Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa Claus' Reading List

by A. A. Milne

  Rosie hastily threw off her coat and hat, then opening a bureau drawer, took from it a jewel case saying with a look of exultation, “I have something to show you, girls, mamma’s Christmas gift to me;” and raising the lid she displayed a beautiful pearl necklace and bracelets.

  “So she did give them to you!” they exclaimed in surprised chorus, for they had supposed all the presents had been already shown them. “O Rosie, how lovely!”

  “I’m ever so glad for you Rosie,” said Lulu; “but I’d about made up my mind that Grandma Elsie thought about buying the pearls for you as papa did about the ring I wanted.”

  “Mamma didn’t buy them,” explained Rosie; “they are a set grandpa gave her when she was a little girl; and I think they are as handsome as any she could have found any where. She said she valued them very highly as his gift, but would never wear them again, and as I am her own little girl, she was willing to give them to me.”

  “I think you’re pretty big, Rosie,” remarked Grace.

  “Yes; in my fifteenth year; almost a woman, as grandpa tells me sometimes— when he wants to make me ashamed of not being wiser and better I suppose,” returned Rosie with a laugh, closing the casket and returning it to the drawer, just as Betty, the little maid, showed her black face and woolly head at the half open door with the announcement, “Dinnah’s ready, Miss Rosie; an’ all de folks gwine into de dinnin’ room.”

  “Very well; we’re not sorry to hear it, are we girls? Let us pair off and go down at once to secure our fair share,” said Rosie gaily. “There’s just an even number of us— Maud and Lora, Lulu and Eva, Grace and Rosie Lacey, Sydney and I. We’re to have a table to ourselves; I asked mamma if we might, and she gave consent.”

  “I like that,” remarked Sydney with satisfaction; “we can have our own fun and eat what we please without anybody to trouble us with suggestions that perhaps such and such articles of food may not agree with us.”

  “But we’ll be in the same room with the older folks and they can overlook us if they see fit,” said Rosie.

  “And I’d rather have papa to tell me what to eat,” said Grace.

  They were hurrying down the stairs as they talked and reached the dining room just in time to take their places before the blessing was asked— by Mr. Dinsmore at the larger table.

  It was a grand dinner of many courses, and a good deal of time, enlivened by cheerful chat, was spent at the table.

  Quiet games— mirth provoking, yet requiring little exertion of mind or body— filled up the remainder of the afternoon.

  After tea they had romping games, but at nine o’clock were called together for family worship; then the younger ones, including Lulu and Grace, went to their beds; very willingly too, for the day— begun so early because of their eagerness to examine their stockings— had been an unusually long and exciting one; so that they felt ready for rest.

  Grace indeed was so weary that her father carried her up to her room, and did not leave her till she was snug in bed.

  She dropped asleep the instant her head touched the pillow and he stood for a moment gazing a little anxiously at her pale face.

  “You don’t think Gracie’s sick, papa, do you?” asked Lulu softly.

  “No, I trust she will be all right in the morning— the darling! but she seems quite worn out now,” he sighed.

  Then sitting down he drew Lulu into his arms. “Has it been a happy day with you, dear child?” he asked.

  “Yes, papa, very; just full of pleasure; and now that night has come, I’m so glad that I have my own dear papa to hug me up close, and that he’s going to sleep in the next room to Gracie and me.”

  “I’m glad too,” he said. “Yes, we have a great deal to be thankful for— you and I. Most of all for God’s unspeakable gift— the dear Saviour whose birth and life and death have bought all our other blessings for us.

  “My child, try to keep in mind always, even when engaged in your sports, that you are his and must so act and speak as to bring no disgrace upon his cause; make it your constant endeavor to honor him in all your words and ways.”

  “I do mean to, papa; but oh it is so easy to forget!”

  “I know it, my darling; I find it so too; but we must watch and pray, asking God earnestly night and morning, on our knees, to keep us from temptation and from sin, and often sending up a swift, silent petition from our hearts at other times when we feel that we need help to overcome.

