The Peterkins' Christmas-Tree
By Lucretia Hale.
EARLY IN THE AUTUMN the Peterkins began to prepare for their
Christmas-tree. Everything was done in great privacy, as it was
to be a surprise to the neighbors, as well as to the rest of the
family. Mr. Peterkin had been up to Mr. Bromwick's wood-lot,
and, with his consent, selected the tree. Agamemnon went to look
at it occasionally after dark, and Solomon John made frequent
visits to it mornings, just after sunrise. Mr. Peterkin drove
Elizabeth Eliza and her mother that way, and pointed furtively to
it with his whip; but none of them ever spoke of it aloud to each
other. It was suspected that the little boys had been to see it
Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. But they came home with their
pockets full of chestnuts, and said nothing about it. At length
Mr. Peterkin had it cut down and brought secretly into the
Larkin's barn. A week or two before Christmas a measurement was
made of it with Elizabeth Eliza's yard-measure. To Mr.
Peterkin's great dismay it was discovered that it was too high to
stand in the back parlor.
This fact was brought out at a secret council of Mr. and Mrs.
Peterkin, Elizabeth Eliza, and Agamemnon.
Agamemnon suggested that it might be set up slanting; but Mrs.
Peterkin was very sure it would make her dizzy, and the candles
would drip.
But a brilliant idea came to Mr. Peterkin. He proposed that the
ceiling of the parlor should be raised to make room for the top
of the tree.
Elizabeth Eliza thought the space would need to be quite large.
it must not be like a small box, or you could not see the tree.
"Yes," said Mr. Peterkin, "I should have the ceiling lifted all
across the room; the effect would be finer."
Elizabeth Eliza objected to having the whole ceiling raised,
because her room was over the back parlor, and she would have no
floor while the alteration was going on, which would be very
awkward. Besides, her room was not very high now, and, if the
floor were raised, perhaps she could not walk in it upright.
Mr. Peterkin explained that he didn't propose altering the whole
ceiling, but to life up a ridge across the room at the back part
where the tree was to stand. This would make a hump, to be sure,
in Elizabeth Eliza's room; but it would go across the whole room.
Elizabeth Eliza said she would not mind that. It would be like
the cuddy thing that comes up on the deck of a ship, that you sit
against, only here you would not have the sea-sickness. She
thought she should like it, for a rarity. She might use it for a
divan.
Mrs. Peterkin thought it would come in the worn place of the
carpet, and might be a convenience in making the carpet over.
Agamemnon was afraid there would be trouble in keeping the matter
secret, for it would be a long piece of work for a carpenter; but
Mr. Peterkin proposed having the carpenter for a day or two, for
a number of other jobs.
One of them was to make all the chairs in the house of the same
height, for Mrs. Peterkin had nearly broken her spine by sitting
down in a chair that she had supposed was her own rocking-chair,
and it had proved to be two inches lower. The little boys were
now large enough to sit in any chair; so a medium was fixed upon
to satisfy all the family, and the chairs were made uniformly of
the same height.
On consulting the carpenter, however, he insisted that the tree
could be cut off at the lower end to suit the height of the
parlor, and demurred at so great a change as altering the
ceiling. But mr. Peterkin had set his mind upon the improvement,
and Elizabeth Eliza had cut her carpet in preparation for it.
So the folding-doors into the back parlor were closed, and for
nearly a fortnight before Christmas there was great litter of
fallen plastering, and laths, and chips, and shavings; and
Elizabeth Eliza's carpet was taken up, and the furniture had to
be changed, and one night she had to sleep at the Bromwicks', for
there was a long hole in her floor that might be dangerous.
All this delighted the little boys. They could not understand
what was going on. Perhaps they suspected a Christmas-tree, but
they did not know why a Christmas-tree should have so many ships,
and were still more astonished at the hump that appeared in
Elizabeth Eliza's room. It must be a Christmas present, or else
the tree in a box.
Some aunts and uncles, too, arrived a day or two before
Christmas, with some small cousins. These cousins occupied the
attention of the little boys, and there was a great deal of
whispering and mystery, behind doors, and under the stairs, and
in the corners of the entry.
Solomon John was busy, privately making some candles for the
tree. He had been collecting some bayberries, as he understood
they made very nice candles, so that it would not be necessary to
buy any.
The elders of the family never all went into the back parlor
together, and all tried not to see what was going on. Mrs.
Peterkin would go in with Solomon John, or Mr. Peterkin with
Elizabeth Eliza, or Elizabeth Eliza and Agamemnon and Solomon
John. The little boys and the small cousins were never allowed
even to look inside the room.
