 CHAPTER 7 OLD NUMBER 31 No sooner had the gate closed upon the subdued little ghost, shorn now of its terrors. Then the old man strode forward to the place where Brassard crouched in the straw, still crossing himself. This sudden appearance of his master at such a time only added to Brassard's fright. As for Jules, his knees shook until he could scarcely stand. Henry, his curiosity lending him courage, cautiously opened the kitchen door to peer out again. Emboldened by the silence, he flung the door wide open, sending a broad stream of lamplight across the little group in the barnyard. Without a word of greeting, Monserre laid hold of the trembling Jules, and drew him nearer the door, throwing open the child's blouse. He examined the thin little shoulders, which shrank away as if to dodge some expected blow. Go to my room, was all the old man said to him. Then he turned fiercely toward Brassard. His angry tones reached Jules even after he had mounted the stairs and closed the door. The child crept close to the cheerful fire, and, crouching down on the rug, waded in a shiver of nervousness, for his uncles step on the stair. Meanwhile, Joyce, hurrying home all a tingle with the excitement of her adventure, wondered anxiously what would be the result of it. Under cover of the dusk, she slipped into the house unobserved. There was barely time to dress for dinner. When she made her appearance, Monserre complimented her unusually red cheeks. Doubtless Mademoiselle has had a fine promenade, he said. No, answered Joyce with a blush that made them redder still, and that caused Madame to look at her so keenly that she felt those sharp eyes must be reading her innermost thoughts. It disturbed her soul that she upset the salt, spilled a glass of water, and started to eat her soup with a fork. She glanced in an embarrassed way from Madame to Monserre, and gave a nervous little laugh. The little Mademoiselle has been in mischief again, remarked Monserre with a smile. What is it this time? The smile was so encouraging that Joyce's determination not to tell melted away, and she began a laughable account of the afternoon's adventure. At first both the old people looked shocked. Monserre shrugged his shoulders and pulled his gray beard thoughtfully. Madame threw up her hands at the end of each sentence like horrified little exclamation points. But when Joyce had told the entire story, neither of them had a word of blame, because their sympathies were so thoroughly aroused for jewels. I shall ask Monserre Sizzou to allow the child to visit here sometimes, said Madame. Her kind old heart full of pity for the motherless little fellow. And I shall also explain that it was only your desire to save jewels from ill treatment that caused you to do such an unusual thing. Otherwise he might think you too bold and too, well, peculiar, to be a fit playmate for his little nephew. Oh, was it really so improper and horrid of me, Madame? asked Joyce anxiously. Madame hesitated. The circumstances were some excuse, she finally admitted, but I certainly should not want a little daughter of mine to be out after dark by herself on such a wild errand. In this country a little girl would not think it possible to do such a thing. Joyce's face was very sober as she arose to leave the room. I do wish that I could be proper like little French girls, she said with a sigh. Madame drew her towards her, kissing her on both cheeks. It was such an unusual thing for Madame to do that Joyce could scarcely help showing some surprise. Feeling that the caress was an assurance that she was not in disgrace as she had feared, she ran upstairs, so light-hearted that she sang on the way. As the door closed behind her, Montseur reached for his pipe, saying as he did so, she has a heart of gold, the little mademoiselle. Yes, assented Madame, but she is a strange little body, so untamed and original. I am glad that her cousin returned soon, for the responsibility is too great for my old shoulders, one never knows what she will do next. Perhaps it was for this reason, that Madame took Joyce with her when she went to tours next day. She felt safer when the child was in her sight. Is so much nicer going around with youth and Marie, said Joyce, giving Madame an affectionate little pat, as they stood before the entrance of a great square building awaiting admission. You take me to places I have never seen before, what places this? She stooped to read the little inscription on the door plate. Little Sisters of the Poor. Before her question could be answered, the door was opened by a wrinkled old woman in a nodding white cap, who led them into a reception room at the end of the hall. Ask for Sister Denisa, said Madame, and give her my name. The old woman shuffled out of the room, and Madame, taking a small memorandum book from her pocket, began to study it. Joyce sat looking about her with sharp, curious glances. She wondered if these little Sisters of the Poor were barefoot beggar girls, who went about the streets with ragged shoals over their heads and with baskets in their hands. In her lively imagination, she pictured row after row of such unfortunate children marching out in the morning, empty-handed, and creeping back at night with the results of the day's begging. She did not like to ask about them, however, and in a few minutes her curiosity was satisfied without the use of questions. Sister Denisa entered the room. She was a beautiful woman, in the plain, black habit and white headdress of a sister of charity. Oh, their nuns exclaimed Joyce in a disappointed whisper. She had been hoping to see the beggar girls. She had often passed the convent in St. Simphorian and caught glimpses of the nuns through the high barred gate. She had wondered how it must feel to be shut away from the world, to see only the patient white faces of the other Sisters, and to walk with meekly folded hands and downcast eyes always in the same old paths. But Sister Denisa was different from the nuns that she had seen before. Some inward joy seemed to shine through her beautiful face and make it radiant. She laughed often, and there was a happy twinkle in her clear gray eyes. When she came into the room she seemed to bring the outdoors with her. There was such sunshine and fresh air in the cheeriness of her greeting. Some had come to visit an old pensioner of hers who was in the home. After a short conversation Sister Denisa rose to lead the way to her. Would little mademoiselle like to go through the house while madame is engaged? Asked the nun. Oh, yes, thank you! answered Joyce who had found by this time that this home was not for little beggar girls, but for old men and women. Joyce had known very few old people in her short life, except her grandmother where, and this grandmother was one of those dear, sunny old souls whom everybody loves to claim whether they're in the family or not. Some of Joyce's happiest days had been spent in her grandmother's country home, and the host of happy memories that she had stored up during those visits served to sweeten all her afterlife. Old age to Joyce was associated with the most beautiful things that she had ever known, the warmest hospitality, the tenderest love, the cheeriest home life. Strangers were in the old place now, and grandmother Ware was no longer living. But for her sake