Frances Margaret Fox

“ Mulvaney, Cornelia Mary, and Sally remembered the stories they had heard, stories that had kept the house empty so many years.
"It must—must be imagination," declared Cornelia Mary, whose lower teeth seemed trying to break her upper teeth.
"We've all got ears," remonstrated Chinky.
"It's Stubbins," insisted Mrs. Mulvaney, "and I'll give it to him for being so smart and not answering Hannah."
Upstairs went Mrs. Mulvaney, but she came down faster than she went up. "It beats all," she declared, "there ain't nobody in the house but us—and do you hear that noise again? ”

“ Sally smiled. "Oh, Mrs. Turner and I went house-hunting only last Saturday. We thought maybe we could find a cheap little house, but we couldn't on account of the new sugar factory. Houses are scarce and rents are high. We found out a few things. That's the way I do my hoping, mamma."
"Would they come?" inquired Cornelia Mary, growing interested.
"Come!" echoed Sally, "they'd come flying!"
"Yes, they would," agreed her mother. "There's no doubt of it. But how could we manage, Cornelia Mary? Where could they get a house, and how could they furnish it?" ”

“ Well, if we can learn geography and figures and history things and birds, why can't we learn tablecloths?"
Mrs. Mulvaney shook her head. "You have to be born to tablecloths," said she.
"Hannah wasn't born to big, wide, pink dresses and bows on her hair," announced Chinky, "but look at her, ma, you'd think she'd worn 'em all her life. Not as you need to think you're so smart, Hannah, but I'm talking about tablecloths and being like other folks. ”

“ WELCOME HODGKINS CHOOSES THE CHRISTMAS TREE
It isn't so easy as you might think to choose a Christmas tree. Many a day early as November the seven little Mulvaneys trooped forth in search of one. The woods belonged to Mr. Hodgkins, who by this time had become their much loved ideal. Even Cornelia Mary had changed her mind about the man.
"He doesn't seem half so queer when you really get acquainted with him," she often remarked to her mother. Mrs. Brown and Sally were delighted by the many acts of kindness he showered upon the Mulvaneys, and their friends the Turners began to like him. ”

“ Isaac Turner. "I feel as if I had known the Mulvaneys all my life. Talk about them, of course you may. Is Mrs. Mulvaney a nice looking woman?"
"Dear me, no," laughed Sally, playing with the soapsuds in the dishpan. ”

“ It so happened that the reason the seven children were so careful in their choice of a tree, was because Mr. Hodgkins, the Randalls, the Turners, Mrs. Brown, Alfred and Sally [Pg 94] were to share in its joy. The idea of having a Christmas tree was suggested by Mrs. Mulvaney to the unbounded satisfaction of the children.
"Who'll speak the pieces and sing the songs?" demanded Chinky.
"All of us, of course," Hannah replied.
"Catch me speaking a piece to a tree!" sniffed Chinky. "Johnnie and Mike and Stubbins, they can do that."
"Think you're awful smart, don't you?" ”

“ Tom continued. "Now don't giggle, Corny and Sally, I'm serious. I say let's go furniture-hunting all through the country."
"Oh, Tom, you dear!" exclaimed Cornelia Mary. "The very thing! I suppose every one of our neighbours has old furniture in their woodsheds and attics they would be glad to get rid of."
Sally clapped her hands and tried to speak. She had barely time to open her mouth before Cornelia Mary had finished a request.
"Oh, Tom, will you go with us? We'll hitch Bess to the lumber wagon and you drive. Will you?" ”

“ She's about as unpretty as any one you ever saw. She's cross as a bear, too, but who wouldn't be? Just 'magine, Mrs. Turner, if you lived in a horrid little pig-pen house, and you had seven acting children and your Mr. Mulvaney was dead, and you had to take in washing? I do wish they could come out in the country. I wish they could live in this very village. Why, Mrs. Turner, they are the most discouraging children you ever saw. There's Hannah and Chinky and Nora and Dora and Mike and Johnnie and Stubbins, and they all look worse'n they act. ”

“ Why, I should say yes! Look here, Stubbins, there are so many pigs in the country they run wild—wild, I say, and if any little kid is a pig catcher all he's got to do is catch a pig and keep it if he can. You can even take pigs to school here, ride 'em right into the schoolhouse if the door's open."
Stubbins glanced inquiringly at Cornelia Mary, but she and Sally were busy talking with Mike and Johnnie, while Chinky and Hannah were busy listening to them. Mrs. Mulvaney was thinking, and paid no attention to Tom's nonsense. ”

