In the Great Walled Country
"In the Great Walled Country" is from Why the Chimes Rang and
Other Stories by Raymond MacDonald Alden; copyright 1906, 1934 by
Raymond MacDonald Alden. Published by Bobbs-Merrill Company.
AWAY AT THE NORTHERN end of the world, farther than men have ever
gone with their ships or their sleds, and where most people
suppose that there is nothing but ice and snow, is a land full of
children, called The Great Walled Country. This name is given
because all around the country is a great wall, hundreds of feet
thick and hundreds of feet high. It is made of ice, and never
melts, winter or summer; and of course it is for this reason that
more people have not discovered the place.
The land, as I said, is filled with children, for nobody who
lives there ever grows up. The king and the queen, the princes
and the courtiers, may be as old as you please, but they are
children for all that. They play a great deal of the time with
dolls and tin soldiers, and every night at seven o'clock have a
bowl of bread and milk and go to bed. But they make excellent
rulers, and the other children are well pleased with the
government.
There are all sorts of curious things about the way they live in
The Great Walled Country, but this story is only of their
Christmas season. One can imagine what a fine thing their
Christmas must be, so near the North Pole, with ice and snow
everywhere; but this is not all. Grandfather Christmas lives
just on the north side of the country, so that his house leans
against the great wall and would tip over if it were not for its
support. Grandfather Christmas is his name in The Great Walled
Country; no doubt we should call him Santa Claus here. At any
rate, he is the same person, and, best of all the children in the
world, he loves the children behind the great wall of ice.
One very pleasant thing about having Grandfather Christmas for a
neighbor is that in The Great Walled Country they never have to
buy their Christmas presents. Every year, on the day before
Christmas, before he makes up his bundles for the rest of the
world, Grandfather Christmas goes into a great forest of
Christmas trees that grows just back of the palace of the king of
The Great Walled Country, and fills the trees with candy and
books and toys and all sorts of good things. So when night
comes, all the children wrap up snugly, while the children in all
other lands are waiting in their beds, and go to the forest to
gather gifts for their friends. Each one goes by himself so that
none of his friends can see what he has gathered; and no one ever
thinks of such a thing as taking a present for himself. The
forest is so big that there is room for every one to wander about
without meeting the people from whom he has secrets, and there
are always enough nice things to go around.
So Christmas time is a great holiday in that land, as it is in
all best places in the world. They have been celebrating it in
this way for hundreds of years, and since Grandfather Christmas
does not seem to grow old any faster than the children, they will
probably do so for hundreds of years to come.
But there was once a time, so many years ago that they would have
forgotten all about it if the story were not written in their Big
Book and read to them every year, when the children in The Great
Walled Country has a very strange Christmas. There came a
visitor to the land. He was an old man, and was the first
stranger for very many years who had succeeded in getting over
the wall. He looked so wise, and was so much interested in what
he saw and heard, that the king invited him to the place, and he
was treated with every possible honor.
When this old man had inquired about their Christmas celebration,
and was told how they carried it on every year, he listened
gravely, and then, looking wiser than ever, he said to the king;
"That is all very well, but I should think that children who have
Grandfather Christmas for a neighbor could find a better and
easier way. You tell me that you all go out on Christmas Eve to
gather presents to give to one another the next morning. Why
take so much trouble and act in such around about way? Why not
go out together and everyone get his own presents? That would
save the trouble of dividing them again, and everyone would be
better satisfied, for he could pick out just what he wanted for
himself. No one can tell what you want as well as you can."
This seemed to the king a very wise saying, and he called all his
courtiers and counselors about him to hear it. The wise stranger
talked further about his plan, and when he had finished they all
agreed that they had been very foolish never to have thought of
this simple way of getting their Christmas gifts.
"If we do this," they said, "no one can ever complain of what he
has, or wish that someone had taken more pains to find what he
wanted. We will make a proclamation, and always after this
follow the new plan."
So the proclamation was made, and the plan seemed as wise to the
children of the country as it had to the king and the counselors.
Everyone had at some time been a little disappointed with his
Christmas gifts; now there would be no danger of that.
On Christmas Eve they always had a meeting at the palace, and
sang carols until the time for going to the forest. When the
clock struck ten everyone said, "I wish you a Merry Christmas!"
to the person nearest him, and then they separated to go their
ways to the forest. On this particular night it seemed to the
king that the music was not quite so merry as usual, and that
when the children spoke to one another their eyes did not shine
as gladly as he had noticed them in other years; but there could
be no good reason for this since everyone was expecting a better
time then usual. So he thought no more of it.
There was only one person at the palace that night who was not
pleased with the new proclamation about the Christmas gifts.
This was a little boy named Inge, who lived not far from the
palace with his sister. Now his sister was a cripple, and had to
sit all day looking out of the window from her chair; and Inge
took care of her, and tried to make her life happy from morning
till night. He had always gone to the forest on Christmas Eve
and returned with his arms and pockets loaded with pretty things
for his sister, which would keep her amused all the coming year.
And although she was not able to go after presents for her
brother, he did not mind that at all, especially as he had other
friends who never forgot to divide their good things with him.