Joyce held sacred every wrinkled face set round with snow-white hair, just as she looked tenderly on all old-fashioned flowers because she had seen them first in her grandmother's garden. Sister Denisa led the way into a large, sunny room, and Joyce looked around eagerly. It was crowded with old men. Some were sitting idly on the benches around the walls or dozing in chairs near the stove. Some smoked, some gathered around the tables where games of checkers and chess were going on, some gazed listlessly out the windows. It was good to see how dull faces brightened as Sister Denisa passed by with a smile for this group, a cheery word for the next. She stopped to brush the hair back from the forehead of an old paralytic, and brushed another man gently aside when he blocked the way with such a sweet-voiced, pardon little father, that it was like a caress. One white-haired old fellow, in his second childhood, reached out and caught at her dress as she passed by. Crossing a porch were more old men sitting sadly alone or walking socially up and down in the sunshine. Sister Denisa passed along a court and held the door open for Joyce to enter another large room. Here's the rest of our family, she said. A large one is it not? Two hundred poor old people that nobody wants, and nobody cares what becomes of. Joyce looked around the room and saw, on every hand, old age that had nothing beautiful, nothing attractive. Were they beggarous when they were little? She asked. No, indeed, answered the nun. That is the saddest part of it to me. Nearly all these poor creatures, as you see here, once had happy homes of their own. That pitiful old body over by the stove shaking with palsy was once a gay rich countess. The invalid whom Madame Visetz was a marquee. It would break your heart, mademoiselle, to hear the stories of some of these people, especially those who have been cast aside by ungrateful children to whom their support has become a burden. Several of these women have prosperous grandchildren to whom we have appealed in vain. There's no cruelty that hurts me like such cruelty to old age. Then another nun came into the room, said something to Sister Denison a low voice, and glided out like a silent shadow, her rosary swaying back and forth with every movement of her clinging black skirts. I'm needed upstairs, said Sister Denison, turning to Joyce. Will you come up and see the sleeping rooms? They went up the freshly scrubbed steps to a great dormitory, where against the bare walls stood long rows of narrow cots. They were all empty, except one at the farthest end, where an old woman lay with her handkerchief across her eyes. Poor old number thirty-one, said Sister Denison, she seems to feel her unhappy position more than anyone in the house. The most of them are thankful for mere bodily comfort, satisfied with food and shelter and warmth. But she is continually pining for her old home's surroundings. Will you not come and speak to her in English? She married a countryman of yours and lived over thirty years in America. She speaks of that time as the happiest in her life. I'm sure that you can give her a great deal of pleasure. Is she ill? said Joyce, timidly drawing back as the nuns started across the room. No, I think not, was the answer. She says she can't bear to be herded in one room with all those poor creatures like a flock of sheep with nothing to do but wait for death. She's always been accustomed to having a room of her own, so that her greatest trial is having no privacy. She must eat, sleep, and live with a hundred other old women always around her. She comes up here to bed whenever she can find the slightest ache for an excuse, just to be by herself. I wish that we could give her a little spot that she could call her own and shut the door on and feel alone. But it cannot be, she added with a sigh. It taxes our strength to the utmost to give them all even a bear home. By this time they had reached the cot, over the head of which hung a card bearing the number thirty-one. Here's a little friend to see you, Grandmother, said Sister Denisa, placing a chair by the bedside and stooping to smooth back the locks of silvery hair that had strayed out from under the coarse white nightcap. Then she passed quickly on to her other duties, leaving Joyce to begin the conversation as best she could. The old woman looked at her sharply with piercing dark eyes, which must have been beautiful in their youth. The intense gaze embarrassed Joyce, and to break the silent she hurriedly stammered out the first thing that came to her mind. Are you ill? Today the simple question had a startling effect on the old woman. She raced herself on one elbow and reached out for Joyce's hand, drawing her eagerly nearer. Ah! she cried. You speak the language that my husband taught me to love, and the tongue my little children lisped. But they are all dead now, and I've come back to my native land to find no home but the one that Charity provides. Her words ended in a wail, and she sank back on her pillow. And this is my birthday, she went on. Seventy-three years old and a pauper cast out to the care of strangers. The tears ran down her wrinkled cheeks, and her mouth trembled pitifully. Joyce was distressed. She looked around for Sister Dennisa, but saw that they were alone, they two, in the great bare dormitory, with its long rows of narrow whitecotts. The child felt utterly helpless to speak a word of comfort, although she was so sorry for the poor, lonely old creature that she began to cry softly to herself. She leaned over, and taking one of the thin, blue-veined hands in hers, patted it tenderly with her plump little fingers. I ought not to complain, said the trembling voice, still broken by sobs. We have food and shelter and sunshine and the sisters. That little Sister Dennisa, she is indeed a smile of God to us all. But at seventy-three, one wants more than a cup of coffee and a clean handkerchief. One wants something besides a bed, and being just number thirty-one among two hundred other paupers. I am so sorry, exclaimed Joyce, with such heartfelt earnestness that the sobbing woman felt the warmth of her sympathy, and looked up with a brighter face. Talk to me, she exclaimed. It has been so long since I have heard your language. While she obeyed, Joyce kept thinking of her grandmother where. She could see her outdoors among her flowers, the dahlias and touch-me-nots, the four o'clock and the cinnamon roses, taking such pride and pleasure in her sweet, posey beds. She could see her beside the little table on the shady porch, making tea for some old neighbor who had dropped in to spend the afternoon with her. Or she was asleep in her armchair by the western window, her Bible in her lap, and a smile on her sweet, kindly face. How dreary and empty the days must seem to poor old number thirty-one, with none of these things to brighten them. Joyce could scarcely keep the tears out of her voice while she talked. Later when Sister Dennisa came back, Joyce was softly humming a lullaby, and number thirty-one, with a smile on her pitiful old face, sleeping like a little child. Will you come again, dear mademoiselle? said Sister Dennisa, as she kissed the child goodbye at the door. You have brought a blessing. May you carry one away as well. Joyce looked inquiringly at Madame. You may come whenever you like, was the answer. Marie can bring you whenever you are in town. Joyce was so quiet on the way home, that Madame feared the day had been too fatiguing for her. No, said Joyce soberly. I was only thinking about poor old number thirty-one. I am sorryer for her, than I was for jewels. I used to think that there was nothing so sad as being a little child without any father or mother and having to live in an asylum. I've often thought how lovely it would be to go round and find a beautiful home for every little orphan in the world. But I believe, now, that it is worse to be old that way. Old people can't play together, and they haven't anything to look forward to, and it makes them so miserable to remember all the things that they have had and lost. If I had enough money to adopt anybody, I would adopt some poor old grandfather or grandmother and make them happy all the rest of their days. End of Chapter 7. Recording by Sandra Estenson. Chapter 8. Of the Gate of the Giant Scissors. