Annie Fellows Johnston

“ Sometimes the snow seemed to come in sheets, shutting out all view of the little hamlets and farm-houses past which they whizzed with deep, warning whistles, and sometimes it lifted to give them glimpses of windows with holly wreaths hanging from scarlet bows, and eager little faces peering out at the passing train—the way theirs used to peer, years ago, it seemed, before they started on this endless journey. ”

“ It seemed as if some royal spell had been laid upon them with these kisses: some spell to close their eyes to nettles and briers, and help them to see only the star-flowers.
In less than five minutes, both Libby and Will'm were sound asleep, and the porter was carrying the holly wreaths and the red coat and the suit-case back to the state-room which had been vacated at the last stopping-place. In two minutes more, Miss Santa Claus had emptied her suitcase out on the seat beside her, and was scrabbling over the contents in wild haste. ”

“ The cow-catcher looked as if it could toss anything it might pick up high enough to join the cow that jumped over the moon. But it was unmistakably a train, and the long line of smoke pouring back over it from the tipsy smoke-stack showed that it was going at the top of its speed. Despite the straggling, scratchy lines, any art critic must acknowledge that it had in it that intangible quality known as life and “go.”
It puzzled Will’m at first to know how to introduce himself into the picture so as to show that he was the one wanting a ride. ”

“ Libby had a grand washing of doll clothes one morning, and while she was hanging out the tiny garments, on a string stretched from one chair-back to another, Will’m proceeded to give his old Teddy bear a bath in the suds which she had left in the basin. Plush does not take kindly to soap-suds, no matter how much it needs it. It would have been far better for poor Teddy to have started on his travels dirty than to have become the pitiable, bedraggled-looking object that Libby snatched from the basin sometime later, where Will’m put him to soak. ”

“ The people who could do such things must be wonderful too.
There were times when passengers, flattening their faces against the glass to see why the train had stopped, caught the gleam of a cheerful home window across the road, and, holding shielding hands at either side of their eyes as they peered through the darkness, smiled to discoyer those two eager little watchers who counted the stop- ping of the Pullman at this junction as the great- est event of the day. ”

“ Libby darted a half-frightened look at her. She had called them both by name! Had she been listening down the chimney, too? And those witch scissors! They looked as if they might be a charm to open all sorts of secrets. Maybe she knew some charm to keep stepmothers from being cruel. Oh, if she only dared to ask! Of course Libby knew that one must n't “pick up” with strangers and tell them things. Miss Sally had warned her against that. But this was different. Miss Santa Claus was more than just a person. ”

“ She had waited to leave her overshoes on the porch, her lunch basket in the kitchen, her wraps in the entry, The white ruffled apron which she had worn all day was scarcely mussed. The bows on her narrow braids stuck out stiffly and properly, Her shoes were tied and the laces tucked in, She walked on tiptoe, and every movement showed that she was keeping up the reputation she had earned of being “so good that nobody could be any better, no matter how hard he tried,” She had been that good for over a week.
Will’m ran to get the orange which had been given him that morning. ”

“ Their drives behind Uncle Neal’s old gray mare had always been the other way. Five miles more, and they were strangers in a strange land. Fifteen miles, and they were experiencing the bitterness of “exiles from home” whom “splendor dazzles in vain.” There was no charm left in the luxurious Pullman with its gorgeous red plush seats and shining mirrors. All the people they could see over the backs of those seats or reflected in those mirrors were strangers. ”

“ But what made the meal one of more than mortal enjoyment, and transformed the earthly food into ambrosia of the gods, was that, while they sifted the powdered sugar over their berries, Miss Santa Claus began to tell them a story. It was about the Princess Ina, who had six brothers whom a wicked witch changed into swans. It was a very interesting story, the way she told it, and more than once both Libby and Will'm paused with their spoons half-way from berries to mouth, the better to listen. ”

“ It made them even more lonely and aloof because the people did not seem to be strangers to each other. All up and down the car they talked and joked as people in this free and happy land always do when it ’s the day before Christmas and they are going home, whether they know each other or not. To make matters worse, some of those strangers acted as if they knew Will'm and Libby, and asked them questions or snapped their fingers at them in passing in a friendly way. ”

“ It 's like hooking up a dress, you know. If you start crooked, it will keep on being crooked all the way down to the bottom, unless you undo it and begin over. So if I were you, I ’d begin to work that star-flower charm the first thing in the morning. Remember you can work it on anybody if you try hard enough. And remember that it is true, just as true as it is that you 're each going to have a Christmas stocking!”
She stooped over each in turn and kissed their eyelids down with a soft touch of her smiling lips that made Libby thrill for days afterward, whenever she thought of it. ”

