 Part 6. The Little City of Hope A Christmas Story by Francis Marion Crawford Section 3. 5. How the city was besieged and the lid of Pandora's box came off. Almost the worst part of it was that he had to tell his boy about his dreadful mistake and that it was all over with the motor and with everything, and that until he could get something to do they were practically starving, and that he could not possibly see how there was ever to be ice cream for Christmas, let alone such an expensive joy as a turkey. He knew that Newton would not pucker up his mouth and screw his eyes to keep the tears in like a girl, and he was quite sure that the boy would not reproach him for having been so careless. He might not seem to care very much, but he would be terribly disappointed. That was the worst of all, next to owing money, that he had no hope of paying. Indeed, he hardly knew which hurt him more than the other for the disgrace of debt, as he called it, was all his own, but the bitter disappointment was on Newton too. The latter listened in silence till his father had finished, and his boyish face was Peter naturally thoughtful. I've seen boys make just such mistakes at the Blackboard, he observed in a tone of melancholy reflection, and they generally catch it afterwards too, he added. It's natural. Well, I've caught it, overholt answered. You have too, my dear boy, though you didn't make the mistake. That's not just. Well, Father, I don't know what we're going to do, but something has got to be done right away, and we've got to find out what it is. Thank goodness you're not a girl, right, overholt, fervently. Well, I'm glad too. Only if I were one I should most likely die young and go to heaven, and you'd have me off your mind, all right. The girls always do in storybooks. He made this startling and general observation quite naturally. Of course girls died and went to heaven when there was nothing to eat. He secretly thought it would be better if more of them did, even without starvation. Let's work anyhow, he added, as his father said nothing. Maybe we'll think of something while we're building that railroad depot. Don't you suppose that now you've got so far, the motor would keep while you taught, and you could go at it again in the vacations? That's an idea, Father. Come now. He was already in his place before the board on which the little city was built, and his eyes were fixed on the lines his father had drawn as a plan for the station and the diverging tracks. But overholt did not sit down. His usual place was opposite the motor, where he could see it, but he did not want to look at it now. Change seats with me, boy, he said. I cannot stand the sight of it. I suppose I'm imaginative. All this has upset me a good deal. He wished he had the lads' nerves, the solid nerves of hungry and sleepy thirteen. Newton got up at once and changed places, and for a few minutes overholt tried to concentrate his mind on the little city. But it was of no use. If he did not think of the motor, he thought of what was much worse, for the little streets and the models of the familiar places brought back the cruel memory of happier things so vividly that it was torment. All his faculties of sensation were tense and vibrating. He could hear his wife's gentle and happy voice, her young girl's voice, when he looked at the little bench in the lane where he had asked her to marry him, and an awful certainty came upon him that he was never to hear her speak again on this side of the grave. There was the house they had lived in. From that window he had looked out on a main morning at the budding trees half an hour after his boy had been born. There in the pretty garden the young mother had sat with her baby in the lovely June days. It was full of her. Or if he looked at the college he knew every one of the steps and the entrance and the tall windows of the lecture rooms where he had taught so contentedly, year after year, till the terrible motor had taken possession of him, the thing that was driving him mad. And strangely enough what hurt him most and brought drops of perspiration to his forehead was the national bank in Main Street. It made him remember his debt and that he had no money at all. Nothing whatsoever but the few dollars in his pocket left after paying the bills on the first of the month. It's of no use. He cried suddenly rising and turning away. I cannot stand it. I'm sorry, but it's too awful. Never before had he felt so thoroughly ashamed of himself. He was breaking down before his son, to whom he knew he ought to be setting an example of fortitude and common sense. He had forgotten the very names of such qualities. The mere thought of Hope, whenever it crossed his mind, mocked him maddeningly, and he hated the little city for the name he had given it. Hope was his enemy since she had left him and he was hers. He could have found it in his heart to crush the poor little paper-town to pieces and then to split up the very board itself for firewood. The years that had been so full of belief were all at once empty and the memory of them rang hollow and false because Hope had cheated him, luring him on, only to forsake him at the great moment. Every hour he had spent on the work had been misspent. He saw it all now and the most perfect of his faultless calculations only proved that science was a blatant fraud and a snare that had cost him all he had, his wife, his boy's future, and