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recording by Sandra Estenson. The Gate of the Giant Scissors. By Annie Fellows Johnston. Chapter 8. Christmas Plans and an Accident. That night, when Marie came in to light the lamps and brush Joyce's hair before dinner, she had some news to tell. The sard has been sent away from the Sizzu place. She said, a new man is coming to-morrow, and my friend, Clotille Robard, has already taken the position of housekeeper. She says that a very different life has begun for little Monsieur Jules, and that in his fine new clothes one could never recognize the little goat-herd. He looks now like what he is, a gentleman's son. He has the room next to Monsieur's, all freshly furnished, and after New Year a tutor is coming in from Paris. But they say that it is pitiful to see how greatly the child fears his uncle. He does not understand the old man's cold, forbidding manner, and it provokes Monsieur to have a little one tremble and grow pale whenever he speaks. It says that Madame Gravel told Monsieur that the boy needed games and young companions to make him more like other children, and he promised her that Monsieur Jules could come over here to-morrow afternoon to play with you. Oh, good! cried Joyce. We'll have another barbecue if the day is fine. I'm so glad that we do not have to be bothered any more by those tiresome old goats. At the time the next afternoon arrived, however, Joyce was far too much interested in something else to think of a barbecue. Cousin Kate had come back from Paris with a trunk full of pretty things and a plan for the coming Christmas. At first she thought of taking only Madame into her confidence and preparing a small Christmas tree for Joyce, but afterwards she concluded that it would give the child more pleasure if she were allowed to take part in the preparations. It would keep her from being homesick by giving her something else to think about. Then Madame proposed inviting a few of the little peasant children who had never seen a Christmas tree. The more they discussed the plan the larger it grew, like a rolling snowball. By lunchtime Madame had a list of thirty children who were to be bidden to the no-well fate and Cousin Kate had decided to order a tree tall enough to touch the ceiling. When Jules came over, awkward and shy with the consciousness of his new clothes, he found Joyce sitting in the midst of yards of gaily-colored Tarleton. It was heaped up around her in bright masses of purple and orange and scarlet and green, and she was making it into candy bags for the tree. In a few minutes Jules had forgotten all about himself and was as busy as she, pinning the little stocking-shaped patterns in place and carefully cutting out those fascinating bags. You would be lots of help, said Joyce, if you could come over every day, for there's all the ornaments to unpack and the corn to shell and pop and string. It will take most of my time to dress the dolls, and there's such a short time to do everything in. You never saw any popcorn, did you, Jules? asked Cousin Kate. When I was here last time I couldn't find it anywhere in France. But the other day a friend told me of a grocer in Paris who imports it for his American customers every winter, so I went there. Joyce, suppose you get the popper and show Jules what the corn is like. Madame was interested also, as she watched the little brown kernels shaken back and forth in their wire cage over the glowing coals. When they began popping open the little seed suddenly turned into big white blossoms. She sent Rosalie running to bring Montseur to see the novel site. We can eat and work at the same time, said Joyce, as she filled a dish with the corn and called Jules back to the table where he had been cutting tarlatan. There's no time to lose. See what a funny grain this is? She cried picking up one that lay on the top of the dish. It looks like Therese, the fish woman in her white cap. And here's a goat's head, said Jules, picking up another grain, and this one looks like a fat pigeon. He had forgotten his shyness entirely now and was laughing and talking as easily as Jack could have done. Jules, said Joyce suddenly, looking around to see that the older people were too busy with their own conversation to notice hers. Jules, why don't you talk to your Uncle Martin the way you do to me? He would like you lots better if you would. Robard says that you get pale and frightened every time he speaks to you, and it provokes him for you to be so timid. Jules dropped his eyes. I cannot help it, he exclaimed. He looks so grim and cross that my voice just won't come out of my throat when I open my mouth. Joyce studied him critically, with her head tipped a little to one side. Well, I must say, she exclaimed finally, that for a boy born in America you have the least dare about you of anybody I ever saw. Your Uncle Martin isn't any grimmer or crosser than a man I know at home. There's a judge ward, so big and solemn and dignified, that everybody is halfway afraid of him. Even grown people have always been particular about what they said to him. Last summer his little nephew Charlie Ward came to visit him. Charlie's just a little thing, still in dresses, and he calls his Uncle Bill. Think of anybody daring to call Judge Ward, Bill, no matter what the judge was doing, or how glum he looked. If Charlie took a notion, he would go up and stand in front of him and say, Laugh, Bill, Laugh. If the judge happened to be reading, he'd have to put down his book, and no matter whether he felt funny or not, or whether there was anything to laugh at or not, he would have to throw his head back and just roar. Charlie liked to see his fat sides shake and his white teeth shine. I've heard people say that the judge likes Charlie better than anybody else in the world, because he's the only person who acts as if he wasn't afraid of him. Jules sat still a minute, considering, and then asked anxiously, But what do you suppose would happen if I should say Laugh, Martin, Laugh, to my Uncle? Joyce shrugged her shoulders impatiently, Mercy, Jules, I did not mean that you should act like a three-year-old baby, I mean that you ought to talk to your Uncle some. Now this is the way you are. She picked up a kernel of the unpopped corn and held it out for him to see. You shut