Elizabeth Eliza meanwhile went into town a number of times. She
wanted to consult Amanda as to how much ice-cream they should
need, and whether they could make it at home, as they had cream
and ice. She was pretty busy in her own room; the furniture had
to be changed, and the carpet altered. The "hump" was higher
than she expected. There was danger of bumping her own head
whenever she crossed it. She had to nail some padding on the
ceiling for fear of accidents.
The afternoon before Christmas, Elizabeth Eliza, Solomon John,
and their father collected in the back parlor for a council. The
carpenters had done their work, and the tree stood at its full
height at the back of the room, the top stretching up into the
space arranged for it. All the chips and shavings were cleared
away, and it stood on a neat box.
But what were they to put upon the tree?
Solomon John had brought in his supply of candles; but they
proved to be very "stringy" and very few of them. It was strange
how many bayberries it took to make a few candles! The little
boys had helped him, and he had gathered as much as a bushel of
bayberries. He had put them in water, and skimmed off the wax,
according to the directions; but there was so little wax!
Solomon John had given the little boys some of the bits sawed off
from the legs of the chairs. He had suggested that they should
cover them with gilt paper, to answer for gilt apples, without
telling them what they were for.
These apples, a little blunt at the end, and the candles were all
they had for the tree!
After all her trips into town Elizabeth Eliza had forgotten to
bring anything for it.
"I thought of candies and sugar-plums," she said; "but I
concluded if we made caramels ourselves we should not need them.
But, then, we have not made caramels. The fact is, that day my
head was full of my carpet. I had pumped it pretty badly, too."
Mr. Peterkin wished he had taken, instead of a fir tree, an
apple-tree he had seen in October, full of red fruit.
"But the leaves would have fallen off by this time," said
Elizabeth Eliza.
"And the apples, too," said Solomon John.
"It is odd I should have forgotten, that day I went in on purpose
to get the things," said Elizabeth Eliza, musingly.
"But I went from shop to shop, and didn't know exactly what to
get. I saw a great many gilt things for Christmas-trees; but I
knew the little boys were making the gilt apples; there were
plenty of candles in the shops, but I knew Solomon John was
making the candles."
Mr. Peterkin thought it was quite natural.
Solomon John wondered if it were too late for them to go into
town now.
Mr. Peterkin asked if the presents everybody had been preparing
would not answer. But Elizabeth Eliza knew they would be too
heavy.
A gloom came over the room. There was only a flickering gleam
from one of Solomon John's candles that he had lighted by way of
trial.
Solomon John again proposed going into town. He lighted a match
to examine the newspaper about the trains. There were plenty of
trains coming out at that hour, but none going in except a very
late one. That would not leave time to do anything and come
back.
"We could go in, Elizabeth Eliza and I," said Solomon John, "but
we should not have time to buy anything."
Agamemnon was summoned in. Mrs. Peterkin was entertaining the
uncles and aunts in the front parlor. Agamemnon wished there was
time to study up something about electric lights. If they could
only have a calcium light! Solomon John's candle sputtered and
went out.
At this moment there was a loud knocking at the front door. The
little boys, and the small cousins, and the uncles and aunts, and
Mrs. Peterkin, hastened to see what was the matter.
The uncles and aunts thought somebody's house must be on fire.
The door was opened, and there was a man, white with flakes, for
it was beginning to snow, and he was pulling in a large box.
Mrs. Peterkin supposed it contained some of Elizabeth Eliza's
purchases, so she ordered it to be pushed into the back parlor,
and hastily called back her guests and the little boys into the
other room. The little boys and the small cousins were sure they
had seen Santa Claus himself.
Mr. Peterkin lighted the gas. The box was addressed to Elizabeth
Eliza. It was from the lady from Philadelphia! She had gathered
a hint from Elizabeth Eliza's letters that there was to be a
Christmas-tree, and had filled this box with all that would be
needed.
It was opened directly. There was every kind of gilt hanging-
thing, from hilt pea-pods to butterflies on springs. There were
shining flags and lanterns, and birdcages, and nests with birds
sitting on them, baskets of fruit, gilt apples and bunches of
grapes, and, at the bottom of the whole, a large box of candles
and a box of Philadelphia bonbons!
Elizabeth Eliza and Solomon John could scarcely keep from
screaming. The little boys and the small cousins knocked on the
folding-doors to ask what was the matter.
Hastily Mr. Peterkin and the rest took out the things and hung
them on the tree, and put on the candles.
When all was done, it looked so well that Mr. Peterkin exclaimed:
"Let us light the candles now, and send to invite all the
neighbors to-night, and have the tree on Christmas Eve!"
And so it was that the Peterkins had their Christmas-tree the day
before, and on Christmas night could go and visit their
neighbors.
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