his own self-respect. How could he ever look at his wretched failure again? How could he sit down opposite the sun he had cheated and who was going to starve with him and play with a little city of hope when Hope herself was the lying enemy that had coaxed him to the destruction of his family and to his own disgrace? As for teaching again, whoever got back a good place after he had voluntarily given it up for a wild dream, men who had such dreams were not fit to teach young men in any case. That was the answer he would get by post in a day or two. Newton watched his father anxiously for he had heard that people sometimes went mad from disappointment and anxiety. The pale intellectual face wore a look of horror as if the dark eyes saw some dreadful sight. The thin figure moved nervously, the colorless lips twitched, the lean fingers opened and shut spasmodically on nothing. It was enough to scare the boy, who had always known his father gentle, sweet-tempered, and hopeful, even under failure. But Overhold was quite changed now and looked as if he were either very ill or very crazy. It is doubtful whether boys ever loved their fathers as most of them loved their mothers at one time, or all their lives. The sort of attachment there often is between father and son is very different from that, and both feel that it is. There is more of alliance and friendship in it than of anything like affection, even when it is at its best, with a strong instinct to help one another and to stand by each other in a fight. Newton Overhold did not feel any sympathetic thrill of pain for his father's sufferings, not in the least. He would perhaps have said that he was sorry for him without quite knowing what that meant. But he was very strongly moved to help him in some way, seeing that he was evidently getting the worst of it in a big fight. Newton soon became entirely possessed by the idea that something ought to be done, but what it was, he did not know. The lid of Pandora's box had flown open and had come off suddenly after smashing the hinges, and hope had flown out of the window. The boy thought it was clearly his duty to catch her and get her into prison again, and then to nail down the lid. He had not the smallest doubt that this was what he ought to do, but the trouble lay in finding out how to do it, a little difficulty that humanity has faced for a good many thousand years. On the other hand, if he failed, as seemed probable, he was almost sure that his father would fall ill and die or go quite mad in a few hours. He wished his mother were there, she would have known how to cheer the desperate man, and could probably have made him smile in a few minutes without really doing anything at all. Those were the things women would do very well, the boy thought, and they ought always to be at hand to do them when wanted. He himself could only sit there and pretend to be busy, as children mostly do when they see their elders in trouble. But that made him wild. I say, Father, he broke out suddenly, can't I do anything? Try and think. That's what I'm trying to do, answered Overholt, sitting down at last on the stool before the workbench, and staring at the wall, with his back turned to his son. But I can't. There's something wrong with my head. You want to see a doctor? said the boy. I'll go and see if I can get one of them to come out here. He rose as if to go at once. No, don't! cried Overholt, much distressed by the mere suggestion. He could only tell me to rest and take exercise and sleep at night and not worry. He laughed rather wildly. He would tell me not to worry. They always say that. A doctor would tell a man not to worry if he was to be hanged the next morning. Well, said Newton philosophically, I suppose a man is going to be hung, needn't worry much anyway. He's got the front seat at the show, and nothing particular to do. This was sound, so far as it went, but insufficient as consolation. Overholt either did not hear or paid no heed to the boy. He left the room a moment later, without shutting the door, and threw himself down on the old black horse-hair sofa in the parlor. Presently the lad rose again, and covered up the city of hope with the big brown paper case he had made, to fit down over the board and keep the dust off. This isn't your day, he observed, as he did so, and the remark was certainly addressed to the model of the town. He went into the other room and stood beside his father, looking down at his drawn face and damp forehead. Say, Father, really, isn't there anything I can do to help? Overholt answered with an effort. No, my boy, there's nothing. Thank you. You cannot find money to pay my debts, can you? Have you got no money at all, as Newton very gravely? Four or five dollars? That's all. That's all you and I have got left in the world to live on, and even that's not mine. His voice shook with agony, and he raised one hand to his forehead, not dramatically as many foreigners would do, but quietly and firmly, and he pressed and kneaded the surface as if he were trying to push his brains back into the right place so that they would work, or at least keep quiet. After that answer, Newton was too sensible to ask any more questions, and perhaps he was also a little afraid to, because questions might make his father worse. Well, he said vaguely, if I can't work at the city, I suppose I may as well go out before it's dark and take a look at the pond. It's going to