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| Out came the Popover family. Christmas Spirit poem. |
It was Christmas Eve and the Popovers sat with their toes against the chimney and listened to the storm as it howled about Aunt Amelia's house.
The snow beat upon the attic windows and piled in a white drift upon the window-sills. The wind shrieked down the chimney and made the trees on the lawn rattle and creak.
But it was snug in and about the Little Red Doll House. As for the Popovers they were both happy and excited. It was because they knew very well that it was Christmas Eve, and they were waiting to celebrate it in their own particular fashion.
'Tell us again about Santa Claus, Mother,' said Velvetina.
And at the mention of Santa Claus Loo-Loo sat up, bright-eyed and wide-awake, in his mother's arms.
'It was years and years ago,' began Mrs. Popover, 'that Santa Claus brought you and me, Velvetina, here to live in the Little Red Doll House. We were packed in his sleigh along with oh! ever so many other toys of all kinds and sizes, too. There were dolls and drums and horns and trains and balls and every other toy you might be able to name. I can't begin to tell you them all. It was a night just like tonight, snowing and blowing, but we were all as warm as could be, tucked under Santa Claus's great fur robe. We rode for a long time. I remember the tinkle of the sleigh bells made you sleepy. Every now and then we would stop on a roof to let Santa Claus go down a chimney with a load of toys.
'At last Santa Claus lifted you and me out of the sleigh. He put us in his pocket along with this furniture. He carried the House in his pack, and down the chimney we all came together into the playroom of this very house. Santa Claus set the Doll House under the Christmas Tree and put us and the furniture inside.
'" Watch for me next year, children," said he, and was off up the chimney in a twinkling.'
'In the morning little Amelia came in and found us,' piped up Velvetina. 'I know, I know. Where were Father and Loo-Loo?'
Of course she knew the answer. She only wanted to hear her mother tell.
'Your father was still a plain clothes-pin,' answered her mother. 'It wasn't until the next spring, when Amelia found him one day out in the grass, that he came home to live with us. And we didn't have Loo-Loo until Amelia's grandmother came to visit and gave Amelia a bottle filled with maple syrup.'
'Now tell about Santa Claus coming every year,' begged Velvetina.
Mrs. Popover patted Loo-Loo softly for a moment and then went on with her story.
'Every year on Christmas Eve we stand in the window and watch for Santa Claus. He looks for us too, and we wave to one another and wish each other a Merry Christmas. He never forgets and neither do we. We used to wave from the window downstairs but the attic window is even better because it is nearer the sky. It is almost time to watch for him now. I do hope Loo-Loo won't fall asleep until Santa Claus has come and gone.'
'I think we had better go to the window now,' advised Mr. Popover. 'It never does any harm to be on time.'
Over to the window hurried the Popovers and by climbing on a trunk they managed to scramble up on to the window-sill.
There they stood in a row, Mrs. Popover holding Loo-Loo, Velvetina next, and then Mr. Popover, standing especially straight and tall. They pressed their noses against the cold glass. They could see nothing out-of-doors but a whirl of flying snowflakes. They strained their ears to listen. For a long time they could hear nothing but the hiss of snow on the windowpane and the shriek of the wind in the tossing boughs outside.
At last there was a tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, faint and far away, but, moment by moment, coming near.
Louder, louder grew the tinkle. The Popovers were trembling with excitement now.
Just outside the attic window, through the haze of snowflakes, the Popovers spied first the reindeer, then the great red sleigh packed with toys. In the sleigh sat Santa Claus, looking as he had looked years ago when he had carried Velvetina and Mrs. Popover in his pocket, and indeed as his pictures show him to this very day.
At sight of Santa Claus the Popovers waved both their hands and their handkerchiefs, too. Velvetina screamed and Mr. Popover uttered several manly cheers.
'Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!' shouted the Popovers.
But Santa Claus, although he looked smiling and friendly, did not wave in reply to the Popovers! He drove on out of sight without a single word!
The Popovers looked at one another. They couldn't speak. Indeed they couldn't think.
The next moment there was a scratching and scrambling on the roof. It was not loud. If you did not know that Santa Claus was near, you would surely think it the wind.
'Santa Claus has landed on the roof,' whispered the Popovers, smiling once more. 'Perhaps he is coming here.'
And so it was. A second later Santa Claus's ruddy face peered in the attic window at the Popovers, his hand in its furry glove slowly pushed the window open, and next Santa Claus himself stepped down from the roof through the attic window and stood before the Popovers, shaking hands and wishing them the Merriest Christmas in the world.