  “I want you, my little daughter, to be particularly on the watch against your besetting sin— an inclination to sudden outbursts of passion. It is not to be expected that everything will move on as smoothly, with so many children and young people together, every day, as they have to-day, and I fear you will be strongly tempted at times to give way to your naturally quick temper.”

  “Oh I am afraid so too papa; and it would be perfectly dreadful if I should!” she said with a half shudder, twining her arm round his neck and hiding her face on his shoulder. “Oh won’t you ask God to help me to keep from it?”

  “Yes, I shall, I do every night and morning, and we will ask him together now.”

  Chapter 7

  It had been growing colder all the afternoon, and continued to do so very rapidly through the night. The next morning at the breakfast table some of the lads announced, with great glee that the lakelet was frozen over; the ice so thick and solid that it was perfectly safe for skating in every part.

  The news caused quite a flurry of pleasurable excitement among the younger ones of the company.

  “I move that we spend the morning there,” said Zoe.

  “How many of us have skates, I wonder?”

  “You have I think, have you not?” said Edward.

  “Yes; yours and mine are both in good order; I examined them only the other day.”

  The captain asked how many knew how to use skates, and from the replies it seemed that all the lads had been more or less accustomed to their use, some of the girls also. Zoe had had quite a good deal of practice before her marriage, a little since.

  The winters were usually too mild in this part of the country to give much opportunity for that kind of exercise. She was therefore the more eager to avail herself of this one; for she was very fond of the sport.

  Edward, Harold, and Herbert were all in the mood to join her in it and were prepared to do so; and Rosie and Max too were equally fortunate; but most of the others had come without skates.

  But that difficulty could be easily remedied; their homes were not far off, nor was the village, with its stores where such things could be bought. It was decided to despatch messengers for the needed supplies.

  “Papa,” said Lulu, “may they get a pair for me? I’d like to learn to skate.”

  He turned to her with an indulgent smile. “Would you? then you shall; I will send for the skates and give you a lesson in the art myself. I used to be reckoned a good skater in my boyhood. Would my little Grace like to learn too?”

  “No, thank you, papa, I’d rather walk on the ground, or ride.”

  “You shall ride on the ice if you will, little girlie,” said Harold. “I think I can find a conveyance that will suit your taste.”

  “You’re kind to think of it, Uncle Harold,” she said, with a dubious look, “but I’m afraid the horses would slip and fall on the ice.”

  “I think not,” he said; “but if they should they will only have to pick themselves up again, and go on.”

  “But I’m afraid they might get hurt and maybe tip me over too.”

  Harold only smiled at that, as he rose and left the room to attend to the despatching of the messengers.

  Grace wondered what he meant, but as the older people all about her were busily talking among themselves, she went on quietly with her breakfast and said no more.

  “Are you a skater, my dear?” asked the captain, addressing his wife.

  “I used to be a tolerably expert one and moderately fond of the exercise,” she replied.

  “I
should like the pleasure of taking you out this morning, for a trial of your skill,” he said. “Shall I send for skates for you?”

  “Thank you, no; I think I have a pair somewhere about the house, and perhaps can find another for you.”

  “There are several pairs of gentlemen’s skates,” said her mother. “I will have them brought out for the captain to try.”

  He thanked her, adding that in case a pair should be found to fit, he could have the pleasure of taking his wife out without waiting for the return of the servant despatched to the village.

  Upon leaving the breakfast table they all repaired to the parlor for family worship, as was their custom morning and evening. Then those who had skates, and some who wanted the walk and a near view of the skating, Lulu among them, got themselves ready and went to the lakelet, while the others waited for the return of the messengers; most of them meanwhile gathered about the windows overlooking the lakelet, to watch the movements of the skaters— Edward, Zoe, Harold, Herbert, Rosie, Evelyn and Max; presently joined by Capt. Raymond and Violet, a pair of skates having been found to fit each of them.

