to meet him with Emily right on his heels. They invited Erik to take off his things and join them in the parlor.
“Can’t stay but a minute,” he said, standing in the hallway by the front door. “My pa is waiting for me.”
“He doesn’t have to wait in the cold,” Ted said. “Ask him to come inside.”
“We have heated stones to keep our feet warm,” Erik said, “and lap robes, too. We’re delivering Christmas baskets, so we can’t stay.”
“Did the merchants make a lot of donations?” Emily asked eagerly.
Erik grinned. “The collection point was overflowing with food: flour from flour mills, beef and chicken from meat markets, thousands of pounds of butter from creameries, candy and bread from bakeries, oysters from packing houses, coffee, tea, fish, sugar, and rice from grocers. A town in North Dakota even sent a thousand jackrabbits for the baskets!”
Ted and Emily laughed. “I bet most of the people getting the baskets have never cooked a jackrabbit before,” Emily said, “but they’ll be glad for them just the same.”
Erik sobered. “I heard at the collection point that when the city counted the jobless men, they found there were over eight hundred families who needed help. That’s about six thousand people all together.”
Ted let out a low whistle. “I knew things were bad, but I didn’t know they were that bad.”
“And that doesn’t include the people who are being helped by unions and other groups,” Erik added. “Mayor Eustis and the leaders were really surprised.”
A shiver went through Emily, and she rubbed her hands over her arms. How awful to think of so many people without money to buy food!
Ted looked out the oval window in the door. “Why is your father driving Johnson Brothers’ wagon?”
“Some of the large merchants donated wagons and teams to deliver the baskets.” Erik’s eyes were shining. “One of the Johnson brothers was helping put food in baskets and load the wagons. He thought Pa was such a good worker that he’s offered him a job. He starts right after Christmas.”
Emily bounced up and down in her excitement. “That’s wonderful!”
“It doesn’t pay nearly as well as the railroad work,” Erik said quickly, “but at least he’ll have pay comin’ in regular.”
“That’s great,” Ted said. “I know the Johnson brothers won’t be sorry they hired him.”
Erik gave him a grateful smile. “Oh, I almost forgot why I stopped!” He handed each of them a flat package wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine. “Go ahead, open them.”
They made quick work of tearing off the paper. Inside were copies of the articles Erik had written about the students’ food collection project. The articles were simply but neatly framed.
“They’re perfect! Thank you,” Emily said. It would be nice to have something to remember the project that had meant so much to all three of them.
“My pa helped me make the frames for them.” Erik shifted from one foot to the other.
“We didn’t get anything for you,” Emily told him, feeling uncomfortable.
Erik stuffed his gloved hands into his jacket pockets. His cheeks grew redder than they’d been from the cold. “I guess you gave me your present early.”
Emily and Ted frowned at him, puzzled.
He cleared his throat. “I mean when you came up with the idea for the students’ food collection. I thought you were foolish, but you made it happen. And now my pa has a job, too. I guess you were right. Nothing is impossible with Jesus.”
He opened the door and hurried out onto the porch before Emily or Ted could say anything. At the bottom of the steps, he turned around and waved. “Merry Christmas!”
That evening after Christmas Eve services, Ted’s family and Uncle Enoch and his wife joined the Allertons for Christmas dinner. When Walter had discovered that Thomas Beck hadn’t any family in town, he’d invited him to join them, too. Emily and Ted had introduced Walter and Mr. Beck when they were working on the students’ food project. Now the two men were fast friends.
When dinner was over, they all visited in the parlor, where the tree ornaments sparkled in the light of the glass-shaded parlor lamps. The children sat on the floor by the tree so there would be enough seats for the adults. The smells of pine, burning logs, and cinnamon from mugs of cider filled the room.
“I must say, your Christmas dresses are lovely,” Aunt Alison told Anna and Emily. “If you hadn’t told me you were remaking old gowns, I wouldn’t have known they weren’t new.”
Emily and Anna beamed at each other. Aunt Alison’s compliment made Emily gladder than ever that they’d decided to follow the pastor’s advice and be thrifty.
Uncle Enoch leaned back in his chair and took a sip from his mug of hot cider. “I must say I’m glad 1893 is almost over. I believe it’s been one of the hardest years for the country moneywise in this century.”
It seemed to Emily that Uncle Enoch, being a banker, always thought of everything in terms of money.
“Banks closing all over the country, people out of work, railroads going bankrupt.” Uncle Enoch shook his head. “Yes, indeed, it’s been a rough year.”
“I’m glad the Great Northern Railroad didn’t go bankrupt,” Ted said. “For a long time, I was afraid it would. Then Father would have been out of work.”
