Edith Matilda Thomas

“ IN THE DARK LITTLE FLAT AT THE END OF THE COURT
What can the children in cities do,
The children shut in from wholesome sport—
The children that live, all winter through,
In the dark little flat at the end of the court? ”

“ THE LITTLE BROWN BAT
Quoth the little brown bat: “I rise with the owl,—
Wisest and best of the feathered fowl;
Let other folks rise, if they will, with the lark,
And be early and bright—I am early and dark!” ”

“ Large Christmas doles he seeks;
A pannier wide receives the store,
Yet never a word he speaks!
The nougat bells so merrily ring
Yet never a note he hears;
He gathers the gifts the good folk bring,
And onward still he steers. ”

“ For they’d left me but one, my kitten, my kitten—
As sweet as a kitten could be—
And I loved her for all the three
They had taken away without warning.
I watched her from daylight till dark,
Watched her from night until morning!
I never left my kitten, my kitten
(For I feared—and I loved her so!)
Till I thought it time she should know
That cats in the house have a duty,
And a right to be proud of their skill, [Pg 100]
As well as their grace and their beauty.
I only left my kitten, my kitten,
A few short moments in all,
To punish the mouse in the wall,
Each day growing bolder and bolder ”

“ The black cat holds the cosiest chimney-nook,
Straight in the blaze his gold-stone eyeballs look,
And children four do pay him flattering court.
The baby brings to him its picture-book,
And shows the way to build a castled fort.
The black cat shares, indeed, their every thought and sport. [Pg 101]
II
The black cat came to us a twelvemonth since;
The black cat is a stranger with us yet;
We treat him well; we call him our Black Prince. ”

“ Like a crown which the prairie’s monarch might choose to wear
On his shaggy forelock, and lined with the friendly hair!
The hunter stood still, abashed in the midst of the plain,
To hear the little gray mother’s cry of pain,
And the faint fine voices of nestlings answer the cry;
While their fearless friend lay dead between earth and sky! THE MOVING OF THE NEST
Do not ask me why? ”

“ Desolate league upon league, ice-pack and tundra and hill;
And the dark of the year when the gold-hunter’s rocker and dredge are still! [Pg 13]
By the fire that is no man’s hearth,—by the fire more precious than gold,—
They are passing the time as they may, encompassed by storm and by cold:
And their talk is of pay-streak and bedrock, of claim by seashore or creek,
Of the brigantine fast in the ice-pack this many and many a week;
Wraiths of the mist and the snow encumber her canvas and deck,—
And the Eskimos swear that a crew out of ghostland are crowding the wreck! ”

“ Our dear Black Prince, so sad, so gentle, and so good!
III
“You prattle, children. Fritz, bestir yourself!
The fire needs wood, so hungry is the wind;
And Elsa, bring the platters from the shelf
And lay the table. You, too, Gretchen, mind,
For you of late are carelessly inclined,
And brittle is the blaue glocken ware.
Make haste, else will your father come and find,
For all his day’s hard work, but churlish fare.
Full sure I am no man works harder anywhere.” ”

“ Jelly and jam,—three kinds at least,
And a tart—but where is the bread?” HOW THE CHRISTMAS TREE WAS BROUGHT TO NOME
Night of the winter—winter and night in the city of Nome,
There where the many are dwelling, but no man yet has a home! ”

“ Poor Buonamico, shivering, crept.
V
Busy all day with his quick, young hands,—
Busy his thoughts with a project bold.
“The master will find,” he said to himself,
“’Tis not well to work in the dark and the cold!” ”

“ To nail against the wall,
To feed at morn the blessed birds,
When with loud chirps they call.
“Poor ever have I been, God knows!
Yet ne’er so poor before,
But they might taste their glad Noël
Beside my cottage door.” ”

“ It is the Small Hours of the Year, when none of all that sleep will wake,
Howe’er the legion storms of heaven their deep and hidden fastness shake.
It is the Dark Hour ere the Dawn, when, through the growing rifts of sleep,
The wistful-eyed and moaning dreams of other days begin to peep.
But when, amid the softening rain, aloft, so mellow and so clear,
The first flute of the robin sounds, it is the Daybreak of the Year!
[Pg 70]
[Pg 71]
III
SOME OF THEIR FRIENDS
[Pg 72]
[Pg 73]
THE YOUNG OF SPRING
There are so many, many young! ”

“ When the night-moth sips from the lily’s white cup;
While the firefly lanterns are searching the sky,
I am glancing about, with fiery eye!”
Quoth the little brown bat: “The night has its noon
As well as its day—and I’m friends with the moon.
Many a secret she tells me alone,
Which never a bird or a bee has known!”
Quoth the little brown bat: “There is house-room for me,
When the winter comes, in some hollow tree;
Or under barn eaves, near the fragrant hay,
I sleep the dull winter hours away.” THE LOST CHARTER
(Based on an Arabic Legend)
persons
Bounce, a wire-haired Terrier ”