“ Mulvaney, "why, Chinky's name is Ezra Jonathan."
"Ezra Jonathan!" groaned Chinky, his red hair and freckles looking startled. "Oh, ma!"
"The idea of trying to be folks and not knowing your own names. I guess you'll remember 'em now, Moses Aaron and Ezra [Pg 68] Jonathan. Not's I care what Mr. Hodgkins thinks, 'cause it's none of his business what your names are. But just the same you want to do everything you can to keep on the right side of him on account of our living in his house. You make yourselves useful to him and don't never be sassy or he might turn us out. Mind that. ”

“ He's fourteen and he thinks he knows it all."
"The boys all like him, Sally. If girls weren't so silly they wouldn't have so much trouble."
"You needn't think that bothers me," laughed Sally, "because I want to tell you about the Randalls. They're the nicest people ever, all but Tom. They live in a great big white house with green blinds and wide verandas. It must be lovely in the summer. You ought to see their cows and their horses and their chickens, and when I say chickens I mean everything with feathers; pigeons, ducks, and geese, turkeys, and even guinea hens. ”

“ Johnnie, Mike, come here. You seem to have forgotten this boy's name."
"He ain't never had no name," declared Johnnie, dodging behind Chinky to escape the spanking he seemed to expect when his mother looked at him as she did at that moment.
"You donkeys!" exclaimed Mrs. Mulvaney. "Dust out your ears now and you'll hear something. Stubbins's real name is Moses Aaron Mulvaney. Do you hear, Stubbins? Your meetin'-house name is Moses. When you start school, your name is Moses. When a man asks who you are, answer Moses. Do you understand?" ”

“ Sally declared. "Mrs. Turner says she could get more washing to do in the village than five women could manage, especially when the summer boarders are there. Mrs. Turner says too she's even wondered why some one doesn't start a laundry."
"But that's in the village and wouldn't help my school any."
"Maybe that's true," agreed Sally, "but couldn't they live in the country, and couldn't Chinky and Hannah go after the washings and take them home? The worst trouble is [Pg 16] finding a place for the Mulvaneys to live. There isn't a house they could get in the village." ”

“ Hodgkins said there were three rooms upstairs, didn't he, Sally?"
"Yes, three rooms, and kind of an attic over the kitchen. Oh, what will the Mulvaneys think? They have only two little rooms and a place above for the children to sleep, where they live, and the children were never in a decent house in their lives. They are not used to furniture, let me tell you. They didn't own but one real bed."
The first donation was a what-not, given by Mrs. George Saunders.
"That thing'll be a comfort," commented Tom.
"It'll help fix up the sitting-room," commented Cornelia Mary. ”

“ Mulvaney put different clothes on Stubbins, scrubbed his hands and face until the skin was raw, brushed his hair so hard his head swam, and sent him a cleaner if not a better boy, to call on Welcome Hodgkins.
"You can't be folks unless you keep looking decent," declared Mrs. Mulvaney, "and don't you ever let me know of your telling the neighbours that your mother's used to [Pg 62] dirt, or I may put you in the boiler and boil you clean next time."
That is the way Mr. Hodgkins was led to believe that Mrs. Mulvaney was an uncommonly neat woman, the day he and Stubbins became friends. ”

“ Mulvaney, "and, Chinky, you tell Hannah to ask Sally Brown to come over first chance she gets, and show you young ones table manners. You've got to learn 'em. I may want to ask company in to tea before long, and we don't want no pigs to the table. Watch out, there, Stubbins, you've got your elbow in the butter. If you want something you can't reach, don't climb up on the table after it, that ain't manners. ”

“ Hodgkins. "Most people are like hens. When something strikes them hard they make a big fuss about it, and after they flutter around a while they go about their business exactly as they did before. I'm like the mud turtle. I crawled into my shell, and now they say I'm a queer one, as Stubbins says of the turtle."
Hannah turned red. How did Mr. Hodgkins know that the neighbours called him queer, and why was he a friendless man? ”

“ Hannah shook her head gloomily. "Does anybody know?" she asked.
"Not me," declared Mike. "How'll we ever get such a whoppering tree in the house? She won't even go to look at it."
"Nope," added Johnnie, "ma said first thing that if Mr. Hodgkins thought it was right, it was right, and since he's been over here to talk to her about it you dassn't hardly say tree."
"She—she's getting a new dress made," offered Nora.
"Yes," agreed Dora, "and she says this—this [Pg 102] Christmas party is something we won't never forget."
"I bet we won't, if we have that tree," grumbled Chinky. ”

