Carol's Christmas party for the Ruggleses was more wonderful than even she had imagined. Carol's bed had been moved into the farthest corner of the room, and she was propped up on it, dressed in a wonderful soft white robe. Her golden hair fell in fluffy curls over her white forehead and neck, her cheeks flushed delicately, her eyes beamed with joy, and the children told their mother afterward that she looked as beautiful as the angels in the picture books.
There was a great bustle behind a huge screen in another part of the room, and at half past five this was taken away and the Christmas dinner table was revealed. What a wonderful sight it was to the Ruggles children! It blazed with tall, colored candles, it gleamed with glass and silver, it blushed with flowers, it groaned with good things to eat. So it was not strange that the Ruggleses shrieked in admiration of the fairy spectacle. But Larry's behavior was the most disgraceful, for he went at once to a high chair, climbed up like a squirrel, gave a look at the turkey, clapped his hands in ecstasy, rested his fat arms on the table, and cried with joy, "I beat the hull lot o'yer!" Carol laughed until she cried, giving orders meanwhile.
"Uncle Jack, please sit at the head, Sarah Maud at the foot, and that will leave four on each side. Mamma is going to help the maid, so you will not have to look after each other, but just have a good time."
There was hurrying to and fro, for it was quite a difficult matter to serve a Christmas dinner so far away from the downstairs kitchen. But if it had been necessary to carry every dish up a rope ladder the servants would gladly have done so - both for Carol's sake, and the joy and gusto with which the Ruggles children ate up the food. There was turkey and chicken, with delicious gravy and stuffing, and there were half a dozen vegetables, with cranberry jelly, and celery, and pickles; and as for the elegant way in which these delicacies were served, the Ruggleses never forgot it as long as they lived.
"Peter nudged Kitty, who sat next him, and said, "Look! Every feller's got his own particular butter; I suppose that's to show you can eat that and no more. No, it ain't either, for that pig of a Peory's just getting another helping!"
"Yes," whispered Kitty, "and the napkins are marked with big red letters! I wonder if that's so nobody'll nip 'em; and oh, Peter, look at the pictures sticking right on to the dishes! Did you ever?"
"The plums is all took out of my cranberry sauce, and it's friz to a stiff jell," whispered Peoria, in wild excitement.
"Hi -yah! I got a wishbone!" sang Larry, regardless of Sarah Maud's frown. She asked to have his seat changed, giving as excuse that he generally sat beside her, and would 'feel strange'. The true reason was that she desired to kick him gently, under the table.
"I declare to goodness," murmured Susan, on the other side, "there's so much to look at I can't scarcely eat anything!"
"Bet your life I can!" said Peter, who had kept one servant busily employed ever since he sat down; for, luckily, no one was asked by Uncle Jack whether he would have a second helping, but the dishes were quietly passed under their noses again and again, and not a single Ruggles refused anything that was offered.
Then, when Carol and Uncle Jack saw that more turkey was a physical impossibility, the dessert was brought in - a dessert that would have frightened a strong man after such a dinner as had preceded it! Not so the Ruggleses!
There were plum pudding, mince pie, and ice cream; and there were nuts, and raisins, and oranges. Kitty chose ice cream, explaining that she knew it 'by sight, though she hadn't ever tasted any'; but all the rest took the entire variety without any regard to consequences.
"My dear child," whispered Uncle Jack as he took Carol an orange, "there is no doubt about the necessity of this feast, but I do advise you after this to have them twice a year, or quarterly perhaps, for the way these children eat is positively dangerous; I assure you I tremble for that terrible Peoria. I'm going to run races with her after dinner."
"Never mind," laughed Carol; "let them have enough for once; and I shall invite them oftener next year."
When the feast was over a door was opened into the next room, and there, in a corner facing Carol's bed, which had been wheeled as close as possible, stood the brilliantly lighted Christmas tree. Each girl had a blue knitted hood, and each boy a red crocheted scarf, all made by Mamma and Carol. Then every girl had a pretty plaid dress of a different color, and every boy a warm coat of the right size.
Here the useful presents stopped. Carol had pleaded to give them something 'for fun.' "I know they need clothes," she had said, "but they don't care much for them, after all." Sarah Maud had a set of Louisa May Alcott's books, and Peter a modest silver watch, Cornelius a tool chest, Clement a doghouse for his lame puppy, Larry a magnificent Noah's ark, and each of the little girls a beautiful doll.
You can well believe that everybody was very merry! All the family, from Mr. Bird down to the cook, said that they had never seen so much happiness in the space of three hours! But it had to end, as all things do. The candles flickered and went out. The tree, shorn of gifts, was left alone with just its gilded ornaments. Mrs. Bird had the maid lead the children downstairs at half past eight, thinking that Carol looked tired.
"Now, my darling, you have done quite enough for one day," said Mrs. Bird, getting Carol into her nightgown. "If you were to feel worse tomorrow that would be a sad ending to such a charming evening.
"I'm not so very tired, Mamma. I have felt well all day; not a bit of pain anywhere. Perhaps this has done me good."
"Good night, my precious Christmas Carol - mother's own Christmas child," Mrs. Bird said, tucking her into bed.
"Bend your head a minute, Mother dear," whispered Carol, calling her mother back. "Mamma, dear, I do think that we have kept Christ's birthday this time just as He would like it. Don't you?"
"I am sure of it," said Mrs. Bird softly.
to be continued one more time, tomorrow
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