'Mrs. Popover, I need your help,' said Santa Claus, when he had patted Velvetina and Loo-Loo on the head. 'I have a Jumping-Jack in my pack who is homesick. He does nothing but sit and cry. I am afraid he will wash his paint off if he doesn't stop. He says, too, that he will never jump again unless I take him home with me. I thought if you would come up and talk to him, tell him how you and Velvetina were once Christmas toys - that he might get over his homesickness and be more cheerful. He is going to a little boy named Tom, and he is the only toy that Tom has asked for, or I would give the child something else.'
'Tom?' exclaimed Mrs. Popover, much excited. 'Not Ellen's cousin Tom?'
'Yes,' nodded Santa Claus, 'the very one. Do you know him?'
'No, but we know Tom's Jack-in-the-Box,' answered Mrs. Popover. 'Take us all with you, Santa Claus. I am sure we can make poor Jumping-Jack stop crying.'
Santa Claus picked up the Popovers without another word. He stepped from the window to the roof, he seated himself in his sleigh, he tucked the Popovers under the fur robe beside the homesick Jumping-Jack, he gathered up his reins, and off they drove.
The Popovers were surprised to find themselves riding away from home. They had thought that Santa Claus would rest his reindeer on the roof for a moment while they talked to the Jumping-Jack. But, of course, Santa Claus has no time to spare on Christmas Eve. He is as busy as busy can be.
Mrs. Popover, with the others putting in a word now and then, talked gently to the homesick Jumping-Jack. She told him about Ellen and Tom. She told him about the Jack-in-the-Box, what a jolly, comfortable fellow he was, and what a good friend she knew he would be. And almost at once the Jumping-Jack cheered up.
He forgot to cry. He forgot to be homesick. He asked all sorts of questions about Tom and Ellen and the Jack-in-the-Box.
By the time Tom's house was reached he was laughing and joking and jumping about. He could scarcely wait to be carried down the chimney and be put into Tom's Christmas stocking.
Mrs. Popover went down with him to keep up his spirits to the end. When she came back she told her family that she had seen Tom in bed and that she thought he seemed like a nice little boy. She had talked with the Jack-in-the-Box, too, for a second and he had sent his love to them all.
On went the sleigh, rushing through the air, snowflakes flying, sleigh bells tinkling.
Never had the Popovers dreamed of such a ride. All the toys were smiling and excited, wondering each time the sleigh stopped whose turn it would be to be carried down the chimney and left in the stocking of some little girl or boy.
When they came round the corner to Ellen's house Santa Claus said, 'Wouldn't you Popovers like to go down with me and have a peep at Ellen?'
Of course they would.
Once down the chimney they stole a glimpse of Ellen, fast asleep and smiling in her Christmas dreams. Mrs. Popover, lifted by Santa Claus, left a little kiss on Ellen's cheek, softer than a snowflake and just about as cool.
In the next room stood Ellen's Christmas Tree. And what was Santa Claus setting up beneath it?
A House! A Doll House! And very much like the Little Red Doll House except that it was painted a pretty shade of green!
'It is a Little Green Doll House,' said Santa Claus with a smile, 'and here is the furniture and here is the family, too.'
Santa Claus took the furniture from his pack and settled the Little Green Doll House in a trice. Then out came the family - a father, a mother, and two children, just like the Popovers except that they were all little china dolls.
Mrs. Popover liked their looks and smiled at them in her most friendly manner.
'What is your name, please?' she asked politely of the little china mother.
'Mrs. Buttonhook,' answered the little lady with a bow, 'and this is my husband, Mr. Buttonhook. My little girl is named Betsy, and the Baby is named Albert for his father, but we all call him Bertie for short. I hope you will be neighborly and come to call again.'
'Thank you,' said Mrs. Popover, looking at Baby Buttonhook's cap and planning to make one like it for Loo-Loo as soon as she reached home. 'I am sorry we don't live nearer, but I will come to call whenever I can.'
Back into the sleigh went the Popovers and now Santa Claus drove them straight home.
'I don't think I shut the attic window,' said Santa Claus, 'and I wouldn't want to chill Amelia's house, especially on Christmas Eve. She has been a friend of mind for a great many years.'
Once home, the Popovers were too excited to go to bed. They sat up talking with Peanut until the Christmas dawn, telling of their journey and what they did and saw.
'That was a very fine House, the Little Green Doll House, my dear,' said Mr. Popover for perhaps the tenth time.' Ellen cannot fail to like it. I thought it was painted a very rich shade of green, and I noticed several improvements that we need badly. It had electric lights and a flight of stairs and a knocker on the front door, too.'
'That may be true,' answered Mrs. Popover in her firmest manner. 'All that you say may be true. No doubt we are plain and old-fashioned. But I am sure that I shall never like any other house so well as I like the Little Red Doll House.'