“ Will’m and Libby knew nearly every engineer
“‘OH, DEAR SANTA CLAUS, PLEASE DON’T MIND WHAT WILL’M SAID.’” and conductor on the road by sight, and had their own names for them, The engineer on this morning train they called Mr. Smiley, because he always had a cheerful grin for them, and sometimes a wave of his big, grimy hand. This time Mr. Smiley was too busy and too provoked by the delay to pay any attention to the small boy perched on the fence-post. Some of the passengers, finding that they might have to wail half an hour or more, began to climb out and walk up and down the road past him. ”

“ When Libby came crying home from school the second time, because one of the boys called her Cinderella, and told her she would have to sit in the ashes and wear rags, and another one said no, she 'd be like Snow-white, and have to eat a poisoned apple, Grandma Neal was so indignant that she sent after Libby's books, saying that she would not be back at school.
Next day, Libby told Will'm the rest of what the boys had said to her. “All the stepmothers in stories are mean like Cinderella’s and Snow-white’s, and sometimes they are cruel. They are always cruel when they have a tusk.” ”

“ At Ridgely, she handed off all the rest of the packages and all of the holly wreaths but two. These she hung up out of the way over her windows, then, taking out a magazine, settled herself comfortably in the end of the seat to read.
On her last trip up the aisle she had noticed the wistful, unsmiling faces of her little neighbors across the way, and she wondered why it was that the only children in the coach should be the only ones who seemed to have no share in the general joyousness. ”

“ The door between the shop and sitting-room being closed, Will’m could not hear much that was said, but several times he caught the word “Christmas,” and once somebody said “Santa Claus” in such a loud, happy-sounding voice, that he slipped down from the chair and ran across the room to open the door a crack. It was only lately that he had begun to hear much about Santa Claus. Not until Libby started to school that fall did they know that there is such a wonderful person in the world. ”

“ And sometimes you will see a chance to do something to help her or to please her, without waiting to be asked. You may have to stop playing to do it, and give up your own pleasure. That will scratch your feelings some, but doing it will be like picking a big, golden star-flower whose name is kindness. ”

“ It’s the same way it is about going to heaven. Only those who b’leeve will be saved and get in.”
“Dranma and Uncle Neal will go to heaven,” insisted Will’m, loyally, and in a tone which suggested his willingness to hurt her if she contradicted him. Uncle Neal was “Dranma’s’ husband.
“Oh, of course they ‘ll go to heaven all right,” was Libby’s impatient answer. “They ’ve got faith in the Bible and the minister and the heathen and such things, But they won’t get anything in their stockings because they are n’t sure about there even being a Santa Claus! ”

“ It makes one sleepy to watch the snow fall for a long time. After a while, Will’'m climbed down from the window and cuddled up beside Libby again, with his soft, bobbed hair tickling her ear as he rested against her. He went to sleep so, and she put her arm around his neck again to keep him from slipping. The card with which Miss Sally had tagged him, slid along its cord and stuck up above his collar, prodding his chin. Libby pushed it back out of sight, and felt under her dress for her own. They must be kept safely, “in case something should happen.” ”

“ On the seat beside him was a young girl, who, waiting only long enough to plant a kiss on one of those rosy cheeks above the snowy beard, sprang out of the sleigh and ran after the boy as hard as she could go. ”

“ Then he caught sight of a section of a small boy peeping through the door, for all that showed of Will’m through the crack was a narrow strip of blue overalls, which covered him from neck to knees, a round pink cheek, and one solemn eye peering out from under his thatch of straight flaxen hair like a little Skye terrier’s, When the man saw that eye, he hurried to say, “Of course mud ought n’t to make any difference to Santy’s reindeer. They take the sky road, right over the housetops and all.” ”

“ Out of a dry throat Libby at last brought up the question she had been trying to find courage for:
“Is Santa Claus your father?”
“No, but Father and Uncle Norse are so much like him that people often get them all mixed up, just as they do twins, and since Uncle Santa has grown so busy, he gets Father to attend to a great deal of his business. In fact, our whole family has to help. He could n’t possibly get around to everybody as he used to when the cities were smaller and fewer. ”

“ So there!”
“Well, if Santa Claus won’t put anything in my Dranma Neal’s stocking, he ’s a mean old thing, and I don’t want him to put anything in mine,” began Will’m, defiantly, but was silenced by the sight of Libby’s horrified face.
“Oh, brother! Hush!” she cried, darting a frightened glance over her shoulder toward the chimney. Then in a shocked whisper which scared Will’m worse than a loud yell would have done, she said impressively, “Oh, I hope he has n’t heard you! He never would come to this house as long as he lives! ”

“ Then for fear that she should start to doing that same thing herself, she left Miss Sally to attend to the shop, and went briskly to work, putting the kitchen to rights. She had left the breakfast dishes until after the children’s departure, for she had much to do for them, besides putting up two lunches. They left at ten o’clock, and could not reach their journey's end before half-past eight that night. So both dinner and supper were packed in the big pasteboard box which had been stowed away under the seat with their suitcase. ”