The Big Book of Christmas

by Anton Chekhov

“O girls,” said Lulu, “come up to my room and take off your things. I’ve something to tell you,” and she looked so gay and happy that they felt quite sure it was something that pleased her greatly.

  “I think I can guess what it is,” laughed Rosie; “your father has promised you the diamond ring you want so badly.”

  “No, it isn’t that; you may have another guess; but I don’t believe you could hit the right thing if you should guess fifty or a hundred times.”

  “Then I sha’n’t try. I give it up. Don’t you, Eva?”

  “Yes, please tell us, Lu,” said Evelyn.

  Then Lulu, talking fast and eagerly, repeated to them what she had told to Grace, in bed that morning.

  “Oh how nice!” Evelyn exclaimed. “How I should like to be in your place, Lu!”

  “I think it’s nice, too,” Rosie said, “and I’d like mamma or grandpa to do the same by me. But I’d want my pearls too,” she added, laughing. “Mamma’s rich enough to give me them, and do all she need do for missions and the poor beside.”

  “But so very, very much is needed,” remarked Evelyn.

  “I’ve read in some of the religious papers, that if every church member would give but a small sum yearly, there would be enough,” said Rosie; “and mamma gives hundreds and thousands of dollars; and grandpa gives a great deal too. So I don’t see that I ought to do without the set of pearls I’ve set my heart on. It isn’t mamma’s place to do other people’s duty for them— in the way of giving, any more than in other things.”

  Grandma Elsie and her older daughters were in Violet’s boudoir.

  “I had letters this morning, from your brothers Harold and Herbert, Vi, and have brought them with me to read to you,” the mother said, taking the missives from her pocket.

  “Thank you, mamma; I am always glad to hear what they write; their letters are never dull or uninteresting,” Violet replied, her sister Elsie adding, “They are always worth hearing, Lester and I think. What dear boys they are!”

  “And quite as highly appreciated by my husband as by yours, Elsie,” Violet said with a bright, happy look.

  “They are a great blessing and comfort to their mother,” Grandma Elsie remarked, “as indeed all my children are— their letters always a source of pleasure, but these even more so than most; for they show that my college boys are greatly stirred up on the subject of missions at home and abroad; full of renewed zeal for the advancement of the Master’s cause and kingdom.”

  She then read the letters which gave abundant evidence of the correctness of her estimate of the state of her sons’ minds.

  They were working as teachers in a mission Sunday school, as Bible readers and tract distributors among the poor and degraded of the city where they were sojourning; doing good to bodies as well as souls— their mother supplying them with means for that purpose in addition to what she allowed them for pocket-money;— also exerting an influence for good among their fellow students.

  They told of interesting meetings held for prayer and conference upon the things concerning the kingdom; of renewed and higher consecration on the part of many who were already numbered among the Master’s followers, and the conversion of others who had hitherto cared for none of these things.

  The reading of the letters was followed by an earnest talk between the mother and her daughters, in which Violet told of her husband’s plans for giving through his children, in addition to what he would give in other ways.

  “What excellent ideas?” Grandma Elsie exclaimed, her eyes shining with pleasure. “I shall adopt both with my younger two children, one with all of you.”

  “Which is that last, mamma?” asked Violet sportively.

  “The letting each of you select an object for a certain sum which I shall give.”

  “Mamma, that is very nice and kind,” remarked her daughter Elsie, “but we should give of our own means. Do you not think so?”

  “You may do that in addition,” her mother said. “I have seven children on earth— eight counting Zoe, and one in heaven. I shall give a thousand dollars in the name of each.”

  “Mamma, I for one fully appreciate your kindness, but think you would make a wiser choice of objects than we,” said Violet, looking lovingly into her mother’s eyes.

  “I want you to have the pleasure,” her mother answered, “and I am reserving much the larger part of what I have to give, for objects of my own selection; for it has pleased the Lord to trust me with the stewardship of a good deal of the gold and silver which are his.”