yourself up in a little hard ball like this, so that your Uncle can't get acquainted with you. How can he know what is inside of your head, if you always shut up like a clam whenever he comes near you? This is the way you ought to be. She shot one of the great white grains toward him with a deft flip of her thumb and finger. Be free and open with him. Jules put the tender morsel in his mouth and ate it thoughtfully. I'll try, he promised. If you really think that it would please him, and I can think of anything to say, you don't know how I dread going to the table when everything is always so still that we can hear the clock tick. Well you take my advice, said Joyce, talk about anything, tell him about our Thanksgiving feast and the Christmas tree, and ask him if you can't come over every day to help. I wouldn't let anybody think that I was a coward. Joyce's little lecture had a good effect, and Montseer saw the wisdom of Madame Gravel's advice when Jules came to the table that night. He had brought a handful of the wonderful corn to show his Uncle, and in the conversation that it brought about he unconsciously showed something else, something of his sensitive inner self that aroused his Uncle's interest. Every afternoon of the week that followed found Jules hurrying over to Madame Gravel's to help with the Christmas preparations. He strung yards of corn and measured out nuts and candy for each of the gay bags. Twice he went in the carriage to tours with cousin Kay and Joyce to help buy presents for the thirty little guests. He was jostled by the holiday shoppers and crowded aisles. He stood and raptured in front of wonderful show windows. And he had the joy of choosing fifteen things from piles of bright tin trumpets, drums, jumping jacks, and picture books. Joyce chose the presents for the girls. The tree was bought and set up in a large unused room back of the library, and as soon as each article was in readiness it was carried in and laid on a table beside it. Jules used to steal in sometimes and look at the tapers, the beautiful colored glass balls, the gilt stars and glittering tinsel, and wonder how the stately cedar would look in all that array of loveliness. Everything belonging to it seemed sacred, even the unused scraps of bright Tarleton and the bits of broken candles. He would not let Marie sweep them up to be burned, but gathered them carefully into a box and carried them home. There were several things that he had rescued from her broom. One of those beautiful red balls, cracked on one side it is true, but gleaming like a mammoth red cherry on the other. There were scraps of tinsel and odds and ends of ornaments that had been broken or damaged by careless handling. These he hid away in a chest in his room as carefully as a miser would have hoarded a bag of gold. Clotile Robard, the housekeeper, wondered why she found his candle burned so low several mornings. She would have wondered still more if she had gone into his room a while before daybreak. Marie had awakened early, and sitting up in bed with the quilts wrapped around him, spread the scraps of Tarleton on his knees. He was piecing together with his awkward little fingers enough to make several tiny bags. And Marie missed his spade one morning and hunted for it until he was out of patience. It was no art to be seen. Half an hour later, coming back to the house, he found it hanging in its usual place where he had looked for it a dozen times at least. Jewels had taken it down to the woods to dig up a little cedar tree, so little that it was not over a foot high when it was planted in a box. Clotile had to be taken into the secret, for he could not hide it from her. It is for my Uncle Martin, he said timidly. Do you think you will like it? The motherly housekeeper looked at the poor little tree decked out in its scraps of cast-off finery, and felt a sob rising in her throat. But she held up her hands with many admiring exclamations that made jewels glow with pride. I have no beautiful white strings of popcorn to hang over it like wreaths of snow, he said, so I am going down the lane for some mistletoe that grows in one of the highest trees. The berries are like lovely white wax beads. You are a good little lad, said the housekeeper kindly, as she gave his head an affectionate pat. I shall have to make something to hang on that tree myself. Some gingerbread figures, maybe. I used to know how to cut out men and horses and pigs, nearly all the animals. I must try it again some day soon. A happy smile spread all over Jewel's face as he thanked her. The words, you are a good little lad. Sent a warm glow of pleasure through him and rang like music in his ears all the way down the lane. How bright the world looked this frosty December morning. What cheeriness there was in the ring of Henry's axe as he chopped away at the stove-wood. What friendliness in the baker's whistle as he rattled by in his big cart. Jewel's found himself whistling, too, for sheer gladness and all because of no more kindness than might have been thrown to a dog, a pack on the head. And the words, you are a good little lad. Some time after it may have been two hours or more. Joan Gravel was startled by a wild continuous ringing of the bell at her front gate. Somebody was sending Peel after Peel echoing through the garden with quick impatient jerks of the bell wire. She hurried out herself to answer the summons. Bertha had already shot back the bolt and showed Clotile leaning against the stone post holding her fat sides and completely exhausted by her short run from the seizu house. Well, madam, send Gabrielle for the doctor. She cried gasping for breath at every word. The little mosteered Jewel's has fallen from a tree and is badly hurt. We do not know how much, for he is still unconscious and his uncle is away from home. Henry found him lying under a tree with a big bunch of mistletoe in his arms. He carried him upstairs while I ran over to ask you to send Gabrielle quickly on a horse for the doctor. Gabrielle shall go immediately, said madam Gravel, and I shall follow you as soon as I have given the order. Clotile started back in as great haste as her weight would allow, puffing and blowing and wiping her eyes on her apron at every step. Madam overtook her before she had gone many rods, always calm and self-possessed in every emergency. Madam took command now, sent the weeping Clotile to look for old linen, and read to the village for Montserrat's seizu, and then turned her attention to Jewel's. To think, said Clotile, coming to the room, that the last thing the poor little lamb did was to show me his Christmas tree that he was making ready for his uncle. She pointed to the corner where it stood, decked by awkward boyish hands in its pitiful collection of scraps. Poor little fellow, said madam, with tears in her own eyes. He has done the best he could. Put it in the closet, Clotile, Jewel would not want it to be seen before Christmas. Madam stayed until the doctor had made his visit. Then the report that she carried home was that Jewel's had regained consciousness, and that as far as could be discovered, his only injury was a broken leg. Joyce took refuge in the pear-tree. It was not alone because Jewel's was hurt that she wanted to cry, but because they must have the Noel fate without him. She knew