freeze hard tonight, and maybe there'll be black ice that'll bear by tomorrow. Overholt was glad to be left alone, for he could not help being ashamed of having broken down so completely before the boy, and he felt that he could not recover his self-control unless he were left to himself. He heard Newton go up the rickety stairs to his own room, where he seemed to be rummaging about for some time, judging from the noises overhead. Then the strong shoes clattered on the staircase again, and the house door was opened and shut, and the boy was off. Six. How a small boy did a big thing and nailed down the lid of the box. Newton went to the pond, because he said he was going out for that purpose, and it might be convenient to be able to swear that he had really been down to the water's edge. As if to enjoy the pleasure of anticipation, too, he had his skates with him in a green flannel bag, though it was quite out of the question that the ice should bear already, and it was not even likely that the water would be already frozen over. However, he took the skates with him, a very good pair of a new model, which his father had given him towards the end of the previous winter, so that he had not used them more than half a dozen times. It was very cold, but of course the ice would not bear yet. The son had not said, and as he was already halfway to the town, the boy apparently thought he might as well go on instead of returning at once to the cottage, where he would have to occupy himself with his book Still Supper Time, supposing that it occurred to his father to have any supper in his present condition. The prospect was not wildly gay, and besides something must be done at once, Newton was possessed by that idea. When overholt had been alone for some time, he got up from the horsehair sofa and crept up the stairs, leaning on the shaky banister like an old man. In his own room he plunged his face into icy cold water again and again, as if it were burning, and the sharp chill revived his nerves a little. There was no stove in the room, and before midnight the water would be frozen in the pitcher. He sat down and rubbed his forehead and wondered whether he was really any better, or was only imagining, or even pretending, that he was, because he wanted to be. Our own reflections about our own sensations are never so silly as at the greatest moments in our lives, because the tremendous strain on the higher faculties releases all the little ones as in sleep, and they behave and reason as idiotically as they do in dreams, which is saying a good deal. Perhaps lunatics are only people who are perpetually asleep and dreaming with one part of their brains while the other parts are awake. They certainly behave as if that were the matter, and it seems a rational explanation of ordinary insanity, curable or incurable. Did you ever talk to a lunatic? On the subject on which he is insane he thinks and talks as you do when you are dreaming, but he may be quite awake and sensible about all other matters. He dreams he is rich, and he goes out and orders cartloads of things from shops. Pray have you never dreamed that you were rich? Or he dreams that he is a poached egg and must have a piece of toast to sit down upon? I believe that well-known story of a lunatic to be founded on fact. Have you never dreamt that you were somebody or something quite different from yourself? Have you never dreamt that you were an innocent man, persecuted, tried for a crime, and sentenced to prison, or even death? And yet, at the same time in your dream, you were behaving with the utmost good sense about everything else. When you are dreaming you are a perfect lunatic. Why may it not be true that the waking lunatic is really dreaming all the time with one part of his brain? John Henry Overholt was apparently wide awake, but he had been morally stunned that day. He was dreaming that he was going crazy, and he could not, for the life of him, tell whether he really felt any better after cooling his head in the basin than before, though it seemed immensely important to find out just then. Afterwards, when it was all over and things were settled again, he remembered only a blank time which had lasted from the moment when he had broken down before the little city, until he found himself sitting in the parlor alone before the supper table with a bright lamp burning and wondering why his boy did not come home. The dream was over then, his head ached a good deal, and he did not feel hungry, but that was all. Burning anxiety had cooled to leaden care. He knew quite well that it was all over with the motor, that his friends at the college would find him some sort of employment, and that in due time he would succeed in working off his debt to the bank, dollar by dollar. He had got his soul back out of the claws of despair that had nearly flown away with it. There was no hope, but he could live without it, because he must not only live himself, but keep his boy alive. Somehow, he would get along on credit for a week or two till he could get work. At all events there were his tools to sell, and the motor must go for old brass, bronze, iron, and steel. He would see about selling the stuff the next day, and with what it would bring he could at least pay cash for necessaries, and the bank must wait. There was no hope in that, but there was the plain sense of an honest man. He was not a coward. He had only been brutally