  When all were fairly started the scene became very animated and pretty. The two married couples skated well, but Harold, and especially Herbert, far exceeded them, the swift, easy movement with which they glided over the glassy surface of the lake, the exact balancing of their bodies, and the graceful curves they executed called forth many an admiring and delighted exclamation from the onlookers, both near at hand and farther away at the windows of the mansion.

  Among the latter were Grandma Elsie, her father and his wife— Grandma Rose— and Cousin Ronald.

  “Bravo!” cried the two old gentlemen simultaneously, as Herbert performed a feat in which he seemed to fairly outdo himself. Mr. Lilburn adding, “I feel the old ardor for the sport stir within me at sight o’ the lad’s adroit movements. At his age I might have ventured to compete with as expert a skater as he. What say you, Cousin Horace, to a match atween the two auld chaps o’ us down there the noo?”

  “Agreed,” Mr. Dinsmore said with a laugh. “There are skates that will answer our purpose I think, and we will set off at once if you like.”

  At that moment Lulu came running in. “The skates have come, Grandma Elsie,” she said, “just as I have got back to the house. Papa sent me in because it was too cold, he said, for me to be standing still out there. He’ll come for me when Mamma Vi is tired and wants to come in.”

  “Does she seem to be enjoying it?” asked the person addressed.

  “Oh yes, ma’am, very much indeed! Aren’t you going to try it too?”

  “Yes, do, Elsie,” said her father. “And you too, Rose,” to his wife. “Let us all try the sport while we have an opportunity.”

  The ladies were nothing loath, everybody seemed to catch the spirit of the hour, the skates were quickly distributed, and all hurried away to the lake, but Lulu and Grace who were to stay within doors, by their father’s orders, till he came, or sent for them.

  Lulu having taken off her hood and coat, now sat before the fire warming her feet. Grace was watching the skaters from an easy chair by the window.

  “It does look like good fun,” she said. “Is it very cold out there, Lu?”

  “Not so very; the wind doesn’t blow; but when you’ve been standing still a while your feet feel right cold. I hardly thought about it though, I was so taken up with watching the skating, till papa called to me that it was too cold for me to stand there, and I must come in.”

  “Papa’s always taking care of his children,” remarked Grace.

  “Yes,” assented Lulu, “he never seems to forget us at all; I most wish he would sometimes,” she added laughing, “just once in a while when I feel like having my own way, you know.

  “Wasn’t he good to send for these for me?” she went on, holding up her new skates and regarding them with much satisfaction. “They’re nice ones, and it’ll be nice to have him teach me how to use them. I’ve heard of people getting hard falls learning how to skate, but I think I’ll be pretty safe not to fall with papa to attend to me.”

  “I should think so,” said Grace. “Oh papa and mamma have stopped and I do believe they’re taking off their skates! at least papa’s taking her’s off for her, I think.”

  “Oh then they’re coming in and we’ll get our turn!”

  “I don’t want to try it.”

  “No, but you can walk down there, and then you’re to have a ride on the ice; you know Uncle Harold said so.”

  “I don’t know what he meant; and I don’t know whether I want to try it either. Yes, papa and mamma are both coming back.”

  Violet had soon tired of the sport, and beside feared her baby was wanting her. She went on up to the nursery while the captain entered the parlor where his little girls were waiting for his coming.

  “Waiting patiently, my darlings?” he said, with an affectionate smile. “I know it is rather hard sometimes for little folks to wait. But you may bundle up now, and I will take you out to enjoy the sport with the rest. It will be a nice walk for you, Gracie, and when you get there you will have a pleasant time I think.”

  “How papa?”

  “My little girl will see when she gets there,” he said. “Ah, here is Agnes with your hood and coat. Now, while she puts them on you, I will see if Lulu’s skates are quite right.”

  They proved to be a good fit and in few minutes the captain was on his way to the lakelet with a little girl clinging to each hand.

  A pretty boat house stood at the water’s edge— on the hither side, under the trees, and now close beside it, on the ice, the children spied a small, light sleigh well supplied with robes of wolf and bear skins.

