CHAPTER II.
BEFORE DAYLIGHT.
On Christmas morning, at three o'clock, there was a great bustle andpattering of little feet, and buzzing of little voices trying to speakin whispers. Susy and Prudy were awake and astir.
"Where _do_ you s'pose the stockings are?" buzzed Prudy, in a very loudwhisper.
"Right by the bed-post, Prudy Parlin; and if you don't take care we'llwake everybody up.--'Sh! 'Sh!"
"Mine's pinned on," said Prudy; "and I've pricked my fingers. O dearyme!"
"Well, of course you've waked 'em all now," exclaimed Susy,indignantly: "I might have pricked my fingers to pieces, but I wouldn'thave said a word."
Mr. and Mrs. Parlin, who were in the next room, were wide awake by thistime; but they said nothing, only listened to the whispers of thechildren, which grew fainter, being smothered and kept down by mouthfulsof candy, lozenges, and peanuts.
The little girls longed for daybreak. The sun, however, seemed to be inno haste, and it was a long while before there was a peep of light. Susyand Prudy waited, wondering whether the sun would really forget to showhis face; but all the while they waited they were eating candy; so itwas neither dull nor lonely. As for closing their eyes again, they wouldhave scorned the idea. It would be a pity indeed to fall asleep, andlose the pleasure of saying "Merry Christmas" to everybody. Norah, theIrish servant, had said she should be up very early to attend High Mass:they must certainly waylay her on the stairs. How astonished she wouldbe, when she supposed they were both soundly asleep!
"Let me do it myself," said Susy: "you stay here, Prudy, for you'll besure to make a noise."
"I'll go on my tippy toes," pleaded Prudy, her mouth half filled withchocolate drops.
So through their mother's room they stole softly, only throwing overone chair, and hitting Dotty's crib a little in their haste. Dotty madea sleepy sound of alarm, and Prudy could not help laughing, but only "inher sleeve," that is, in her "nightie" sleeve, which she put up to hermouth to smother the noise.
When they had reached the back-stairs Susy whispered, "O, Norah is upand gone down. I hear her in the kitchen. 'Sh! 'Sh!"
Susy thought there was no time to be lost, and she would have rusheddown stairs, two steps at a time, but her little sister was exactly inthe way.
"Somebody has been and tugged my little chair up here," said Prudy,"and I must tug it back again."
So in the dim light the two children groped their way down stairs, Prudygoing first with the chair.
"O, what a little snail! Hurry--can't you?" said Susy, impatiently;"Norah'll be gone! What's the use of our waking up in the night if wecan't say Merry Christmas to anybody?"
"Well, _ain't_ I a-hurryin' now?" exclaimed Prudy, plunging forward andfalling, chair and all, the whole length of the stairs.
All the house was awake now, for Prudy screamed lustily. Grandma Readcalled out from the passage-way,--
"O, little Prudence, has thee broken thy neck?"
Mrs. Parlin rushed out, too frightened to speak, and Mr. Parlin ran downstairs, and took Prudy up in his arms.
"It was--you--did it--Susy Parlin," sobbed the child. "Ishouldn't--have--fell, if you--hadn't--have--screamed."
The poor little girl spoke slowly and with difficulty, as if she droppeda bucket into her full heart, and drew up the words one at a time.
"O, mother, I know it was me," said Susy meekly; "and I was careless,and it was all in the dark. I'm sure I hope Prudy'll forgive me."
"No, it wasn't you, neither," said Prudy, whose good humor was restoredthe moment Susy had made what she considered due confession. "You nevertouched me, Susy! It was the _chair_; and I love you just as dearly asever I did."
Prudy lay on the sofa for some time, looking quite pale by thegas-light, while her mother rubbed her side, and the rest of the familystood looking at her with anxious faces.
It was quite an important occasion for Prudy, who always liked to be thecentre of attraction.
"O, mamma," said she, closing her eyes languidly, "when the room makesbelieve whirl round, does it _truly_ whirl round?"
The truth was, she felt faint and dizzy, though only for a short time.
"I wish," said she, "it had been somebody else that fell down stairs,and not me, for I didn't go down easy! The _prongs_ of the chair pushedright into my side."
But it did not appear that Prudy was much injured, after all. In a fewminutes she was skipping about the room almost as nimbly as ever, onlystopping to groan every now and then, when she happened to think of it.
"It is a wonder," said Mr. Parlin, "that more children are not lamed forlife by such accidents."
"I have often thought of it," said aunt Madge. "Some little ones seem tobe making hair-breadth escapes almost every day of their lives. Ibelieve Prudy would have been in her grave long ago, if it had not beenfor her guardian angel."
The long-expected Christmas had come at last, and Prudy had stumbledinto it, as she stumbled into everything else. But it is an ill windwhich blows no good to anybody; and it so happened that in all thisconfusion Susy was able to "wish a Merry Christmas" to Norah, and to thewhole family besides.
When Mrs. Parlin found that the children were too thoroughly awake to goto sleep again that morning, she told them they might dress themselvesin the parlor if they would keep as quiet as possible, and let the restof the household take another nap.
It all seemed very strange and delightful to the little girls. It waslike another sort of life, this new arrangement of stealing about thehouse in the silent hours before daybreak. Susy thought she should liketo sit up all night, and sleep all day, if the mayor would only hush thestreets; it would be so odd!
"O, how dark the clouds are!" said Prudy, peeping out of the window; "it_fogs_ so I can't see a single thing. Susy, I'm going to keep _at watch_of the sky. Don't you s'pose, though, 'twill be Christmas all the same,if there's a snow storm?"
"There's been snow," said Susy, "all in the night. Look down at thepavement. Don't you wish that was frosted cake?"
"O, the snow came in the night, so not to wake us up," cried Prudy,clapping her hands; "but it wouldn't have waked us, you know, even inthe night, for it came so still."
"But why don't the clouds go off?" she added, sadly.
"I don't know," replied Susy; "perhaps they are waiting till the suncomes and smiles them away."
Such happy children as these were, as they sat peeping out of the windowat the dull gray sky!
They did not know that a great mischief was begun that morning--amischief which was no larger yet than "a midge's wing." They werewatching the clouds for a snow storm; but they never dreamed of suchthings as clouds of _trouble_, which grow darker and darker, and whicheven the beautiful Christmas sun cannot "smile away."