stunned, and now that he had recovered from the below, he would do his duty. But an innocent man who walked steadily to endure an undeserved death is not a man that hopes for anything, and it was like death to overhaul to give up his invention. The door opened, and Newton came in quietly. His face was flushed with the cold, and his eyes were bright. What was the weight of leaden care to the glorious mainspring of healthy thirteen? Overhauled was proud of his boy, nevertheless, for facing the dreary prospect of no Christmas so bravely. Then he had a surprise. I've got a little money, Father. It's not much, I know, but it's something to go on with for a day or two. There it is. Newton produced three well-worn dollar bills and some small change, which his father stared at in amazement. There's three dollars and seventy cents, he said, and you told me you had four or five dollars left. Before he sat down he piled the change neatly on the bills beside his father's plate. Then he took his seat, very red indeed, and at looking at the tablecloth. Where on earth did you get it? asked Overhauled, leaning back in his chair. Well, the boy hesitated and got redder still. I didn't steal it anyway, he said. It's mine all right. I mean, it's yours. Of course you didn't steal it, cried John Henry. But where did you get it? You haven't had more than a few cents at a time for weeks and weeks, so you can't have saved it. I didn't beg it either, Newton answered, or borrow it, my boy. No, I wasn't going to borrow money, I couldn't pay. I'd rather not tell you, all the same father, at least I earned twenty cents of it. That's the odd twenty that makes the three seventy. I don't mind telling you that. Oh, you earned twenty cents of it? Well, I'm glad of that anyhow. What did you do? I sort of hung around the depot till the train came in, and I carried a man's valise across to the hotel for him. He gave me ten cents. Some of the boys do that, you know, but I thought you wouldn't care to have me do it till I had to. Oh, that's all right. It does you credit. How about the other ten cents? Old Bang saw me pass his shop, and he asked me to come in, and said he'd give me ten cents if I'd do some sums for him. I guess he's pretty busy just now. He said he'd give me ten cents every day till Christmas if I'd come in after school and do the sums. His boys got months or something, and can't. There's no harm in that, is there, Father? Harm? I'm proud of you, my boy. You'll win through, some day. It was the first relief from his misery the poor man had felt since he had read the letter about the overdraft in the morning. What I can't understand is the rest of the money, said Overhold. Newton looked very uncomfortable again, and moved uneasily on his chair. Oh, well, I suppose I've got to tell you, he said, looking down into his plate, and very busy with his knife and fork. Say, you won't tell Mother, will you? She wouldn't like it. I won't tell her. Well, the boy hesitated. I sold some things, he said at last, in a low voice. Oh, there's no great harm in that, my boy. What did you sell? My skates and my watch, said Newton just audibly. You see, I didn't somehow feel as if I were going to skate much this winter, and I don't really need to know what time it is if I start right by the clock to go to school. I say, don't tell Mother, she gave me the watch, you know, last Christmas. Of course, you gave me the skates, but you'll understand better than she would. Overhold was profoundly touched, for he knew what delight the good skates meant in the cold weather, and the pride the boy had felt in the silver watch that kept such excellent time. But he could not think of much to say just then, for the sight of the poor little pile of dirty money that was the sorted price of so much pleasure and satisfaction hath choked him. You're a brave boy, he said in a low tone. But Newton was indefinitely far from understanding that he had done anything brave. He merely felt much better now, because he had confessed and had the matter off his mind. Oh, well, you see, something had to be done quick, he said, and I couldn't think of anything else. But I'll go and earn that ten cents of banges every afternoon, you bet, and I guess I can pick up a quarter at the depot now and then. That is, if you don't mind, it isn't much, I know, but it'll help a little. It's helped already more than you have any idea, said Overhold. He remembered with bitter shame how he had completely broken down before his son that afternoon, and how quietly the lad had gone off to make his great sacrifice, pretending that he only wanted to see whether the pond was freezing. Well, said Newton, I'm glad you don't think it was mean of me to go and sell the watch mother gave me, and I'm glad you feel better. You do feel a good deal better, don't you? A thousand times better, answered Overhold, almost cheerfully. I'm glad, maybe you'll feel like working on the city a little after supper. I was afraid Hope had given us up today and had flown away for good and all, said the inventor, but you've brought her home with you again, bless you. Yes, we'll do some work after supper, and after you go to bed I'll just have one more good evening with the motor before I give it up forever. Newton looked up. You aren't going to give it up forever, he said in a tone of conviction. You can't. Overhold explained calmly enough that he must sell the machine for old metal the very