how bitterly he would be disappointed. CHAPTER IX A great discovery. Only two more nights till Christmas Eve. Two more nights, two more nights. Having Joyce to Jewel's in a sort of chant. She was sitting beside his bed with a box in her lap, full of little dolls which she was dressing. Every day since his accident she had been allowed to make him two visits, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. They helped wonderfully in shortening the long tedious days for Jewel's. True, madam Grievel came often with broths and jellies. Cousin Kate made flying visits to leave rare hot-house grapes and big bunches of violets. Jewel hung over him with motherly tenderness and his uncle looked into the room many times a day to see that he wanted nothing. Jewel's famished little heart drank in all this unusual kindness and attention as greedily as the parched earth drinks in the rain. Still, he would have passed many a long restless hour had it not been for Joyce's visits. She brought over a photograph of the house at home, but the family seated in a group on the front porch. Joyce held it close while she introduced each one of them. By the time he had heard all about Holland's getting lost the day the circus came to town, and Jack's taking the prize in a skating contest, and Mary setting her apron on fire, and the baby's sweet little ways when he said his prayers or played peek-a-boo, he felt very well acquainted with the entire ware family. Afterward, when Joyce had gone, he felt his loneliness more than ever. He lay there trying to imagine how it must feel to have a mother and sisters and brothers all as fond of each other as Joyce's were, and to live in the midst of such good times as always went on in the little brown house. Monsieur Ciseaux, sitting by his fire with the door open between the two rooms, listened to Joyce's merry chatter with almost as much interest as Jewel's. He would have been ashamed to admit how eagerly he listened for her step on the stairs every day, or what longings wakened in his lonely old heart when he sat by his loveless fireside after she had gone home and there was no more sound of children's voices in the next room. There had been good times in the old Ciseaux house also, once, and two little brothers and a sister had played in that very room, but they had grown up long ago, and the ogre of selfishness and misunderstanding had stolen in and killed all their happiness. Ah, well, there was much that the world would never know about that misunderstanding. They was much to forgive and forget on both sides. Joyce had a different story for each visit. Today she had just finished telling Jewel's the fairy tale of which he never tired, the tale of the giant scissors. I never look at those scissors over the gate without thinking of you, said Jewel's, and the night when you played that I was the prince and you came to rescue me. I wish I could play scissors again and rescue somebody else that I know. Answered Joyce, I'd take poor old number thirty-one away from the home of the little sisters of the poor. What's number thirty-one? asked Jewel's. You never told me about that. Didn't I? asked Joyce in surprise. She's a lonely old woman that the sisters take care of. I have talked about her so often and written home so much that I thought I had told everybody. I can hardly keep from crying whenever I think of her. Marie and I stop every day we go into town and take her flowers. I've been there four times since my first visit with Madame. Sometimes she tells me things that happened when she was a little girl here in France. But she talks to me oftenest in English about the time when she lived in America. I can hardly imagine that she was ever as young as I am and that she romped with her brothers as I did with Jack. Tell some of the things that she told you, urged Jewel's, so Joyce began repeating all that she knew about number thirty-one. It was a pathetic little tale that brought tears to Jewel's eyes and a dull pain to the heart of the old man who listened in the next room. I wish I were rich, exclaimed Joyce impulsively as she finished. I wish I had a beautiful big home and I would adopt her for my grandmother. She should have a great lovely room where the sun shines in all day long and it would be furnished in rose color like the one that she had when she was a girl. I'd dress her in gray satin and soft white lace. She has the prettiest silvery hair and beautiful dark eyes. She would make a lovely grandmother. And I would have a maid to wait on her and they'd be Minionette always growing in boxes on the window-sell. Every time I came back from town I'd bring her a present just for a nice little surprise. And I'd read to her and sing to her and make her feel that she belonged to somebody so that she'd be happy all the rest of her days. Yesterday while I was there she was holding a little cut glass vinaigrette. It had a big D engraved on the silver top. She said that it was the only thing that she had left except her wedding ring and that it was to be sister Dennis's when she was gone. The D stands for both their names. Hers is Desire. She said the vinaigrette was too precious to part with as long as she lives because her oldest brother gave it to her on her twelfth birthday, when she was exactly as old as I am. Isn't Desire a pretty name? Madame Oisele, called Monsieur Ciseau from the next room. Madame Oisele, will you come? Will you tell me? What name was that? Desire, did you say? It was something so strange in the way he called that name, Desire, almost like a cry, that Joyce sprang up startled and ran into the next room. She had never ventured inside before. Tell me again what you were telling Jules, said the old man. Seventy-three years, did you say? And how long has she been back in France? Joyce began to answer his rapid questions, but stopped with a frightened cry as her glance fell in a large portrait hanging over the mantle. There she is! She cried excitedly, dancing up and down. As she pointed to the portrait, there she is! That's number thirty-one, her very own self. You are mistaken, cried the old man, attempting to rise from his chair, but trembling so that he could scarcely pull himself up on his feet. That is a picture of my mother, and Desire is dead, long dead. But it is exactly like number thirty-one. I mean Madame Desire, persisted Joyce. Monsieur looked at her wildly from under his shaggy browse, and then, turning away, began to pace up and down the room. I had a sister once, he began. She would have been Seventy-three this month, and her name was Desire. Joyce stood motionless in the middle of the room, wondering what was coming next. Suddenly, turning with a violence that made her start, he cried, No, I can never forgive. She has been dead to me nearly a lifetime. Why did you tell me this child? Out of my sight. What is it to me if she is homeless and alone? Go! Go! Joyce held his hand so wildly in motioning her away that Joyce ran out of the room and banged the door behind her. What do you suppose is the matter with him? asked Jules in a frightened whisper, as they listened to his heavy tread back and forth, back and forth, in the next room. Joyce shook her head. I don't know for sure, she answered, hesitatingly, but I believe that he's going crazy. Jules's eyes opened so wide that Joyce wished