Brenda, Her School and Her Club

by Oliver Optic

  XVIII

  MERRY CHRISTMAS

  When Miss South heard of Brenda's feeling on the subject of the Rosasshe hastened to invite her to assist in the Christmas tree enterprise"not so much with money, Brenda," she said, "as with your taste. I knowthat you and Belle can make several of the decorations for the tree.Money to spend for the things has been given me by a friend, and weshall have more than enough."

  With this suggestion Brenda was not at all displeased, for she had spentmore than double her liberal allowance of Christmas money on gifts forher friends. A foolish habit of exchanging presents had grown up atschool, and each girl tried to return the presents of the season beforewith something handsomer than the giver had bestowed on her. In this waythose who had to consider money were called mean if they did not give ahandsome present to all those whom they knew, that is those girls withwhom they had anything more than a speaking acquaintance. The everextravagant Brenda had reached almost the end of the list of those whomshe wished to remember with Christmas gifts, and had had to go to herfather for more money, which he gave her only on condition that sheshould deduct it from her allowance of the next two months. It wasprobably this knowledge that she could do little for the Christmas treefor the Rosas which had led her at first to express herself ratherill-naturedly to Julia on the subject.

  Mr. Barlow always protested a little against Brenda's present-givinghabit. He said that it was very foolish to give a silver pin-tray to agirl who perhaps already had a half-dozen similar articles, which shewould probably return with a silver scent bottle, of which Brendaalready had more than she could use in a lifetime. "It would be muchmore sensible if each of you would go out and buy the thing which youwish the most for yourself and let others do the same. I have an ideathat your wants would be less numerous and less costly if you felt thatyou were spending your own money for yourself."

  "Oh! papa."

  "Yes, I mean it. If you were in the habit of buying more books, it wouldnot be so bad, there would be little danger of your having too many, andone book, if a duplicate, could be properly exchanged for another. Butyou buy such foolish things for one another, and the chief aim of eachgirl seems to be to outdo every other girl."

  "Oh, papa, I'm sure we all make out lists of what we want the most, andwe always try to please one another, indeed we always do, and one can'tbe mean; I'm sure you wouldn't want any one to call me mean."

  "Now, Brenda, of course not; but there are different kinds of meanness,and I wonder how many of you girls at Miss Crawdon's ever stop to thinkhow many little comforts your Christmas presents would buy for the needymen and women who have so little to brighten their lives. No, Brenda, Ido not begrudge you the money that I give you, but I often do object toyour way of spending it--sometimes," he hastened to add, as he saw thefrown gathering on Brenda's face.

  But, after all, it would take too long to tell you how thoroughly inearnest Julia and the others were in their efforts to make the Christmastree a success. The tree, to be sure, was the least part of it. For Mrs.Rosa's small kitchen was not adapted to a very large one, and Miss Southdecided that it would be rather foolish to put too much money into athing of that kind. The decorations were inexpensive, or homemade, andthe presents were useful rather than ornamental. Of course there weretoys and colored picture-books for Manuel and the smaller girls, andbags of candy and oranges for each of the family, and candles enough onthe tree to make a cheerful illumination for five or ten minutes whileMiss South and Philip stood near by with pails of water ready to use incase a spark of fire should fall where it was not expected. But afterall, things went off very well, and when the Four, or rather theFive--for Julia, of course, was included--drove down to see thedistribution of the presents, they had hardly standing-room in thelittle kitchen. Julia and Miss South had done the most of thepurchasing, and the things that they had thought of were innumerable. Ineed not tell you what they all were, but there was a new rug to go infront of the stove, and there were two wadded quilts for each of thefamily beds, there was a new gown for Mrs. Rosa, and mittens and shoesfor all the children, and--but it is better for you to imagine it all,only remembering that when a family is absolutely destitute, a greatdeal of money may be spent without making a great show. The Christmasdinner had been sent by the Baptist Church, and on Christmas evening thechildren were to go to a festival at the Episcopal Church where theyexpected to receive some other presents. For even Miss South had not yethad enough influence to get the Rosas to devote themselves to onechurch. They still continued to think that to attend two Protestantchurches showed a praiseworthy excess of virtue.

  But whatever the trouble and expense had been, the beaming faces of Mrs.Rosa and the children were sufficient compensation for Miss South andher pupils. Even Belle had no fault to find with the tree, or the Rosasor with anything connected with the celebration.

  But for Julia one of the pleasantest results of the Christmas tree wasthe intimacy which grew up between her and Miss South, a rather unusualfriendship to have arisen between a girl of sixteen and a woman tenyears older.