next day and sell the tools too. But the boy shook his head. You'll curl up and die if you do that, he said. Besides, if mother were here she wouldn't let you do it, so you oughtn't too. The reason why she's gone to be a governess is because she wouldn't let you give up the motor, father. You know it is. Yes, it's true, but he hesitated. You simply can't do it, that's all, so I'm perfectly certain you won't. I believe everything will come round all right anyway if you only don't worry. That's what I believe, father. It's a hopeful view at all events. The only objection to it is that it's a good deal like dreaming, and I've no right to dream any more. When you see that I'm going to, you must make me sit up and mind my lesson. He even laughed a little, and it was not badly done, considering that he did it on purpose to show how he meant to make the best of it all, though hope would not do anything for him. He ate something too, if only to keep the hungry boy company. They went into the workshop and found the bright moonlight streaming through the window that looked east. It fell full on the motionless motor under its plate glass case, and turned all the steel and brass to silver and gold, and from the clean snow that covered the desolateness of the yard outside the moon sent a white reflection upwards that mingled with a direct moonlight in a ghostly sort of way. Newton stood still and looked at the machine, while overhauled felt about for matches. If only it would begin to move now, just of itself. The man knew that it would not, and wished that the boy would not even suggest such a thing, and he sighed as he lit the lamp. But all the same he meant to spend half the night in taking a last farewell of the engine, and of all the parts on which he had spent months and years only to let them be broken up for old metal in the end. The two sat down on each side of the little city, and went to work to build the railway station. And after all, when overhauled looked at the common and the college, and remembered how happy he had been there, he began to feel that since dreams were nothing but dreams, except that they were a great waste of time and money, and of energy and endurance, he might possibly find some happiness again in the old life if he could only get back to it. So Hope came back, rather bedraggled and worn out after her long excursion, and took a very humble lodging in the little city which had once been all hers and the capital of her kingdom. But she was there all the same, peeping out of a small window to see whether she would be welcome if she went out and took a little walk in the streets. For the blindest of all blind people are those who have quite made up their minds not to see, and the most miserable of all the hopeless ones are those that willfully turn their backs on Hope when she stands at the next corner holding out her hand rather timidly. But overhauled was not one of these, and he took it gladly when it was offered and stood ready to be led away by a new path which was not the road to fame or wealth, but which might bring him to a quiet little place where he could live in peace with those he loved, and after all that would be a great deal. Seven. How a little woman that did a great deed to save the city. A fortnight later, Mrs. Overhauled had been much disturbed in her mind, for she read each of her husband's letter over at least three times and Newton's fortnightly scrolls even oftener because it was less easy to make them out. But she had understood one thing very well, and that was that there was no more money for the invention and very little cash for the man and boy to live on. If she had known what a dreadful mistake John Henry had made about debited credit, the little woman would have been terribly anxious, but as it was she was quite unhappy enough. Overhauled had written repeatedly of his attempts to raise just a little more money with which to finish the invention, and he had explained very clearly what there was to do, and somehow she had always believed in the idea because he had invented that beautiful scientific instrument with which his name was connected, but she was almost sure that in working out his theory he was quite on the wrong track. She did not really understand the engine at all, but she was quite certain that when a thing was going to succeed it succeeded from the first without many hitches or drawbacks. Most women are like that. She had never written this to her husband because she would do anything rather than discourage him, but she had almost made up her mind to write him a letter of good advice at last, begging him to go back to teaching for the present and only to work at the invention in a spare time. Just then however she came across a paragraph in a German newspaper in Munich which said that a great scientific man in Berlin had completed an air motor at last after years of study, and that it worked tolerably enough to demonstrate the principle, but could never be of any practical use because the chemical product on which it ultimately depended was so enormously expensive. Now Mrs. Overholt knew one thing certainly about her husband's engine, namely that the chemical he meant to use cost next to nothing, so that if the principal were sound the motor would turn out to be the cheapest in existence and she was a practical person like her boy Newton. Moreover she loved John Henry with all her heart and soul and