But now, said Inge to himself, what would his sister do?
For the king had ordered that no one should gather any presents
except for himself, or any more than he could carry away at once.
All of Inge's friends were busy planning what they would pick for
themselves, but the poor crippled child could not go a step
toward the forest. After thinking about it a long time, Inge
decided that it would not be wrong if, instead of taking gifts
for himself, he took them altogether for his sister. This he
would be very glad to do; for what did a boy who could run about
and play in the snow care for presents, compared with a little
girl who could only sit still and watch others having a good
time? Inge did not ask the advice of anyone, for he was a little
afraid others would tell him he must not do it; but he silently
made up his mind not to obey the proclamation.
And now the chimes had struck ten and the children were making
their way toward the forest in starlight that was so bright that
it almost showed their shadows on the sparkling snow. As soon as
they came to the edge of the forest, they separated, each one
going by himself in the old way, though now there was really no
reason why they should have secrets from one another.
Ten minutes later, if you had been in the forest, you might have
seen the children standing in dismay with tears on their faces,
and exclaiming that there had never been such a Christmas Eve
before. For as they looked eagerly about them to the low-
bending branches of the evergreen trees, they saw nothing hanging
from them that could not be seen every day in the year. High and
low they searched, wandering farther into the forest than ever
before, lest Grandfather Christmas might have chosen a new place
this year for hanging his presents; but still no presents
appeared. The king called his counselors about him and asked
them if they knew whether anything of this kind had happened
before, but they could tell him nothing. So no one could guess
whether Grandfather Christmas had forgotten them, or whether some
dreadful accident had kept him away.
As the children were trooping out of the forest, after hours of
weary searching, some of them came upon little Inge, who carried
over his shoulder a bag that seemed to be full to overflowing.
When he saw them looking at him, he cried;
"Are they not beautiful things? I think Grandfather Christmas
was never so good to us before."
Why, what do you mean, cried the children, "there are no presents
in the forest."
"No presents!" said Inge, "I have my bag full of them." But he
did not offer to show them, because he did not want the children
to see that they were all for his little sister instead of for
himself.
Then the children begged him to tell them in what part of the
forest he had found his presents, and he turned back and pointed
them to the place where he had been. "I left many more behind
than I brought away," he said. "There they are! I can see some
of the things shining on the trees even from here."
But when the children followed his footprints in the snow to the
place where he had been, they still saw nothing on the trees, and
thought that Inge must be walking in his sleep, and dreaming that
he had found presents. Perhaps he had filled his bag with the
cones from the evergreen trees.
On Christmas Day there was sadness all through The Great Walled
Country. But those who came to the house of Inge and his sister
saw plenty of books and dolls and beautiful toys piled up about
the little cripple's chair; and when they asked where these
things came from, they were told, "Why, from the Christmas-tree
forest." And they shook their heads, not knowing what it could
mean.
The king held a council in the palace and appointed a committee
of his most faithful courtiers to visit Grandfather Christmas and
see if they could find what was the matter. In a day or two more
the committee set out on their journey. They had very hard work
to climb the great wall of ice that lay between their country and
the place where Grandfather Christmas lived, but at last they
reached the top and when they came to the other side of the wall
they were looking down into the top of his chimney. It was not
hard to go down this chimney into the house, and when they
reached the bottom of it they found themselves in the very room
where Grandfather Christmas lay sound asleep.
It was hard enough to waken him, for he always slept one hundred
days after his Christmas work was over, and it was only by
turning the hands of the clock around two hundred times that the
committee could do anything. When the clock had struck twelve
times two hundred hours, Grandfather Christmas thought it was
time for his nap to be over, and he sat up in bed, rubbing his
eyes.
"Oh, sir!" cried the prince who was in charge of the committee,
"we have come from the king of The Great Walled Country, who has
sent us to ask why you forgot us this Christmas, and left no
presents in the forest."
"No presents!" said Grandfather Christmas, "I never forget
anything. The presents were there. You did not see them, that's
all."
But the children told him that they had searched long and
carefully, and in the whole forest there had not been found a
thing that could be called a Christmas gift.
"Indeed!" said Grandfather Christmas. "And did little Inge, the
boy with the crippled sister, find none?"
Then the committee was silent, for they had heard of the gifts at
Inge's house, and did not know what to say about them.
"You had better go home," said Grandfather Christmas, who now
began to realize that he had been awakened too soon, "and let me
finish my nap. The presents were there, buy they were never
intended for children who were looking only for themselves. I am
not surprised that you could not see them. Remember that not
everything that wise travelers tell you is wise." And he turned
over and went to sleep again.
The committee returned silently to The Great Walled Country and
told the king what they had heard. The king did not tell all the
children of the land what Grandfather Christmas had said, but,
when the next December came, he made another proclamation,
bidding everyone to seek gifts for others, in the old way, in the
Christmas-tree forest. So that is what they have been doing ever
since; and in order that they may not forget what happened, in
case anyone should ever ask for another change, they have read to
them every year from their Big Book the story of the time when
they had no Christmas gifts.
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