“ Then, while the old folk smile through happy tears,
Blame not the children if a shout they raise
When little Esel, [3] with his pointed ears,
Leans o’er the fence with puzzled, wistful gaze.
There, too, the gentle, great black ox will stand:
Folk say he knelt at night in strawy stall;
Perchance he knows these kings from Eastern land,
For now he lifts his head with lowing call!
[1] Weihnachten—Christmas
[2] In many parts of Southern Germany it is a custom to place on the outer door the initials of the three kings—C. M. B.
[3] Esel—German for “donkey,” ”

“ Up, up, to vanish in the gusty sky.
The black cat—look! he leaves his wonted place,
And hark! he speaks: “Then, king of cats am I!“
And with this first and last word for good-by,
Up, up the chimney he hath vanished quite.
“Our dear, our good Black Prince!” the children cry ”

“ Olives and almonds, and cheese and bread,
And the pack on his back grows stout!
Let the hungry poor to their fill be fed,
While the nougat bells ring out.
Thus, Melchior rides from door to door,
Seeking of all his fee;
And their presents into his pannier pour,
Yet never a whit cares he!
For a wicker-work man is Melchior droll,
A wicker-work man, and no more;
But the people love him, with heart and soul,
As he rides from door to door!
[Pg 26]
ONE OF THE TWELVE
A Christmas Carol
From the Provençal of Roumanille
“Great stir among the shepherd folk ”

“ Would mingle together, then pour from his chalice
Magic new wine never tasted before!” DAY—WIDE DAY!
Day to the washing seas, and to the patient land,
And to the little nautilus upon the sand.
Day to the toiler gone afield, and to the child,
And to the peetweet’s brood amid the marshes wild. [Pg 75]
While these awake to toil and those awake to play,
How glad are all that breathe, that night has winged away!
For light and life are friends, and night their ancient foe. ”

“ At the point where human skill fell short;
For they used what was waste in the hands of man.
[Pg 82]
THE PRAIRIE NEST
Where, think you, a little gray finch in the far wide West
Chose (of all places!) to build and to brood her nest?
Well, I will tell you the tale that the hunter told:
(Strange things has he seen—this hunter grizzled and old.)
He spoke of the cattle that came to no herder’s call,
Roaming the fenceless prairie from springtime to fall.
A shot from his rifle laid low the king of the herd—
When, hark! the sharp cry of a circling and hovering bird! ”

“ He comes—is at the door. Why, goodman, dear,
You’re out of breath! Bad news you bring, I fear.”
“Bad news” (the goodman smiles, with half a frown) ,
“But not for us; and so take heart of cheer.
I own I’m out of breath—but sit ye down
And hear the strangest thing e’er happened in this town.”
VI
The children gather at their father’s knees
And, wonder-eyed, the coming story wait—
The story strange, the story sure to please.
The black cat, who absorbed their cares but late,
Is left to hold his solitary state. ”

“ Thus, in the indolent dark of the year, in the city of Nome,
They were passing the time as they might, but ever their thoughts turned home.
Said the Man from the East, “In God’s country now (where we’d all like to be) ,
You may bet your life there’s a big boom on for the Christmas Tree ”

“ The witch-child looks and leans!
Spake, then, the priest to all his flock:
“Forbid no more this child!
To speak for her, God sendeth these,
His loved ones of the wild!
“’Twas God that made them take her gift,
Our stubborn hearts to shame!
Melt, hearts of ours; and open, hands,
And give in Christ’s dear name.”
Thus, Elfinell with gifts was showered,
Upon a Christmas Day ”

“ And dart with heedless wings about the ivied gloam;
VII
“When, on my left, along the crumbling wall,
Sharp-graved against the pallid afterglow,
I saw a funeral train, with sweeping pall,
And mournful bearers in a double row. [Pg 103]
I rubbed my eyes, I looked again, and lo!
No human forms composed that funeral train!”
(The black cat’s eyes of gold-stone glitter so!
He rises from the spot where he hath lain
And listens well, as one who does not list in vain.)
VIII
“Folk say the Schloss was ever haunted ground ”

“ Then Skye, of Skye, on the beach-white floor,
Sanded that day by the housemaid neat,
Lay down to rest him—his vigils o’er, [Pg 99]
With his honest nose between his feet.
But Skye, of Skye as he rolled his eye
On the friendly crowd, heard his master say,
“Na, na, that doggie ye couldna buy—
Not though his weight in gold ye would pay!”
Skye, of Skye, they have made him a bed
On the wind-swept cliff, by the ocean’s swell;
On the stone they have reared above his head,
You may see a little dog ringing a bell. TIP’S KITTEN
The master,—he loved my kitten, my kitten ”

“ Would René counsel: Might it not be so—
As we had heard our own dear mother say—
The roads are four—the Kings had come another way?
No time to lose. We took the homeward track,
The Kings at vespers might be lingering still.
Soon were we in the church. Alack, alack!
The Kings had passed; for though they bore good will
To our good parish, yet must they fulfil
The prayers of all ”

“ At this, Tip is seen to be occupying her own corner of the hearth, and Bounce to be sound asleep, his nose deeply buried between his forepaws. Old Servant rubs her eyes, then smiles thoughtfully, and settles back in easy-chair
THE SAVING OF JACK
An East Side Incident
“Whose dog is Jack?” ”