The snow beat upon the attic windows and piled in a white drift upon the window-sills. The wind shrieked down the chimney and made the trees on the lawn rattle and creak.
But it was snug in and about the Little Red Doll House. As for the Popovers they were both happy and excited. It was because they knew very well that it was Christmas Eve, and they were waiting to celebrate it in their own particular fashion.
'Tell us again about Santa Claus, Mother,' said Velvetina.
And at the mention of Santa Claus Loo-Loo sat up, bright-eyed and wide-awake, in his mother's arms.
'It was years and years ago,' began Mrs. Popover, 'that Santa Claus brought you and me, Velvetina, here to live in the Little Red Doll House. We were packed in his sleigh along with oh! ever so many other toys of all kinds and sizes, too. There were dolls and drums and horns and trains and balls and every other toy you might be able to name. I can't begin to tell you them all. It was a night just like tonight, snowing and blowing, but we were all as warm as could be, tucked under Santa Claus's great fur robe. We rode for a long time. I remember the tinkle of the sleigh bells made you sleepy. Every now and then we would stop on a roof to let Santa Claus go down a chimney with a load of toys.
'At last Santa Claus lifted you and me out of the sleigh. He put us in his pocket along with this furniture. He carried the House in his pack, and down the chimney we all came together into the playroom of this very house. Santa Claus set the Doll House under the Christmas Tree and put us and the furniture inside.
'" Watch for me next year, children," said he, and was off up the chimney in a twinkling.'
'In the morning little Amelia came in and found us,' piped up Velvetina. 'I know, I know. Where were Father and Loo-Loo?'
Of course she knew the answer. She only wanted to hear her mother tell.
'Your father was still a plain clothes-pin,' answered her mother. 'It wasn't until the next spring, when Amelia found him one day out in the grass, that he came home to live with us. And we didn't have Loo-Loo until Amelia's grandmother came to visit and gave Amelia a bottle filled with maple syrup.'
'Now tell about Santa Claus coming every year,' begged Velvetina.
Mrs. Popover patted Loo-Loo softly for a moment and then went on with her story.
'Every year on Christmas Eve we stand in the window and watch for Santa Claus. He looks for us too, and we wave to one another and wish each other a Merry Christmas. He never forgets and neither do we. We used to wave from the window downstairs but the attic window is even better because it is nearer the sky. It is almost time to watch for him now. I do hope Loo-Loo won't fall asleep until Santa Claus has come and gone.'
'I think we had better go to the window now,' advised Mr. Popover. 'It never does any harm to be on time.'
Over to the window hurried the Popovers and by climbing on a trunk they managed to scramble up on to the window-sill.
There they stood in a row, Mrs. Popover holding Loo-Loo, Velvetina next, and then Mr. Popover, standing especially straight and tall. They pressed their noses against the cold glass. They could see nothing out-of-doors but a whirl of flying snowflakes. They strained their ears to listen. For a long time they could hear nothing but the hiss of snow on the windowpane and the shriek of the wind in the tossing boughs outside.
At last there was a tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, faint and far away, but, moment by moment, coming near.
Louder, louder grew the tinkle. The Popovers were trembling with excitement now.
Just outside the attic window, through the haze of snowflakes, the Popovers spied first the reindeer, then the great red sleigh packed with toys. In the sleigh sat Santa Claus, looking as he had looked years ago when he had carried Velvetina and Mrs. Popover in his pocket, and indeed as his pictures show him to this very day.
At sight of Santa Claus the Popovers waved both their hands and their handkerchiefs, too. Velvetina screamed and Mr. Popover uttered several manly cheers.
'Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!' shouted the Popovers.
But Santa Claus, although he looked smiling and friendly, did not wave in reply to the Popovers! He drove on out of sight without a single word!
The Popovers looked at one another. They couldn't speak. Indeed they couldn't think.
The next moment there was a scratching and scrambling on the roof. It was not loud. If you did not know that Santa Claus was near, you would surely think it the wind.
'Santa Claus has landed on the roof,' whispered the Popovers, smiling once more. 'Perhaps he is coming here.'
And so it was. A second later Santa Claus's ruddy face peered in the attic window at the Popovers, his hand in its furry glove slowly pushed the window open, and next Santa Claus himself stepped down from the roof through the attic window and stood before the Popovers, shaking hands and wishing them the Merriest Christmas in the world.