  At that moment the little girls entered the room, and Rosie, hurrying up to her mother, asked, “Mamma, have you heard, has Vi told you what the captain intends doing? how he is going to reward his children for good behavior?”

  “Yes; and I shall do the same by you and Walter.”

  “That’s a dear, good mamma!” exclaimed Rosie with satisfaction. “I thought you would.”

  “And I intend to follow the captain’s lead in another matter,” Grandma Elsie went on, smiling pleasantly upon her young daughter; “That is in allowing each of my sons and daughters to select some good object for me to give to.”

  “That’s nice too,” commented Rosie: “I like to be trusted in such things— as well as others,” she added laughing, “and I hope you’ll trust me with quite a sum of money to give or spend just as I please!”

  “Ah, my darling, you must not forget that your mother is only a steward,” was the sweet toned response, given between a smile and a sigh; for Grandma Elsie was not free from anxiety about this youngest daughter, who had some serious faults, and had not yet entered the service of the Lord Jesus Christ.

  “Evelyn, dear, you too, as my pupil and a sort of adopted daughter, must share the reward of good behavior,” she said, with a tenderly affectionate look at the fatherless niece of her son-in-law.

  Evelyn flushed with pleasure; but more because of the loving look than the promise of reward. “Dear Grandma Elsie, how very kind and good you always are to me!” she exclaimed feelingly, her eyes filling with tears of love and gratitude.

  “Dear child, whatever I have done for you has always been both a duty and a pleasure,” Mrs. Travilla returned, taking the hand of the little girl, who was standing by her side, and pressing; it affectionately in her own.

  “Well, Eva,” said Rosie, lightly, “you can calculate to a cent what you’ll have for benevolence, for you’re sure to earn the quarter every day of your life.”

  “Not quite, Rosie,” Evelyn answered in her gentle, refined tones, “I am liable to fall as well as others, and may astonish both you and myself some day by behaving very ill indeed.”

  “I certainly should be astonished, Eva,” laughed her Aunt Elsie. “I am quite sure it would be only under great provocation that you would be guilty of very bad behavior; and equally certain that you will never find that at Ion.”

  “No,” Evelyn said, “I have never received anything but the greatest kindness there.”

  “And you are so sweet-tempered that you would never fly into a passion if you were treated ever so badly,” remarked Lulu, with an admiring, appreciative look at her friend, accompanied by a regretful sigh over her own infirmity of temper.

  “Perhaps my faults lie in another direction; and how much credit do people deserve for refraining from doing what they feel no temptation to do?” said Evelyn, with an arch look and smile directed toward Lulu.

  “And those that tease quick tempered people, and make them angry, deserve at least half the blame,” Rosie said softly in Lulu’s ear, putting an arm affectionately about her as she spoke. “I don’t mean to do so ever again, Lu, dear.”

  “I’m sure you don’t, Rosie,” returned Lulu, in the same low key, her eyes shining, “and it’s ever so good in you to take part of the blame of my badness.”

  The visitors went away shortly after tea, Violet carried her babies off to bed, and the older three of the Woodburn children were left alone with their father.

  They cluster
ed about him, Grace on his knee, Lulu on one side, Max on the other, while their tongues ran fast on whatever subject happened to be uppermost in their thoughts, the captain encouraging them to talk freely; for he was most desirous to have their entire confidence in order that he might be the better able to correct wrong ideas and impressions, inculcate right views and motives, and lead them to tread the paths of rectitude, living noble, unselfish lives, serving God and doing good to their fellow creatures.

  Sensible questions were sure to be patiently answered, requests carefully considered, and granted if reasonable and within his power; and instruction was given in a way to make it interesting and agreeable; reproof, if called for, administered in a kind, fatherly manner that robbed it of its sting.

  They talked of their sports, their pets, the books they were reading, the coming holidays, the enjoyment they were looking forward to at that time, and their plans for helping to make it a happy time to others.

