CHAPTER XVI--CHRISTMAS CHEER
So Miss Walters was seeing to it that Polly Haddon received foodregularly--"almost every night!" Of course Miss Walters had promised tolook out for the family, but the girls had hardly expected her to be sogenerous.
And while they were still turning the revelation over wonderingly intheir minds, Polly Haddon called to them softly from the other room.
It was a bare little room into which they stepped--barer and poorer thaneven they had imagined. And in the midst of a little iron bed lay Peter,so pathetically white and emaciated that it tore their hearts to look athim.
"Is he very bad?" asked Billie, turning to weary-eyed Polly Haddon.
"The doctor says he almost surely will die," answered the latter in atoneless voice. "He has just one chance out of a hundred."
And as though speaking the doctor's name had brought him there, the bigman himself entered at that moment and the girls took that opportunityto say good-bye.
"Poor little Peter," sighed Billie, as they walked slowly homeward. "Isuppose if he dies poor Mrs. Haddon will nearly die too."
"I wish there was something we could do," said Vi, frowning.
"I don't know what more we could do than we have done," said Lauragloomily.
"Except," said Billie thoughtfully, her eyes fixed on the far horizon,"find that invention of hers. I imagine that would make her so happythat she might even persuade poor little Peter to live."
"Good gracious!" cried Laura, throwing up her hands in a despairinggesture. "She's raving again, girls, she's raving again!"
Billie laughed, but her eyes were still very thoughtful.
But the holiday season was upon them and it was impossible for the girlsto be gloomy or unhappy for very long. They wished with all their heartsthat Polly Haddon and her pathetic little brood might be made happy andprosperous once more, but even while they were wishing they could notshake off the exultant thought that Christmas was coming. And Christmasto most of them meant home and family and turkeys and cranberry sauceand presents--oh, oodles of presents!
"No holiday quite as good as good old Christmas," observed Laura, gaily,as she danced around with a package she had just been doing up in a redribbon.
"I'm with you on that," declared Billie. "Oh, do you know, sometimes Ican hardly wait until Christmas comes!"
"But you'll wait just the same," drawled Vi. "We all will."
"It's waiting that makes it worth while," declared Billie. "It's likethe small boy and the circus. Tell him in the morning that you will takehim in the afternoon and it doesn't amount to much. But tell him a monthahead and he'll get a whole month's fun out of it before it comes off."
"All right, Billie, I'll tell you a secret," whispered Vi, with atwinkle in her eyes. "About a year from now we'll have anotherChristmas. Now is your time to start thinking about it." And then therewere giggles all around.
"I'll wait for one Christmas to be over before I think of the next,"declared Billie.
Billie had asked Connie Danvers to come home with her for over theholidays, but Connie, after, writing eagerly home for permission, hadhad to refuse the invitation. Mrs. Danvers thanked Mrs. Bradley andBillie, but there was to be a big reunion of the Danvers family thatChristmas and they had all counted on having Connie with them. If Billiecould come home with Connie for Christmas--but here Billie shook herhead decidedly, though the invitation was an enticing one. She knew thather mother would certainly want her at home for the most wonderful dayin all the year.
And so when the time came, the classmates went their several ways aftermany fond embraces had been exchanged--to say nothing of variousmysterious little green- and red-ribboned parcels.
The Christmas spirit is a wonderful thing, intangible, yet so real thateven the most hardened old reprobate will thrill to the magic of it. Andas these girls were neither hardened nor reprobates, they were kept in acontinual state of excitement and joyful anticipation for two wholeweeks before the great day arrived.
Ever since the opening of Three Towers Hall in the fall, the girls hadused their spare moments to sew on little mysterious things which wereimmediately hidden upon the arrival of any of their fellow students, andnow these same pieces of needlework began to blossom forth in gaybe-ribboned boxes that passed between the girls in a continual stream.
Sometimes one would be found between the sheets of a girl's bed when shejumped in at night and the touch of it would elicit a muffled shriek, tobe followed by hysterical giggles when the gift was pulled from itshiding place and disclosed in all its glory to be admired and exclaimedover by the girls who had not been lucky enough to bark their shins ongifts of their own.
And sometimes another be-ribboned parcel would find its way into thestocking of a lucky maiden while she slept or be discovered in anout-of-the-way corner of her desk, nearly covered by books and papers.
And as the time drew still nearer, even interest in their studiesflagged, and the teachers, wisely forbearing to force them, entered intothe fun themselves, knowing that one could not study much while theChristmas cheer was in the air.
The girls had fondly hoped that Teddy and Chet and Ferd would be able tomake the return trip with them, but as Boxton Academy did not close forthe holidays until the day after the official closing of Three Towers,the girls were forced to give up the idea.
"Oh, well," Billie said resignedly, "as long as they get there forChristmas it will be time enough."
The day of release came at last and found the three North Bend girlsdoing a two-step of impatience on the station platform, waiting for thetrain, which was already half an hour late.
"Goodness, but your bag looks stuffed, Billie," remarked Laura, stoppingbefore Billie's big suitcase whose bulging sides did look as though theymight burst at any moment and disgorge the contents.