thought him one of the greatest geniuses in the world, and she simply could not bear the idea that he would not have a fair chance to finish the machine and try it. Lastly Christmas was coming. The girls she was educating talked of nothing else and counted the days and sat up half the night on the edges of each other's beds discussing the beautiful presents they were sure to receive, and a great deal might be written about what they said, but it has nothing to do with this story except that their chatter helped to fill the air with the Christmas spirit and with thoughts of giving as well as of receiving. Though they were rather spoiled children they were generous too, and they laid out all sorts of little traps in order to find out what their governess would like best from each of them, for they were fond of her in their way. Also Munich is one of the castles which King Christmas still holds in absolute sway and calls his own, and long before he is really awake after his long rest he begins to stir and laugh in his sleep, and the jolly color creeps up and spreads over his old cheeks before he thinks of opening his eyes, much less of getting up and putting on his crown. And now that he was waking Helen Overhold felt the old loving longing for her dear ones rising to her womanly heart, and she planned little plans for another and a happier year to come, and meanwhile she bought two or three little gifts to send to the cottage in far Connecticut. But when she had read about the Berlin Professor and his motor and thought of her own John Henry making bricks without straw and bearing up bravely against disappointment, and still writing so cheerfully and hopefully in spite of everything, she simply could not stand it another day. As I have said King Christmas turned over just before waking, and he put out a big generous hand in his sleep and laid it on her heart. Whenever he does that to anybody, man, woman, or child, a splendid longing ceases them to give all they have to the one child, or woman, or man, that each loves best, or to the being of all others that is most in need, or to help the work which seems to each of them the noblest and the best, if they are grown up and are lonely. This is what happened to Helen Overhold in spite of her good sense and all her practical resolution. As long as she had anything to give, John Henry should have it and be happy and succeed if success were possible. She had saved most of her salary for a long time past, spending as little as she well could on herself. He should have it all for love's sake, and because she believed in him, and because Christmas was waking up and had laid his great affectionate old hand on her. So it came to pass that when Overhold was pottering over the beautiful motionless motor late at night, sure that it would work if he had a little more money, but still more sure that it must be sold for old metal the next morning to buy bread for the boy, even at that hour, help was near, and from the hand he loved best in the world, which would make it ten thousand times sweeter when it reached him. It was going to be an awful wrench to give up the invention, for now, at the moment of abandoning it, he saw, or thought he saw, that he was right at last and that it could not fail. It was useless to try it, as it was, yet he would just once more. He adjusted the tangent balance and the vows, he put in the supply of the chemical with the long name, and screwed down the hermetic plug. With the small hand air pump he produced the first vacuum, which was necessary. All was ready, every joint and stuffing box was lubricated, the spring of the balance was adjusted to a nicety, but the engine would not start, though he turned the flywheel with his hand again and again, as if to encourage it. Of course it would not turn alone, he understood perfectly that the one piece on which all depended must be made over again exactly the other way, that was all. There was the wooden model of it all ready for the foundry that would not cast it for nothing, if only the wooden piece would serve for a moment's trial. But he knew that this was folly, it would not stand the enormous strain and instant and the joints could not possibly be made airtight. He was utterly worn out by all he had been through during the long day, and he fell asleep in his chair towards morning, his head on his breast, his feet struck out straight before him, one arm hanging down beside him, and his other hand thrust into his pocket. He looked more like a shabby lay figure stuffed with straw dust than like a living man. If Newton had come down and found him lying there under the lamplight, he would have started back and shuddered and waited a while before he could find courage to come nearer. But the man was only very sound asleep, and he did not wake till the December dawn gleamed through the clear winter sky and made the artificial light look dim and smoky, and when he opened his eyes it was he himself who started to find himself there in the cold before his great failure in broad daylight. Nevertheless he had slept soundly and felt better able to face all the trouble that was in store for him. He stirred the embers in the stove, put in some kindling and a supply of coal, and warmed himself, still heavy with sleep, and glad to wake him consciously by degrees and to feel that his resolution was not going to break down. When he felt quite himself he left the room and went