“Then your family might have received a Christmas basket.” Richard gave him a friendly poke in the side with his elbow.
“It’s no laughing matter,” Ted’s father said. “I had the same worries as Ted. But since everything worked out so well, I rather wish Alison and I had joined Ted and the Allertons at the World’s Fair last summer!”
Father chuckled. “It was the experience of a lifetime,” he admitted.
“Well, Congress has repealed the Sherman Silver Act,” Uncle Enoch said. “That should get the country back in good shape, though it may take awhile.”
Emily had no idea what the Sherman Act was, only that it had something to do with silver and paper money. Adults had argued about it a lot during the year. Still, she hoped Uncle Enoch was right about things getting better.
Walter leaned forward, his large hands wrapped around his mug of cider. “Even though this has been a hard year, it’s a great time to be alive.”
Ted nodded. “Uncle Daniel said something like that when we were at the World’s Fair, because of all the wonderful inventions we saw.”
“The machines people have made are wonderful,” Walter agreed,
“but I was thinking of a different kind of discovery. There seems to be a new spirit in the land today. People are becoming their brothers’ keepers as never before.”
“Because of the Christmas baskets?” Emily asked.
“Yes, partly. The city has usually let churches and charities take care of the poor. Now Minneapolis arranged to collect and deliver the Christmas baskets and fuel, too. Chicago, Minneapolis, and other cities have started unemployment bureaus to help jobless men find work. But there are new laws, too, to protect people.”
“Like the railroad laws that make trains safer for passengers and brakemen like Erik’s father?” Ted asked.
Walter nodded.
“There’s another law that goes into effect January first,” Mr. Beck reminded them. “Employers will only be allowed to let children under sixteen work between seven in the morning and six in the evening. No more sweatshops where children work themselves into early graves.”
Emily remembered Frank and Erik and how hard they worked. She told Mr. Beck about Erik’s gift and his father’s new job.
Mr. Beck grinned. “It isn’t only his father who has a new job. I told my editor that Eri
k had written those articles about the students’ food project and that Erik hopes to be a reporter one day. I haven’t had a chance to tell Erik yet, but my editor said Erik can have a job as errand boy at the newspaper if he wants.”
“Hurrah!” Ted shouted.
Mr. Beck held up a hand. “He won’t be writing any articles, but at least he can have a chance to be around the business and see if that’s what he really wants to do. It pays better than being a newsboy, and he won’t have to work out in the rain and snow anymore.”
Ted and Emily exchanged grins.
“You two were some of the first in the city to help the unemployed men and their families,” Mr. Beck reminded them. “I think your food collection project showed the city’s leaders that the need in the city was greater than they thought. Maybe you started some of them thinking about other ways the city could help.”
“That’s right,” Father said. “Our families are proud of both of you.”
A few minutes later, Emily and her mother went into the kitchen. Together they piled crystal plates with Christmas cookies.
“Your father is right,” Mother told her when they were done. “We’re very proud of the young woman you’ve become this year. I used to worry over your impulsive nature. It was always getting you into trouble!”
Emily’s spirits sank. Not another lecture! Not on Christmas Eve!
Mother folded her hands at the waist of her elegant Christmas gown and smiled. “Then one day I realized that it’s that same energy that used to get you into trouble that you put into the students’ food collection project. And I think that is a very good thing. I am very blessed to have such a wonderful daughter.”
Emily carefully carried the delicate, cookie-covered plate up the hallway. Lena was playing the parlor piano, and everyone was singing Christmas hymns. But it was her mother’s words that Emily was hearing in her heart.
AMERICAN REBIRTH:
BONUS EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS
ELISE THE ACTRESS: CLIMAX OF THE CIVIL WAR
VOCABULARY WORDS
abolitionist—someone who thinks slavery should be done away with, or abolished
Before the war, he’d been an avid abolitionist, aiding runaway slaves and defending them in court.
acrid—having a strong, unpleasant smell or taste
As she approached the lake, she heard voices, and her throat burned from the acrid smoke of a campfire.
appease—to satisfy someone or something
That seemed to appease him, and he continued walking Aleron around the paddock.
atrocities—shockingly cruel acts
He spoke often of the unimaginable atrocities of slavery.
boycotted—refused to deal with, participate in, or purchase something
They boycotted his shop.
cantering—moving at a pace slower than a gallop but faster than a trot
Elise knew better than to run Dusty in the hot weather, but she alternated cantering and walking as she hurried out of Walnut Hills and all the way into town to Papa’s office.