"It has twenty presents in it," confided Billie, surveying her fatproperty with a loving eye. "I only hope it holds out till we get home,that's all!"
Then the train puffed around the bend and slowed up to the station. Andseveral hours later three very much flushed, very much excited, and verypretty young girls popped off the train at North Bend and straight intothe arms of their doting families.
"Merry Christmas!" they cried to every one in general and no one inparticular. "Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Oh,isn't it glorious to be at home!"
The boys arrived the next day, and they all had a great reunion atBillie's home, where they exchanged presents and talked in hushed tonesof what they hoped that Santa Claus would bring them--to-morrow! Forthis was Christmas Eve!
But the party broke up soon, and they all went to bed early so that theycould get up at six o'clock the next morning--at the very latest.
Oh, the fun of anticipating and the joy of Christmas Day. First of all,the bulging stocking with its lumps of coal and pieces of carefullywrapped sugar with really pretty things stuck in between.
Then the mad rush for the Christmas tree and the admiring exclamationsover its glittering beauty. And then--the opening of the gay,be-ribboned boxes. The laughter, the joy, the tears, as each littleparcel disclosed something prettier or funnier or dearer than the last.It was all so wonderful that it was a pity it could not have lastedforever.
Then, after Christmas, one glorious, ecstatic week of fun that passedlike a day. There were dances and parties and sleighrides and so manyother festivities that there was hardly a minute of the day that was notaccounted for.
It was not till the week was almost over that the girls thoughtpenitently of the Haddons.
"I wonder," said Billie, as she turned over and over in her fingers aten dollar gold piece that had been a gift from an aunt, "what kind ofChristmas poor little Peter has had."
"Oh, for goodness' sake, Billie!" Laura replied a little impatiently,"what is the use of spoiling all our fun by bringing up the unhappinessof some one else? We can't help it if the Haddons haven't had as nice aChristmas as we have. We certainly have done all we could."
But Vi had been eyeing Billie's gold piece, and suddenly she had abright idea all her own.
"Listen," she said, pulling out her pocket book and fumbling in iteagerly. She brought out a glistening five dollar gold piece. "We allgot a little money in gold this Christmas. Suppose we do it up in a boxand leave it at the Haddons' door when we get back. We have enough moneyto get along with for the rest of the term, anyway."
For a moment Laura looked a little undecided, but Billie jumped up, ranover to Vi and hugged her.
"You're a perfect angel!" she cried. "That's just exactly what I wasthinking myself. Only I wasn't going to ask you girls. I was just goingto leave mine and say nothing about it."
"Oh, well," grumbled Laura, taking her own bright coin from its hidingplace and handing it over reluctantly. "If you girls are going to befoolish I suppose I've got to be too. Only it's no joke," she added, ina plaintive tone that made the girls giggle, "when you think of all thesodas and candy it would buy!"
At last the long anticipated holidays were at an end and after a fewdays of readjustment at the school, the classmates settled down to workin earnest. For the rest of the semester was crowded with work and theprizes were held out as a glittering bait to spur them on to freshendeavor.
Only once, after their return to the Hall, the girls found time to runover to see the Haddons, hoping to be able to hide the generous giftthey had decided to make in some inconspicuous place where it would notbe discovered until they had had time to make their escape.
Polly Haddon seemed very glad indeed to see them, but she had no goodnews to report of Peter. He was still very low, but the doctor, greatman that he was, was bending every energy to bring him through.
"But he will die," said the mother, despairingly. "There is so littleleft of him now that I wonder that every breath he draws is not hislast. Oh, my little boy! My poor little boy! I'll not let him be takenfrom me!"
They comforted her as best they could, and then Billie, to theastonishment of her chums, began asking questions about the knittingmachinery model, the disappearance of which had so changed life for thisdistracted woman.
"Was the model large or was it small, so that it could easily be stolenand hidden away?" she asked, while Polly Haddon looked up at her withsomething like surprise in her black eyes.
"It was large," she answered. "And rather heavy. It could not be easilystolen, and neither could it have been hidden away in any small place.That is why we wondered. But why do you ask?"
"I don't know," answered Billie honestly. "Perhaps it is just because Iwould like to help you so much."
The woman reached over and patted her hand gently, but her eyes hadbecome listless again.
"You--everybody--have been so good to me," she said, tonelessly. "Idon't know why you have been so good--no one ever was before. But thereis one thing you can not do for me. You can not restore my poorhusband's invention, the loss of which caused his death. That would be amiracle. And in these days no one is working miracles."
Mrs. Haddon left the room for a moment, and in that moment Billieslipped the little box containing their three precious gold piecesbehind the alarm clock that stood on a shelf over the sink.
The woman returned before Billie had quite finished, but she was tooworried and anxious and unhappy to notice anything unusual. And thelittle box was still safe in its hiding place when the girls took theirleave a few minutes later.
"Won't she be surprised when she finds it?" crowed Vi delightedly. "Ifeel like Santa Claus."
"Well, you don't look like it," returned Laura, "Your face isn't redenough."