'Mrs. Popover, I need your help,' said Santa Claus, when he had patted Velvetina and Loo-Loo on the head. 'I have a Jumping-Jack in my pack who is homesick. He does nothing but sit and cry. I am afraid he will wash his paint off if he doesn't stop. He says, too, that he will never jump again unless I take him home with me. I thought if you would come up and talk to him, tell him how you and Velvetina were once Christmas toys - that he might get over his homesickness and be more cheerful. He is going to a little boy named Tom, and he is the only toy that Tom has asked for, or I would give the child something else.'
'Tom?' exclaimed Mrs. Popover, much excited. 'Not Ellen's cousin Tom?'
'Yes,' nodded Santa Claus, 'the very one. Do you know him?'
'No, but we know Tom's Jack-in-the-Box,' answered Mrs. Popover. 'Take us all with you, Santa Claus. I am sure we can make poor Jumping-Jack stop crying.'
Santa Claus picked up the Popovers without another word. He stepped from the window to the roof, he seated himself in his sleigh, he tucked the Popovers under the fur robe beside the homesick Jumping-Jack, he gathered up his reins, and off they drove.
The Popovers were surprised to find themselves riding away from home. They had thought that Santa Claus would rest his reindeer on the roof for a moment while they talked to the Jumping-Jack. But, of course, Santa Claus has no time to spare on Christmas Eve. He is as busy as busy can be.
Mrs. Popover, with the others putting in a word now and then, talked gently to the homesick Jumping-Jack. She told him about Ellen and Tom. She told him about the Jack-in-the-Box, what a jolly, comfortable fellow he was, and what a good friend she knew he would be. And almost at once the Jumping-Jack cheered up.
He forgot to cry. He forgot to be homesick. He asked all sorts of questions about Tom and Ellen and the Jack-in-the-Box.
By the time Tom's house was reached he was laughing and joking and jumping about. He could scarcely wait to be carried down the chimney and be put into Tom's Christmas stocking.
Mrs. Popover went down with him to keep up his spirits to the end. When she came back she told her family that she had seen Tom in bed and that she thought he seemed like a nice little boy. She had talked with the Jack-in-the-Box, too, for a second and he had sent his love to them all.
On went the sleigh, rushing through the air, snowflakes flying, sleigh bells tinkling.
Never had the Popovers dreamed of such a ride. All the toys were smiling and excited, wondering each time the sleigh stopped whose turn it would be to be carried down the chimney and left in the stocking of some little girl or boy.
When they came round the corner to Ellen's house Santa Claus said, 'Wouldn't you Popovers like to go down with me and have a peep at Ellen?'
Of course they would.
Once down the chimney they stole a glimpse of Ellen, fast asleep and smiling in her Christmas dreams. Mrs. Popover, lifted by Santa Claus, left a little kiss on Ellen's cheek, softer than a snowflake and just about as cool.
In the next room stood Ellen's Christmas Tree. And what was Santa Claus setting up beneath it?
A House! A Doll House! And very much like the Little Red Doll House except that it was painted a pretty shade of green!
'It is a Little Green Doll House,' said Santa Claus with a smile, 'and here is the furniture and here is the family, too.'
Santa Claus took the furniture from his pack and settled the Little Green Doll House in a trice. Then out came the family - a father, a mother, and two children, just like the Popovers except that they were all little china dolls.
Mrs. Popover liked their looks and smiled at them in her most friendly manner.
'What is your name, please?' she asked politely of the little china mother.
'Mrs. Buttonhook,' answered the little lady with a bow, 'and this is my husband, Mr. Buttonhook. My little girl is named Betsy, and the Baby is named Albert for his father, but we all call him Bertie for short. I hope you will be neighborly and come to call again.'
'Thank you,' said Mrs. Popover, looking at Baby Buttonhook's cap and planning to make one like it for Loo-Loo as soon as she reached home. 'I am sorry we don't live nearer, but I will come to call whenever I can.'
Back into the sleigh went the Popovers and now Santa Claus drove them straight home.
'I don't think I shut the attic window,' said Santa Claus, 'and I wouldn't want to chill Amelia's house, especially on Christmas Eve. She has been a friend of mind for a great many years.'
Once home, the Popovers were too excited to go to bed. They sat up talking with Peanut until the Christmas dawn, telling of their journey and what they did and saw.
'That was a very fine House, the Little Green Doll House, my dear,' said Mr. Popover for perhaps the tenth time.' Ellen cannot fail to like it. I thought it was painted a very rich shade of green, and I noticed several improvements that we need badly. It had electric lights and a flight of stairs and a knocker on the front door, too.'
'That may be true,' answered Mrs. Popover in her firmest manner. 'All that you say may be true. No doubt we are plain and old-fashioned. But I am sure that I shall never like any other house so well as I like the Little Red Doll House.'
THE END
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