  Evidently they were troubled with no doubt of their father’s fond affection, or of the fact that he was their best earthly friend and wisest counsellor.

  “There are so many people I want to give to,” said Lulu; “it will take ever so much thinking to know how to manage it.”

  “Yes; because of course we want to give things they’d like to have, and that we’ll have money enough to buy, or time to make,” said Grace.

  “Perhaps I can help you with your plans,” said their father. “I think it would be well to make out a list of those to whom you wish to give, and then decide what amount to devote to each, and what sort of thing would be likely to prove acceptable, yet not cost more than you have set apart for its purchase.”

  “Oh what a nice plan, papa!” exclaimed Lulu. “We’ll each make a list, sha’n’t we?”

  “Yes; if you choose. Max, my son, you may get out paper and pencils for us, and we will set to work at once; no time like the present, is a good motto in most cases.”

  Max hastened to obey and the lists were made out amid a good deal of pleasant chat, now grave, now gay.

  “We don’t have to put down all the names, papa, do we?” Grace asked with an arch look and smile up into his face.

  “No; we will except present company,” he replied, stroking her hair caressingly, and returning her smile with one full of tender fatherly affection.

  The names were all written down first, then came the task of deciding upon the gifts.

  “We will take your lists in turn, beginning with Max’s and ending with Gracie’s,” the captain said.

  That part of the work required no little consultation between the three children; papa’s advice was asked in every instance, and almost always decided the question; but, glancing over the lists when completed, “I think, my dears, you have laid out too much work for yourselves,” he said.

  “But I thought you always liked us to be industrious, papa,” said Lulu.

  “Yes, daughter, but not overworked; I can not have that; nor can I allow you to neglect your studies, omit needed exercise, or go without sufficient sleep to keep you in health.”

  “Papa, you always make taking good care of us the first thing,” she said gratefully, nestling closer to him.

  “Don’t you know that’s what fathers are for?” he said, smiling down on her. “My children were given me to be taken care of, provided for, loved and trained up aright. A precious charge!” he added, looking from one to another with glistening eyes.

  “Yes, sir, I know,” she said, laying her head on his shoulder and slipping a hand into his, “and oh but I’m glad and thankful that God gave me to you instead of to somebody else!”

  “And Gracie and I are just as glad to belong to papa as you are,” said Max, Grace adding, “Yes, indeed!” as she held up her face for a kiss, which her father gave very heartily.

  “But, papa, what are we to do about the presents if we mustn’t take time to make them?” asked Lulu.

  “Make fewer and buy more.”

  “But maybe the money won’t hold out.”

  “You will have to make it hold out by choosing less expensive articles, or giving fewer gifts.”

  “We’ll have to try hard to earn the quarter for good behavior every day, Lu,” said Max.

  “Yes, I mean to; but that won’t help with Christmas gifts; it’s only for benevolence, you know.”

  “But what you give to the poor, simply because they are poor and needy, may be considered benevolence, I think,” said their father.

  “Oh may it?” she exclaimed. “I’m glad of that! Papa, I— haven’t liked Dick very much since he chopped up the cradle I’d carved for Gracie’s dolls, but I believe I want to give him a Christmas present; it will help me to forgive him and like him better. But I don’t know what would please him best.”

  “Something to make a noise with,” suggested Max; “a drum or trumpet for instance.”

  “He’d make too much racket,” she objected.

  “How would a hatchet do?” asked Max, with waggish look and smile.

  “Not at all; he isn’t fit to be trusted with one,” returned Lulu, promptly. “Papa, what do you think would be a suitable present for him?”

  “A book with bright pictures and short stories told very simply in words of one or two syllables. Dick is going to school and learning to read, and I think such a gift would be both enjoyable and useful to him.”

  “Yes; that’ll be just the right thing!” exclaimed Lulu. “Papa, you always do know best about everything.”

  “I hope you’ll stick to that idea, Lu,” laughed Max. “You seem to have only just found it out; but Grace and I have known it this long while; haven’t we, Gracie?”