  Mr. and Mrs. Barlow were pleased with the animation which Julia hadshown in this work for the Christmas tree, and they had no objection tothe intimacy with Miss South, since Miss Crawdon had assured them thatthey knew her to be a young woman of unusually fine character. Justafter Christmas Miss South went up to the country for a week or two ofperfect rest, and Julia for the first time since she came to Bostonfound herself entering into a round of gaiety. Dancing parties weregiven almost every evening by some one of the schoolgirls, and no onethought of inviting Brenda without asking Julia, too. It is true thatJulia did not care very much for round dances, but she had come to seethat it was almost a duty to enter more heartily into the amusements ofher schoolmates. So, putting aside--so far as she could--her naturaldiffidence--she almost always accompanied Brenda, and though she couldnot take part in round dances, she seldom had to sit alone. There wasalways some other girl who did not dance, or who had not been asked forthe dance, and not infrequently some awkward boy who preferred sittingit out to dancing. On some occasions, even when there had been but twoor three square dances in which Julia could take part, she had reportedto her uncle and aunt at breakfast the next morning that she had enjoyedherself very much.

  "A contented mind is a continual feast," said Belle, sarcastically, whenshe heard Julia telling some one how much she had enjoyed a certainevening. "Why, I do not think that Julia was on the floor twice.Whenever I saw her she was talking to wall flowers, or small boys whoought to have been at home or in bed." By "small boy," Belle meant anyone who was not yet in college, for she herself was hardly polite to anyone younger than a sophomore, and she wondered that any hostess to whosehouse she was invited should think of having any one there younger thanthis. But the best-intentioned hostess sometimes had young cousins ornephews whom she wished to invite, and the two or three years'difference in age between a sophomore and a boy still in the preparatoryschool did not count for much in her eyes, however it may have beenregarded by some of the girls of Belle's age.

  Yet in spite of Belle's unfavorable criticisms, Julia was graduallywinning her way to considerable popularity, and this without any efforton her own part. She was especially polite to elderly ladies, not fromany motive, but because this seemed the proper thing, and her naturalkindliness of heart led her to look after any other girl who seemedneglected or lonely. As to the boys--well, while no one could tellexactly how it was, she had a way of drawing them out and making eventhose who hated parties, admit to her that if more girls were like herthey wouldn't mind going out. "But most girls, you know, just order usboys about so, and we have to dance whether we want to or not, or theycall us all kinds of things behind our backs," one of them said to Juliaone evening.

  "Why, how do you know?" she had asked.

  "Oh, our sisters tell us; why haven't you any brothers yourself?"

  "No," said Julia, laughing at his earnestness, "nor any sisters either."

  "Oh, well, you
know lots of girls, and you must have heard them talk. Ican tell you after I have heard my sisters and their friends talkingpeople over, I think that I will never go to a party again."

  "Then why do you?"

  "Oh, you have to; some way, the other fellows all kind of make fun ofyou if you don't, and then your family all get at you, and it's all anawful bore. But when I find a girl like you who don't mind sitting stilland talking, I don't have quite so bad a time." Then remembering that alittle more politeness was due even to a girl who didn't pretend to befond of dancing, he added, "Wouldn't you like to try this PortlandFancy? I can generally get through that all right, and I don't minddancing with you," and though the compliment in the last part of hisspeech was a little dubious, Julia accepted, to the amazement of some ofthe other girls, who would have felt themselves very much lowered ifobliged to dance with a schoolboy.

  After all the gaiety of Christmas week it wasn't the easiest thing inthe world for the girls to settle down to work at school. There were somany things to talk over, there was so much to think about. Christmasday itself had been very pleasant for Julia, though it had been kept byher uncle and aunt strictly as a family festival. She and Brenda werethe youngest of the group gathered at the table, for Brenda's eldersister was still in Europe, and the other cousins invited to the dinnerwere all older than Julia and Brenda. The presents were givenunostentatiously at breakfast before the arrival of any outside of thehousehold, and Julia was touched to find that she had been rememberednot only by the relatives whom she had seen, but by the absent cousinsin Europe who had known her only when she was a very little girl. Brendain her turn was extremely surprised by the handsome gifts which Juliagave to her and to her father and mother. There was the beautifulbracelet which she had been longing for as she had seen it in a Winterstreet window, with the tiny watch set near the clasp, while for herfather and mother was a large paper edition of Thackeray, finelyillustrated and elegantly bound. Brenda was too heedless of moneyherself to stop to count the cost of these gifts, and yet she realizedthat they must be expensive, and while thanking Julia with the greatestwarmth, she wondered how in the world she had been able to afford them.

  Her father had laughed as usual at what he called her "silverware," andhad asked her again as he had always asked her since she had acquiredthe habit of present exchanging, as he called it.

  "Now, wouldn't it really be more fun to have all your own money again,Brenda, so that you could start out, and buy for yourself the thingsthat you like the most instead of all these odds and ends."

  "Oh, papa," Brenda had replied, as she always did, "I just love thesethings, and I have more presents than almost any girl I know; they saythat I really am the most popular."

  "Yes," he rejoined, "because you make the most presents. However," as hesaw a cloud settling on her face, "I will not say anything if you arehappy. Only remember that you won't have any allowance again until thefirst of March."

  But an empty pocketbook did not seem the worst thing in the world toBrenda with her happy-go-lucky disposition, and on the Monday after NewYear's, when they were all back in school she was the merriest of thecrowd.