第54章 CHRISTMAS BACK HOME(2)

'T ain't cold. You needn't stay long, only till . . . I guess she's in some of a hurry.""Well, if Harriet Waldo thinks 'at I haven't anythin' better to do 'n trot around after her at her beck an' . . . . All right, I'll come."The twins got their slippers hid, and Mrs. Rowan threw her shawl over her head, and went next door to take Mrs. Waldo completely by surprise. The good woman immediately invented an intricate problem in crochet work demanding instant solution. Mr. Rowan had brought home a crayon enlargement of a daguerreotype of Ma, taken before she was married, when they wore their hair combed down over their ears, and wide lace collars fastened with a big cameo pin, and puffed sleeves with the armholes nearly at the elbows. They wore lace mitts then, too. The twins thought it looked so funny, but Pa said: "It was all the style in them days. Laws! I mind the first time I took her home from singin' school. . . . Tell you where less hide it. In between the straw tick, and the feather tick." And Luanna May said:

"What if company should come?" Elmer Lonnie ran over to Mrs. Waldo's to tell Ma that Pa had come home, and wanted his supper right quick, because he had to get back to the store, there was so much trade in the evenings now.

"I declare, Emmeline Rowan, you're gettin' to be a reg'lar gadabout,"said Mr. Rowan, very savagely. "Gad, gad, gad, from mornin' till night. Ain't they time in daylight fer you an' Hat Waldo to talk about your neighbors 'at you can't stay home long enough to git me my supper?"He winked at the twins so funny that Alfaretta, who always was kind of flighty, made a little noise with her soft palate and tried to pass it off for a cough. Luanna May poked her in the ribs with her elbow, and Mrs. Rowan spoke up quite loud: "Why, Pa, how you go on! I wasn't but a minute, an' you hardly ever come before halfpast.

And furthermore, mister, I want to know how I'm to keep this house a-lookin' like anything an' you a-trackin' in snow like that. Just look at you. I sh'd think you'd know enough to stomp your feet before you come in. Luanna May, you come grind the coffee. Alfie, run git your Pa his old slippers." That set both of them to giggling, and Mrs. Rowan went out into the kitchen and began to pound the beefsteak.

"D' you think she sispicioned anythin'?" asked Mr. Rowan out of one side of his mouth, and Elmer Lonnie said, "No, sir," and wondered if his Pa "sispicioned anythin"' when Ma said, "Run git the old slippers."Mr. Waldo always walked up with Mr. Rowan, and just about that time his little Mary Ellen was climbing up into his lap and saying: "Ibet you can't guess what I'm a-goin' to buy you for a Christmas gift with my pennies what I got saved up.""I'll just bet I can."

"No, you can't. It's awful pretty - I mean, they're awful pretty.

Somepin you want, too." How could he guess with her fingering his tarnished cuff buttons and looking down at them every minute or two?

"Well, now, let me see. Is it a gold watch?""Nope."

"Aw, now! I jist set my heart on a gold watch and chain.""Well, but it'd cost more money 'n I got. Three or fifteen dollars, mebby.""Well, let me see. Is it a shotgun?"

"No, sir. Oh, you just can't guess it."

"Is it a - a - Is it a horse and buggy?"

"Aw, now, you're foolin'. No, it ain't a horse and buggy.""I know what it is. It's a dolly with real hair that you can comb, and all dressed up in a blue dress. One that can shut its eyes when it goes bye-bye."Little Mary Ellen looks at him very seriously a minute, and sighs, and says: "No, it ain't that. But if it was, wouldn't you let me play with it when you was to the store?" And he catches her up in his arms and says: "You betchy! Now, I ain't goin' to guess any more! I want to be surprised. You jump down an' run an' ask Ma if supper ain't most ready. Tell her I'm as hungry as a hound pup."He hears her deliver the message, and also the word her mother sends back: "Tell him to hold his horses. It 'll be ready in a minute.""It will, eh? Well, I can't wait a minute, an' I'm goin' to take a hog-bite right out of YOU!" and he snarls and bites her right in the middle of her stomach, and if there is anything more ticklesome than that, it hasn't been heard of yet.

After supper, little Eddie Allgire teases his brother D. to tell him about Santa Claus. D. is cracking walnuts on a flat-iron held between his knees.

"Is they any Santy Claus, D.?"

"W'y, cert, they is. Who says not?"

"Bunty Rogers says they ain't no sech a person.""You tell Bunt Rogers that he's a-gittin' too big fer his britches, an' first thing he knows, he'll whirl round an' see his naked nose.

Tell him I said so."

"Well, is they any Santy Claus?"

"W'y cert. Ain't I a-tellin' you? Laws! ain't you never seen him yet?""I seen that kind of a idol they got down in Plotner's winder.""Well, he looks jist like that, on'y he's alive.""Did you ever see him, D.?"

"O-oh, well! Think I'm goin' to tell everything I know? Well, Iguess not."

"Well, but did you now?"

"M-well, that 'd be tellin'."

"Aw, now, D., tell me."

"Look out what you're doin'. Now see that. You pretty near made me mash my thumb.""Aw, now, D., tell me. I think you might. I don't believe you ever did.""Oh, you don't, hey? Well, if you had 'a saw what I saw. M-m!

Little round eyes an' red nose an' white whiskers, an' heard the sleigh bells, an' oh, my! them reindeers! Cutest little things!

Stompin' their little feet" Here he stopped, and went on cracking nuts.

"Tell some more. Woncha, please? Ma, make D. tell me the rest of it."Huck-uh! Dassant. 'T wouldn't be right. Like's not he won't put anythin' in my stockin' now fer what I did tell.""How'll he know?"

"How'll he know? Easy enough. He goes around all the houses evenings now to see how the young ones act, an' if he finds they're sassy, an' don't mind their Ma when she tells them to leave the cat alone, an' if they whine: 'I don' want to go out an' cut the kindlin'. Why cain't D. do it ?' then he puts potatoes an' lumps o'

coal in their stockin's. Oh, he'll be here, course o' the evenin'.""D' you s'pose he's round here now?" Eddie got a little closer to his brother.