Edward Eggleston

“ I cannot tell you about the giving of the broom-machine to the blind broom-maker; of the ton of coal to Parm’ly, and of all the other things that happened on Christmas Day when the presents were given. I must leave these things out. As for Aunt Parm’ly, she said she did not know, but dat dare coal seemed like it come from de sky.
But there was an ample feast yet for the boys at the Sunday-school, for many biscuits, and cakes, and pies had been baked. But every time Willie looked at the walking stick he thought of “the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind.” ”

“ Blake,” said Sammy, “we boys wanted to know,—if there wasn’t any harm in your telling,—why, we wanted to know what kind of a thing we are going to have on Christmas at our Sunday-school.”
“Well, boys, I don’t know any more about it yet than you do. The teachers will talk it over at their next meeting. They have already settled some things, but I have not heard what.”
“I hope it will be something good to eat,” said Tommy Puffer. Tommy’s body looked for all the world like a pudding-bag. It was an india-rubber pudding-bag, though. I shouldn’t like to say that Tommy was a glutton. Not at all. ”

“ It was in vain that the widow told him that if she lost them she could do no work for her own support, and must be forever a pauper. Lampeer had an idea that no poor person had a right to love children. Parental love was, in his eyes, or his eye, an expensive luxury that none but the rich should indulge in. ”

“ That word of Susie’s awakened Willie. Up to that moment he had not thought what Mr. Lampeer was there for. Now he saw Mrs. Martin holding the pen with trembling hand, and making motions in the air preparatory to writing her name. Most people not used to writing, write in the air before they touch the paper. When Willie saw this, he flew [56] across the room and thrust his hand upon the place where the name ought to be, saying,—
“Don’t do that, Mrs. Martin! Don’t give away your children!” ”

“ The minister told Sitles good-bye, and started to make other visits. And on the way the cane kept crying out, “Something must be done,—something MUST be done,—something MUST be done,” making the must ring out sharper every time. When Mr. Blake and the walking-stick got to the market-house, just as they turned off from Milk Street into the busier Main Street, the cane changed its tune and begun to say, “But what,—but what,—but WHAT,—but WHAT,” until it said it so sharply [19] that the minister’s head ached, and he put Old Ebony under his arm, so that it couldn’t talk any more. ”

“ The minister did not get a small fortune of a salary. So it happened that Willie knew pretty well how to keep house. He was a good brave boy, never ashamed to help his mother in a right manly way. He could wash dishes and milk the cow, and often, when mamma had a sick-headache, had he gotten a good breakfast, never forgetting tea and toast for the invalid.
So Sancho, the Canadian pony, was harnessed to the minister’s rusty buggy, and Mr. and Mrs. Blake got in and told the children good-bye. ”

“ After school it was fixed that each class should find its own case of poverty. The young men’s and the young women’s Bible classes undertook to supply Sitles with a broom-machine, a class of girls took Aunt Parm’ly under their wing, other classes knew of other cases of need, and so each class had its hands full. ”

“ Everybody liked to do what Willie asked; there was something sweet and strong in his blue eyes, eyes that “did not seem to have any bottom, they were so deep,” one of the girls said. Soon there was an excitement in the school, and about the door; girls and boys talking and discussing, but as soon as any opposition came up Willie’s half coaxing but decided way bore it down. I think he was much helped by Sammy’s wit, which was all on his side. It was agreed, finally, that whatever scholars meant to give [38] to teachers, or teachers to scholars, should go to the poor. ”

“ We left Willie awhile ago puzzling over that twenty-four dollars. After many hours of thought and talk with Sammy about how they should manage it, two gentlemen gave them nine dollars, and so there was but fifteen more to be raised. But that fifteen seemed harder to get than the fifty they had already gotten. At last Willie thought of something. They would try the sewing-machine man. Mr. Sharps would throw off fifteen dollars. ”

“ He was barefoot, ragged, and looked hungry, as some poor children always do. Their minds seem hungrier than their bodies. He was rocking a baby in an old cradle. “There’s Ben,” continued the blind man, “he’s as peart a boy as you ever see, preacher Blake, ef I do say it as hadn’t orter say it. Bennie hain’t got no clothes. I can’t beg. But Ben orter be in school.” Here Peter Sitles choked a little.
“How’s broom-making, Peter?” said the minister. ”

“ I’ll send you some provisions and coal to-day; but you must let the children go. I’ll come to your house in a few days. Don’t object; I won’t hear a word. If you’re as poor as you let on to be, you’ll be glad enough to get your young ones [47] into places where they’ll get enough to eat. That’s all, not a word, now.” And he turned to the next applicant, leaving the widow to go home with her heart so cold. ”

“ Such an assortment of men, women, and little children, you cannot often find. They were fed with the good things provided for the Sunday-school children, much to the disgust of Tommy Puffer and his mother. ”

“ This made Willie think a moment; but seeing the walking-stick in the corner, he said: “Mrs. Martin must have a machine, and that three and a half makes seventeen dollars. How to get the other forty-eight is the question.”
Mr. Blake and Mr. Marble both agreed that the boys could not raise so much money, and should not undertake it. But Willie said there was nobody to do it, and he guessed it would come somehow. The other boys, when they came to church that evening, told Willie that their presents were commuted for [41] money also; so they had twenty-five dollars toward the amount. ”

“ Well, you see, it’s the machines as is a-spoiling us. The machines make brooms cheap, and what can a blind feller like me do agin the machines with nothing but my fingers? ’Tain’t no sort o’ use to butt my head agin the machines, when I ain’t got no eyes nother. ”

“ You see, I never had no [18] book-larnin’ myself, and I can’t talk proper no more’n a cow can climb a tree.”
“But, Mr. Sitles, how much would a broom-machine cost you?” asked the minister.
“More’n it’s any use to think on. It’ll cost seventy dollars, and if it cost seventy cents ’twould be jest exactly seventy cents more’n I could afford to pay. For the money my ole woman gits fer washin’ don’t go noways at all towards feedin’ the four children, let alone buying me a machine.”
The minister looked at his cane, but it did not answer him. Something must be done. The minister was sure of that. ”

“ Willie got the money; but the teachers had counted on making up their festival mostly with [43] cakes and other dainties, contributed by families. So that the candy money was only sixteen dollars, and Willie was yet a long way off from having the amount he needed. Twenty-four dollars were yet wanting.
[44]
CHAPTER VII.
THE WIDOW AND THE FATHERLESS.
The husband of widow Martin had been killed by a railroad accident. The family were very poor. Mrs. Martin could sew, and she could have sustained her family if she had had a machine. But fingers are not worth much against iron wheels. ”

“ I have meant to furnish a book that would serve for a Christmas present to Sunday-scholars, either from the school or from their teachers. I hope it is a story, however, appropriate to all seasons, and that it will enforce one of the most beautiful and one of the most frequently forgotten precepts of the Lord Jesus.
EDWARD EGGLESTON.
[8]
[9]
CONTENTS.
[11]
Mr. Blake’s Walking-Stick. CHAPTER I.
THE WALKING-STICK WALKS.
Some men carry canes. Some men make the canes carry them. I never could tell just what Mr. Blake carried his cane for. ”

“ Blake.
Willie did not find time to look any further for the other verses. He wished his father had happened [33] on them instead of the first text which the cane quoted.
In church he kept thinking all the time about the cane. “Now what could it mean by the twelfth and thirteenth verses of the fourteenth chapter? There isn’t anything in the Bible against giving away presents to one’s friends. ”