“ Mulvaney never referred to the fact that Mr. Mulvaney was a drunkard,—"and somehow I got discouraged, and I ain't brought you young ones up right. Now I feel glad and thankful we've got enough to eat and wear and a good house to live in, but it's too late for tablecloths."
"Why?"
"Because, Hannah, Stubbins wouldn't know no more how to act up against a tablecloth than one of his own pigs."
"We could learn," ventured Chinky.
Hannah took courage. "Listen, ma," said she, "Miss Randall says she never saw such [Pg 75] bright children as we are. ”

“ Hodgkins, he's the man that can do that, and when he gets to the end of it we'll all clap our hands."
"Will Thanta Clauth come netht?" inquired [Pg 96] Stubbins, resting his chin in both hands with his elbows upon his knees.
"Aren't you ashamed," replied Mrs. Mulvaney. "Now don't you s'pose Santa Claus knows we can take care of ourselves this year? He better go where they's poor folks. Moses Aaron, I'm ashamed of you."
"Well, but thay, ma, how about Chrithmuth prethenth?"
"That's where the real fun of Christmas comes in," explained Mrs. Mulvaney; "we make presents for each other. ”

“ Fact is we're all going to have a chance to be folks, and if I was you young ones, I'd try and forget what we look like now, and think hard about how fine we'll look next time we go on the cars with our trunks and umbrells and land knows what; and when we all get set down in the Grand Central Station to wait for the cars, I'll tell you where we're going and all about it. ”

“ I've discovered that you're pretty sure to like every one if you only get well enough acquainted. I never knew how good Mrs. Mulvaney was until mamma was taken to the hospital, and Mrs. Mulvaney took me and Alfred in. Of course [Pg 5] she was cross and everything, but I'll never forget how good she was to us, nor how she cried for joy,—that's what mamma said,—because they had a gay Christmas for once in their lives. She was glad mamma and Alfred and I could come here to live, too; and now I'll tell you something, Mrs. Turner. I'm not the only one that's hoping. This is exactly what Mrs. ”

“ Sally exclaimed, "and the windows are all boarded up; we can't see much. Who owns it? Let's go for the key?"
"No one will ever live in that house again," declared Cornelia Mary. "To begin with, it's the oldest house in the country and the man who built it lived in it for a long time. Then he built a new house and his hired man lived here. After that a great many different families rented it; then for years it was empty. One time a crazy man, whose folks owned the mill, broke in the house and said he was going to stay there until he died. ”

“ Mulvaney, sailing away without looking behind, which was a fortunate thing for Johnnie. Before his mother's return he had scraped off most of the dough from his trousers, with the help of the twins.
"Kind o' sthicky, ain't it?" commented Stubbins, tasting of the dough. "Thay! I'd give a thent to know where ma went."
"Maybe she ain't never coming back," suggested Hannah, after a long silence.
"Yes she is; look alive, kids," shouted Chinky, "she's coming like the fire engine. Watch out!" ”

“ Mulvaney, "and you can take the clothes-stick in the other. It's too good to leave behind. Now don't you stir," she continued, "until the others are ready."
"Well, ma," grumbled Stubbins, "I [Pg 41] couldn't sthir if I wanted to. I sthick out all around ith like a pig. I thay! I'm too warm!"
Mike laughed at Stubbins, so Mrs. Mulvaney chose him for the next victim. He quickly felt and looked like his little brother.
"You can take the kerosene can in one hand, and the dishpan in the other," said Mrs. Mulvaney. Then Mike felt worse than Stubbins, but protest was useless. ”

“ Being a woman of action, Mrs. Mulvaney lighted a lamp. "I'm going in that attic and look around," said she. "I don't care if you all come along."
[Pg 57]
"I ain't afraid," bragged Chinky.
"Hold your tongue," said his mother, leading the way toward the attic.
Neither Cornelia Mary nor Sally could have spoken had they tried. Their jaws wouldn't work. As for their knees, one minute they were stiff as the joints of a Dutch doll, the next the poor girls could scarcely stand. Johnnie was whimpering. Hannah and the twins clung together. Only Mike and Chinky pretended not to be afraid, as Mrs. ”