she had not frightened him. Oh, you know that I didn't mean it? She said reassuringly. The heavy tread stopped and the children looked at each other. What can he be doing now? Jules asked anxiously. Joyce tiptoed across the room and peeped through the keyhole. He is sitting down now by the table with his head on his arms. He looks as if he might be crying about something. I wish he didn't feel bad, said Jules with a swift rush of pity. He has been so good to me ever since he sent Brosset away. Sometimes I think that he must feel as much alone in the world as I do, because all his family are dead too. Before I broke my leg I was making him a little Christmas tree, so that he need not feel left out when we had the big one. I was getting mistletoe for it when I fell. I can't finish it now, but there's five pieces of candle on it, and I'll get clotilde to light them when the fat is going on, so that I'll not miss the big tree so much. Oh, nobody knows how much I want to go to that fat. Sometimes it seems more than I can bear to have to stay away. Where is your tree, asked Joyce. May I see it? Jules pointed to the closet. It's in there, he said proudly. I trimmed it with pieces that Marie swept up to burn. Oh, shut the door, quick! He cried excitedly as a step was heard in the hall. I don't want anyone to see it before the time comes. The step was on Rhys. He had come to say that Marie was waiting to take Madame Wazelle home. Joyce was glad of the interruption. She could not say anything in praise of the little tree, but she knew that Jules expected her to. She felt relieved that Henri's presence made it impossible for her to express any opinion. She bade Jules goodbye gaily, but went home with such a sober little face that Cousin Kate began to question her about her visit. Madame, sitting by the window with her embroidery frame, heard the account also. Several times she looked significantly across at Cousin Kate over the child's head. Joyce, said Cousin Kate, you have had so little outdoor exercise since Jules' accident that it would be a good thing for you to run around in the garden a while before dark. Joyce had not seen Madame's glances, but she felt vaguely that Cousin Kate was making an excuse to get rid of her. She was disappointed, for she thought that her account of Monsieur's queer actions, and Jules' little tree, would have made a greater impression on her audience. She went out, obediently, walking up and down the paths with her hands and her jacket pockets, and her red Tamashantra pulled down over her eyes. The big white cat followed her, ran on ahead, and then stopped, arching its back as if waiting for her to stroke it. Taking no notice of it, Joyce turned aside to the pear tree and climbed up among the highest branches. The cat rubbed against the tree, mewing and purring by turns, then sprang up in the tree after her. She took the warm, furry creature in her arms and began talking to it. Oh, Solomon, she said, what do you suppose is the matter over there? My poor old lady must be Monsieur's sister. Although she couldn't have looked exactly like that picture, and he would not have acted so queerly, what do you suppose is it that he can never forgive? Why did he call me in there, and then drive me out in such a crazy way, and tramp around the room, and put his head down on his arms as if he were crying? Solomon purred louder and closed his eyes. Oh, you dear comfortable old thing, exclaimed Joyce, giving the cat a shake. Wake up and take some interest in what I'm saying. I wish you were as smart as puss in boots, then maybe you could find out what is the matter. How I wish fairy tales could be true. I'd say giant scissors write the wrong, and open the gate that's been shut so long. There, did you hear that, Solomon Grievel? I said a rhyme right off without waiting to make it up. Then the scissors would leap down, and cut the misunderstanding of trouble or whatever it is, and the gate would fly open, and there the brother and sister would meet each other. All the unhappy years would be forgotten, and they'd take each other by the hand, just as they did when they were little children. Martin and Dazir, and go into the old home together, on Christmas day and the morning. Joyce was half singing her words now, as she rocked the cat back and forth in her arms, and then the scissors would bring jewels a magnificent big tree, and he'd never be afraid of his uncle any more. Oh, they'd all have such a happy time on Christmas day and the morning. Joyce had fully expected to be homesick all during the holidays, but now she was so absorbed in other people's troubles, in her day dreams, to make everybody happy, that she forgot all about herself. She fairly bubbled over with the peace and goodwill of the approaching Christmas tide, and rocked the cat back and forth in the pear tree to the tune of a happy old time carol. A star or two twinkled out through the gloaming, and looking up beyond them through the infinite stretches of space, Joyce thought of a verse that she and Jack had once learned together, one rainy Sunday, at her grandma the wares, sitting on a little stool at the old lady's feet. Behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power, in outstretched arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee. Her heart gave a bound of the thought. Why should she be sitting there longing for fairytales to be true, when the great hand that had set the stars to swing could bring anything to pass, could even open that long-closed gate, and bring the brother and sister together again, and send happiness to little jewels. Joyce lifted her eyes again, and looked up, out past the stars. Oh, if you please, God! she whispered, but little Christ child's sake. When Joyce went back to the house, Cousin Kate sat in the drawing-room alone. Madame had gone over to see jewels, and did not return until long after dark. Bertha had been in three times to ask Monsieur if dinner should be served, before they heard her ring at the gate. When she finally came there was such an air of mystery about her that Joyce was puzzled. All that next morning, too, the day before Christmas, it seemed to Joyce as if something unusual were afloat. Everybody in the house was acting strangely. Madame and Cousin Kate did not come home to lunch. She had been told that she must not go to see jewels until afternoon, and the doors of the room, where the Christmas tree was kept, had all been carefully locked. She thought that the morning would never pass. It was nearly three o'clock when she started over to see jewels. To her great surprise, as she ran lightly up the stairs to his room, she saw her Cousin Kate hurrying across the upper hall with a pile of rose-colored silk curtains in her arms. Jewels tried to raise himself up in the bed as Joyce entered, forgetting all about his broken leg and his eagerness to tell the news. Oh, what do you think, he cried. They said that I might be the one to tell you. She is Uncle Martin's sister, the old woman you told about yesterday, and he is going to bring her home to-morrow. Joyce sank into a chair with little gasp at the suddenness of his news. She had not expected this beautiful ending of her daydreams to be brought about so soon, although she had hoped that it would be some time. How did it all happen? She cried with a