  “Yes, indeed!” returned the little sister.

  “And so have I,” said Lulu, hanging her head and blushing, “only sometimes I’ve forgotten it for a while. But I hope I won’t any more, dear papa,” she added softly, with a penitent, beseeching look up into his face.

  “I hope not, my darling,” he responded in tender tones, caressing her hair and cheek with his hand, “and the past shall not be laid up against you.”

  “Papa, will you take us to the city, as you did last year, and let us choose, ourselves, the things we are going to give?” asked Max.

  “I intend to do so,” his father said. “Judging from the length of your lists, I think we will have to take several trips to accomplish it all. So we will make a beginning before long, when the weather has become settled; perhaps the first pleasant day of next week, if you have all been good and industrious about your lessons.”

  “Have we earned our quarters to-day, papa?” asked Grace.

  “I think you are in a fair way to do so,” he answered smiling, “but you still have a chance to lose them between this and your bedtime.”

  “It’s just before we get into bed you’ll give them to us, papa?” Lulu said inquiringly.

  “I shall tell you at that time whether you have earned them, but I may sometimes only set the amount down to your credit and pay you the money in a lump at the end of the week.”

  “Yes, sir; we’ll like that way just as well,” they returned in chorus.

  Violet had come in and taken possession of an easy chair on the farther side of the glowing grate.

  Looking smilingly at the little group opposite, “I have a thought,” she said lightly; “who can guess it?”

  “It’s something nice about papa; how handsome he is, and how good and kind,” ventured Lulu.

  “A very close guess, Lu,” laughed Violet; “for my thought was that the Woodburn children have as good and kind a father as could be found in all the length and breadth of the land.”

  “We know it, Mamma Vi; we all think so,” cried the children.

  But the captain shook his head, saying, “Ah, my dear, flattery is not good for me. If you continue to dose me with it, who knows but I shall become as conceited and vain as a peacock?”

  “Not a bit of danger of that!” she returned gaily. “But I do not consid
er the truth flattery.”

  “Suppose we change the subject,” he said with a good-humored smile. “We have been making out lists of Christmas gifts and would like to have your opinion and advice in regard to some of them.”

  “You shall have them for what they are worth,” she returned, taking the slips of paper Max handed her, and glancing over them.

  Chapter 4

  The parlor at Ion, full of light and warmth, looked very pleasant and inviting this evening. The whole family— not so large now as it had been before Capt. Raymond took his wife and children to a home of their own— were gathered there;— Mr. Dinsmore and his wife— generally called Grandma Rose by the children— Grandma Elsie, her son Edward and his wife, Zoe, and the two younger children;— Rosie and Walter.

  The ladies and Rosie were all knitting or crocheting. Mr. Dinsmore and Edward were playing chess, and Walter was deep in a story book.

  “Zoe,” said Rosie, breaking a pause in the conversation, “do you know, has mamma told you, about her new plans for benevolence? how she is going to let us all help her in distributing her funds?”

  “Us?” echoed Zoe inquiringly.

  “Yes; all her children; and that includes you of course.”

  “Most assuredly it does,” said Grandma Elsie, smiling tenderly upon her young daughter-in-law.

  Zoe’s eyes sparkled. “Thank you, mamma,” she said with feeling. “I should be very sorry to be left out of the number; I am very proud of belonging there.

  “But what about the new plans, Rosie? if mamma is willing you should tell me now what they are.”

  “Quite willing,” responded mamma, and Rosie went on.

  “You know mamma always gives thousands of dollars every year to home and foreign missions, and other good causes, and she says that this time she will let each of us choose a cause for her to give a thousand to.”

  “I like that!” exclaimed Zoe. “Many thanks, mamma, for my share of the privilege. I shall choose to have my thousand go to help the mission schools in Utah. I feel so sorry for those poor Mormon women. The idea of having to share your husband with another woman, or maybe half a dozen or more! It’s simply awful!”