  “There, Gracie, how would you like to ride in that?” asked her father.

  “It looks nice, but— how can it go?” she asked dubiously. “I don’t see any horses papa.”

  “No, but you will find that it can move without.”

  Harold had seen them approaching, and now came gliding very rapidly towards them, on his skates.

  “Ah Gracie, are you ready for your ride?” he asked, “Rosie Lacey and one or two of the other little ones are going to share it with you. Captain will you lift her in while I summon them?”

  “Here we are, Cousin Harold,” called a childish voice, and Rose Lacey came running up almost out of breath with haste and excitement, two other little girl cousins following at her heels; “here we are. Can you take us now?”

  “Yes,” he said, “I was just about to call you.”

  In another minute the four were in the sleigh with the robes well tucked around them. Then, Harold, taking hold of the back of the vehicle, gave it a vigorous shove away from the shore, and keeping a tight grip on it, propelled it quite rapidly around the lake.

  It required a good deal of exertion, but Herbert and others came to his assistance and the sleigh made the circuit many times, its young occupants laughing, chatting and singing right merrily: the gayest of the gay.

  Meanwhile the others enjoyed the skating, perhaps quite as much. The older ladies and the two old gentlemen seemed to have renewed their youth, and kept up the sport a good deal longer than they had intended in the beginning; while the younger ones, and especially the children, were full of mirth and jollity, challenging each other to trials of speed and skill, laughing good-naturedly at little mishaps, and exchanging jests and good humored banter.

  And Cousin Ronald added to the fun by causing them to hear again and again sounds as of jingling sleighbells and prancing horses in their rear. So distinct and natural were these sounds that they could not help springing aside out of the track of the supposed steeds, and turning their heads to see how near they were.

  Then shouts of laughter would follow from old and young of both sexes, mingled with little shrieks, half of affright and half of amusement from the girls.

  While all this was going on, Capt. Raymond was giving Lulu her first lesson in the use of skates, holding her hand
in his, guarding her carefully from the danger of falling.

  But for that she would have fallen several times, for it seemed almost impossible to keep her balance; however she gained skill and confidence; and at length asked to be allowed to try it for a little unaided.

  He permitted her to do so, but kept very near to catch her in case she should slip or stagger.

  She succeeded very well and after a time he ceased to watch her constantly, remaining near her, but taking his eyes off her now and then to see what others were doing; noting with fatherly pride in his son, how Max was emulating the older skaters, and returning a joyous look and smile given him by Gracie, as she swept past in the sleigh.

  It presently stopped a few paces away, and he made a movement as if to go and lift her out, but at the sound of a thud on the ice behind him, turned quickly again to find Lulu down.

  She had thrown out her hands in falling, and he felt a thrill of horror as he perceived that one of them lay directly in the path of a skater, Chester Dinsmore, who was moving with such velocity that he would not be able to check his speed in time to avoid running over her.

  But even while he perceived her peril the captain had, with an almost lightning like movement, stooped over his child and dragged her backward. Barely in time; Chester’s skate just grazed her fingers, cutting off the tip of her mitten. There were drops of blood on the ice, and for a moment her father thought her fingers were off.

  “Oh my child, my darling!” he groaned, holding her close in his arms and taking the bleeding hand tenderly in his.

  “I’m not hurt, papa; at least only a very little,” she hastened to say, while the others crowded about them with agitated, anxious questioning. “Is Lulu hurt?” “Did Chess run over her!” “Did the fall hurt her?”

  “My fingers are bleeding a little, but they don’t hurt very much,” she answered. “I think his skate went over my mitten, and I suppose my fingers would have been cut off if papa hadn’t jerked me back out of the way.”

  Chester had just joined the group. “I can never be sufficiently thankful for the escape,” he said with a slight tremble in his tones, “I could never have forgiven myself if I had maimed that pretty hand; though it was utterly impossible for me to stop myself in time, at the headlong rate of speed with which I was moving.”