beaming face. Tell me about it, quick. Yesterday afternoon Madame came over soon after you left. She gave me my wine jelly, and then she went into Uncle Martin's room and talked and talked for the longest time. After she had gone he did not eat any dinner, and I think he must have sat up all night, for I heard him walking around every time that I waked up. Very early this morning Madame came back again, and Monsieur Greville was with her. They drove with Uncle Martin to the little sisters of the poor. I don't know what happened out there, only that Aunt Desire is to be brought home to-morrow. Your cousin Kate was with them when they came back, and they had brought all sorts of things with them from tours. She is in there now, making Aunt Desire's room look like it did when she was a girl. Oh, isn't it lovely, exclaimed Joyce, it is better than all the fairy tales that I have ever read or heard. Almost too good to be true. Just then cousin Kate called her, and she ran across the hall. Standing in the doorway she looked all around the freshly furnished room, that glowed with the same soft warm pink that colors the heart of a shell. How beautiful, cried Joyce, glancing from the rows on the dressing table to the soft curtains of the windows, which all opened towards the morning sun. What a change it will be from that big, bare dormitory with its row of narrow little cots. She tiptoed around the room, admiring everything, and smiling over the happiness in store, for poor old number thirty-one, when she should find herself in the midst of such loveliness. Joyce's cup of pleasure was so full that it brimmed over when they turned to leave the room. Cousin Kate slipped an arm around her and kissed her softly on the forehead. You dear little fairy tale-lover, she said, do you know that it is because of you that this dessert was blossomed? If you had never made all those visits to the little sisters of the poor, and had never won old Madame Dizier's love and confidence by your sympathy, if you had never told Jules the story of the giant scissors, and wished so loud that you could fly to her rescue, old Monsieur would never have known that his sister is living. Even then I doubt if he would have taken this step and brought her back home to live, if your stories of your mother and the children had not brought his own childhood back to him. He said that he used to sit there hour after hour and hear you talk of your life at home until some of its warmth and love crept into his own frozen old heart and thought out its selfishness and pride. Joyce lifted her radiant face and looked towards the half opened window as she caught the sound of chimes. Castellois came the deep-toned voice of a cathedral bell ringing for vespers. Listen, she cried, peace on earth, goodwill, oh cousin Kate, it really does seem to say it. My Christmas has begun the day before. CHAPTER 10 OF THE GATE OF THE GIANT SCISSORS This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Sandra Estenson. THE GATE OF THE GIANT SCISSORS By Annie Fellows Johnston CHAPTER X Christmas Long before the Christmas dawn was bright enough to bring the blue parrots into plain view on the walls of Joyce's room, she had climbed out of bed to look for her messages from Noelle. The night before, following the old French custom, she had set her little slippers just outside the threshold. Now, candle in hand, she softly slipped to the door and peeped out into the hall. Her first eager glance showed that they were full. Climbing back into her warm bed, she put the candle on the table beside it and began emptying the slippers. They were filled with bonbons and all sorts of little trifles, such as she and Jules had admired in the gay shop windows. On the top of one, Madame had laid a slender silver pencil and Montseir, a pretty purse. On the other was a pair of little wooden shoes, fastened like the ones that Jules had worn when she first knew him. They were only half as long as her thumb and wrapped in a paper on which was written that Jules himself had whittled them out for her, with Henry's help and instructions. What little darlings exclaimed Joyce, I hope he will think as much of the scrapbook that I made for him as I do of these. I know that he will be pleased with the big microscope that Cousin Cate bought for him. She spread all the things out on the table and gave the slippers a final shake. A red Morocco case, no larger than half a dollar, fell out of the toe of one of them. Inside the case was a tiny buttonhole watch, with its wee hands pointing to six o'clock. It was the smallest watch that Joyce had ever seen, Cousin Cate's gift. Joyce could hardly keep back a little squill of delight she wanted to wake up everybody on the place and show it. Then she wished that she could be back in the brown house, showing it to her mother and the children. For a moment, as she thought of them, sharing the pleasure of their Christmas stockings without her, a great wave of homesickness swept over her, and she lay back on the pillow with that miserable, far away feeling that of all things makes one most desolate. Then she heard a rapid tick, tick, tick, tick of the little watch and was comforted. She had not realized before that time could go so fast. Now thirty seconds were gone than sixty. At this rate it could not be such a very long time before they would be packing their trunks to start home. So Joyce concluded, not to make herself unhappy, by longing for the family, but to get as much pleasure as possible, out of this strange Christmas abroad. That little watch seemed to make the morning fly. She looked at it at least twenty times an hour. She had shown it to everyone in the house and was wishing that she could take it over to Jules for him to see, when Mont-sur, Cisou's carriage, stopped at the gate. He was on his way to the little sisters of the poor and had come to ask Joyce to drive with him to bring his sister home. He handed her into the carriage as if she had been a duchess, and then seemed to forget that she was beside him, for nothing was said all the way. As the horses spun along the road in the keen morning air, the old man was busy with his memories. His head dropped forward on his breast. The child watched him, entering into this little drama as sympathetically as if she herself were the forlorn old woman and this silent, white-haired man at her side were Jack. Sister Denisa came running out to meet them, her face shining and her eyes glistening with tears. It is for Joy that I weep, she exclaimed, that poor Madame should have come to her own again. See the change that has already been made in her by the blessed news. Joyce looked down the corridor as Moussir hurried forward to meet the old lady coming towards them and to offer his arm. Hope had straightened the bowed figure. Joy had put luster into her eyes and strength into her weak frame. She walked with such proud stateliness that the other inmates of the house looked up at her in surprise as she passed. She was no more like the tearful, broken-spirited woman who had lived among them so long, than her threadbare dress was like the elegant mantle which Moussir had brought to fold around her. Joyce had brought a handful of roses to Sister Denisa who caught them up with a cry of pleasure and held them against her face as if they carried with them some