contrabands—enslaved people who escaped to, or were taken behind, Union lines during the Civil War
As she moved among the crowd, she heard her papa saying, “I never thought I’d live to see the day—Congress finally allowing the contrabands to fight in their own war for freedom.”
convalescing—recovering from an illness or injury
By the time everyone had arrived, there were baskets of items for the convalescing soldiers—everything from combs to stationery.
cowcatcher—an inclined frame on the front of a locomotive, used for moving obstacles out of the path of the approaching train
Crepe-trimmed Union flags fluttered from the front cowcatcher.
daguerreotypes—early photographs
He showed Elise daguerreotypes of his wife and son when their family was together and happy.
dyspepsia—indigestion
“Only if it didn’t give Berdeen a case of dyspepsia.”
fraternizes—associates with
“And I wouldn’t be caught dead playing with someone who fraternizes with the enemy!”
gallantry—bravery in a situation of great danger
It grieves me that their gallantry is all for naught.
gaunt—extremely thin and bony
He was pale and gaunt.
nib pen—a pen with a detachable metal tip; a fountain pen
She took up a nib pen and copied two riddles onto a sheet of stationery.
pallet—a makeshift bed, usually made from whatever materials were at hand
On a pallet on the ground lay a handsome young man.
peaked—sickly, thin, and pale
“You look a little peaked.”
plait—to weave strands together, especially a length of hair
Elise hurried to pull on her day dress and to plait her hair into two long braids.
resolute—determined
The tone of his voice and the resolute look in his eye told Elise he’d come to terms with the way things were—that he was powerless to change it.
stoop—a small porch at the entrance to a house
A cast-off wagon wheel lay beside the rickety front stoop.
troupe—a group of performers
“It’s time to gather our troupe and go to the playroom,” she said.
wistfully—expressing a sad yearning for something lost or for something that might not be
Wistfully, Verly said to Elise, “I wonder if I will ever see Alexander’s wedding day.”
IMPORTANT PEOPLE AND THINGS AROUND 1865
Salmon P. Chase
Salmon Chase was born in New Hampshire in 1808. After his father died in 1817, Salmon was put in the care of an uncle, who was the Episcopal Bishop of Ohio. Chase graduated from Dartmouth University and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1826, where he ran a school and studied law.
After being admitted to the bar in 1829, Chase returned to Ohio. There he practiced law, taking cases that challenged the social norm of the day. He was a very vocal opponent of slavery. Chase represented many slaves, arguing their cases before the United States Supreme Court. Between 1841 and 1849, he founded and led the Liberty and Free Soil Parties, two political parties opposed to the expansion of slavery.
Salmon Chase was twice elected to the Senate from Ohio, and in 1861, he became secretary of the treasury under Abraham Lincoln. The first U.S. federal currency was designed by Chase and printed in 1862, and Chase served as secretary until 1864 when Lincoln nominated him as chief justice of the Supreme Court. From 1864 until his death from a stroke in 1873, he served as chief justice, hearing cases concerning Reconstruction, state laws, and taxes. In 1868, Salmon Chase even presided over the treason trial of Confederate president Jefferson Davis and the first presidential impeachment trial, that of President Andrew Johnson.
The Gettysburg Address
It’s only 258 words long, but those words, spoken by Abraham Lincoln on the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863, helped to change the mind-set of a nation.
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who died here that that nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have hallowed it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here de
dicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
Squirrel Hunters
In September 1862, Confederate soldiers captured Lexington, Kentucky, and set out to capture Cincinnati, Ohio, a town of 250,000 citizens. Union forces, under the command of Lewis Wallace, were sent to Cincinnati to prepare the city’s defenses. When he arrived, Wallace declared military rule. Businesses were closed and civilians were told to report for military duty. Men in the regular army would fight on the battlefield while civilians prepared trenches and other defenses in anticipation of the attack.
Governor David Tod sent out a plea for men in other parts of Ohio to come and help defend Cincinnati. Reportedly, 15,766 civilians from sixty-five counties heard his call and came to Cincinnati’s aid. (So many reported that, one day after he had asked for volunteers, Governor Tod had to ask the counties to send no more men.) These men became known as the Squirrel Hunters. Though many had no military training and possessed only outdated weapons, they rallied to defend Cincinnati from the Confederate troops. Confederate forces withdrew from Kentucky, and the Squirrel Hunters were given honorable discharges from military service. In 1908, the Ohio Legislature voted to pay each volunteer $13, a month’s pay for a Union soldier.
HISTORY IN PERSPECTIVE TIMELINE
February 1, 1862—Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic” is published for the first time.
1863—Construction begins on the first transcontinental railroad in California.
January 1, 1863—President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Emancipation Proclamation.
American Rebirth Page 46