sweetness of another world. Madame came up then, and taking the nun in her arms tried to thank her for all she had done, but could find no words for a gratitude so deep and turned away sobbing. They said good-bye to Sister Denisa, brave little sister of the poor, whose only joy was the pleasure of unselfish service, who had no time to even stand at the gate and be glad witness of other people's Christmas happiness but must hurry back to her mourning task of dealing out coffee and clean handkerchiefs to two hundred old paupers. No, there were only a hundred and ninety-nine now. Down the streets, across the lorry, into the old village and out again along the wide Paris road, one of them was going home. The carriage turned and went for a little space between brown fields and closely clipped hedgegroves, and then Madame saw the windows of her old home flashing back the mooring sunlight over the high stone wall. Again the carriage turned into the lane this time, and now the sunlight was caught up by the scissors over the gate and thrown dazzlingly down into their faces. Monsieur smiled as he looked at Joyce, a tender, gentle smile that one would have supposed never could have been seen on those harsh lips. She was almost standing up in the carriage in her excitement. Oh, it has come true, she cried, clasping her hands together. The gates are really opening at last. Yes, the ogre, whatever may have been its name, no longer lived. Its spell was broken. For now the giant scissors no longer barred the way. Slowly the great gate swung open and the carriage passed through. Joyce sprang out and ran on ahead to open the door, hand in hand, just as when they were little children, Martin and Desire, this white-haired brother and sister, went back to the old home together, and it was Christmas day in the morning. At five o'clock that evening the sound of Gabrielle's accordion went echoing up and down the garden, and thirty little children were marching to its music along the paths between the rows of blooming laurel. Joyce understood now why the room where the Christmas tree stood had been so carefully locked. For two days that room had been empty, and the tree had been standing in Monsieurs Cizou's parlour. Cousin Kate and Madame, and Berth and Marie and Gabrielle had all been over there, busily at work, and neither she nor Jules had suspected what was going on downstairs. Now she marched with the others out of the garden and across the road, keeping time to the music of the weasy old accordion that Gabrielle played so proudly. Sadly every soul, in all that long procession filing through the gate of the giant scissors, belonged to the kingdom of loving hearts and gentle hands, for they were all children who passed through, or else mothers who carried in their arms the little ones, who but for these faithful arms must have missed this noel fate. Jules had been carried downstairs and laid on a couch in the corner of the room, where he could see the tree to its best advantage. Beside him sat his great aunt Desire, dressed in a satin gown of silvery gray that had been her mother's, and looking as if she had just stepped out from the frame of the portrait upstairs. She held Jules's hand in hers, as if with it she grasped the other Jules, the little brother of the olden days for whom this child had been named. And she told him stories of his grandfather and his father. Then Jules found that his aunt Desire had known his mother, had once sat on the vine-covered porch while he ran after fireflies on the lawn in his little white dress, and heard the song the voice still sang to him in his dreams. Till the stars in the angels come to keep their watch where my baby lies fast asleep. When she told him this, with her hand stroking his, and folding it tight with many tender little claspings, he felt that he had found a part of his old home too, as well as his aunt Desire. One by one the tapers began to glow on the great tree, and when it was all ablaze the doors were opened for the children to flock in. They stood about the room bewildered at first, for not one of them had ever seen such a sight before, a tree that glittered and sparkled and shone, that bore stars and rainbows and snow wreaths and gay toys. At first they only drew deep, wondering breaths and looked at each other with shining eyes. It was all so beautiful and so strange. Joyce flew here and there, helping to distribute the gifts, feeling her heart grow warmer and warmer as she watched the happy children. My little daughter never had anything like that in all her life, had one grateful mother, as Joyce laid a doll in the child's outstretched arms. She'll never forget this to her dying day, nor will any of us, dear mademoiselle. We know not what it was to have so beautiful a Noel. When the last toy had been stripped from the branches, it was Cousin Kate's turn to be surprised. At a signal from Madame, the children began circling around the tree, singing a song that the sisters at the village school had taught them for the occasion. It was a happy little song about the green pine tree, king of all trees, and monarch of the woods. Because of the crown he yearly wears it Noel. At the close every child came up to Madame and Cousin Kate and Joyce to say thank you, Madame, and good night, in the politest way possible. Gabrielle's accordion led them out again, and the music growing fainter and fainter died away in the distance. But in every heart that heard it had been born a memory whose music could never be lost, the memory of one happy Christmas. Joyce drew a long breath when it was all over, and with her arm around Madame Desire's shoulder, smiled down at Jules. How beautifully it has all ended, she exclaimed. I am sorry that we have come to the place to say, and they all lived happily ever after. For that means it is time to shut the book. Dear heart, murmured Madame Desire, drawing the child closer to her. It means that a far sweeter story is just beginning, and it is you who have opened the book for me. Joyce flushed with pleasure, saying, I thought this Christmas would be so lonely, but it has been the happiest of my life. And mine too, said Monsir Cizou from the other side of Jules's couch. He took the little fellow's hand in his. They told me about the tree that you prepared for me. I have been up to look at it, and now I have come to thank you. To the surprise of everyone in the room, Monsir bent over and kissed the flushed little face on the pillow. Jules reached up, and putting his arm around his uncle's neck, and his cheek a moment against the face of his stern old kinsman. Not a word was said, but in that silent caress every barrier of coldness and reserve was forever broken down between them, so the little prince came into his kingdom, the kingdom of love and real home happiness. It is summer now, and far away in the little brown house across the seas. Joyce thinks of her happy winter in France and the friends that she found through the gate of the giant scissors. And still those scissors hang over the gate, and may be seen to this day by anyone who takes the trouble to walk up the hill from the little village that lies just across the river lorry from the old town of Tours. The End End of Chapter 10, Recording by Sandra Estenson End of The Gate of the Giant Scissors by Annie Fellows Johnston