upstairs cautiously, lest he should wake the boy, though it was really time to get up, and Newton was already dressing. I'll walk into town with you, said Overhold, when they were at breakfast with the parlor, it will do me good to get some air, and I must see about selling those things, there's no time to be lost. Newton swallowed his hominy in bread and butter and milk, and reflected on the futility of the sacrifice he had made since his father insisted on selling everything for old metal, but he said nothing because he was dreadfully disappointed. Near the town they met the postman. As a rule Barbara got the mail when she went to market and Overhold was not even going to ask the man if there were any letters for him, but the postman stopped him, there was one from his wife, and it was registered. He signed a little receipt for it, the man passed them on his rounds, and they slackened their pace as Overhold broke the seal. He uttered a loud exclamation when he had glanced at the contents, and he stood still in the road. Newton stared at him in surprise. A thousand dollars! he cried, overcome with amazement. A thousand dollars! Oh Helen! Helen! You saved my life! He got to the side of the road and leaned against the fence, clutching the letter and the draft in his hand, and gazing into his son's face, half-crazy with delight. She saved it all for me, boy. Do you understand? Your mother has saved all her salary for the motor, and here it is. Look at it! Look at it! It's success! It's fame! It's fortune for us all! Oh, if she were only here. Newton understood and rejoiced. He forgot his poor little attempt to help, and his own disappointment, and everything except the present glorious truth, not unadorned by the pleasant vision of the Christmas turkey, vast now and smoking, and flanked by perfect towers of stiff cranberry jelly, ever so much better than mere liquid cranberry sauce. In the middle distance behind the noble dish, a noble pyramid of ice cream raised its height, and yellow cream cakes rose beyond, like many little sons on the far horizon. In that first moment of delight there was almost a Christmas tree, and the mother's face decided. But that was too much. They faded, and the rest remained, no mean forecast of a jolly time. That's perfectly grand! Newton cried when he got his breath, after his surprise at the announcement. Besides, I told you so. What did I say? She wouldn't let you give up the motor. I knew she wouldn't. Who's right now, Father? That's something like what I call a mother. But then she always was. He was slightly incoherent, but that did not matter at all. Nothing mattered. In his young, beatific vision, he saw the bright wheel going round and round in a perfect storm of turkeys, and it was all his mother's doing. Overhold only half heard, for he had been reading the letter, the letter of a loving wife who believes in her husband, and gives him all she has for his work, with every hope, every encouragement, and every blessing and Christmas wish. There's no time to be lost, Overhold said, repeating the words he had spoken, in a very different mood and tone, half an hour earlier. I won't walk on with you, my boy, for I must go back and get the wooden model for the foundry. They'll do it for me now, fast enough, and I can pay what I owe at the bank, and there will be plenty left over for your Christmas too. Oh, bother my Christmas, Father, answer Newton, with a fine indifference, which he did not feel. The motor's the thing. I want to see that wheel go round for a Christmas present. It will, it shall, it must. I promise you that. The man was almost beside himself with joy. No misgiving disturbed him. He had the faith that tosses mountains aside like pebbles, now that the means were in his hand. He had the little fulcrum for his lever, which was all Archimedes required to move the world. He had in him the certainty of being right that has sent millions of men to glory or destruction. That day was one of the happiest in all his life, either before or afterwards. He could have believed that he had fallen asleep at the moment when he had quite broken down, and that a hundred years of change had glided by, like a watch in the night, when he opened his wife's letter and wakened in a blaze of joy and hope and glorious activity. Nothing he could remember of that kind could compare with his pride and honorable satisfaction when he walked into the bank two hours afterwards with his head high, and said he should be glad to take up the note he had signed yesterday and have the balance of the check placed to his credit, and few surprises which the partner who had obliged him could recollect, had equaled that worthy gentleman's amazement when the debt was paid so soon. If you had only told me that you would be in fun so soon, Mr. Overhold, he said, I should not have thought of troubling you. Here is your note. Will you kindly look at it and tear it up? I did not know, answered Overhold, doing as he was told. It is a curious fact that the little note lay in a locked drawer of the partner's magnificent table instead of being put away in the safe with other and larger notes where it belonged. It may seem still stranger that on the book's Overhold's account showed that it had been balanced by a deposit exactly equal to the deficit made by the partner himself instead of by crediting the amount of the note. But Overhold never knew this, for a passbook had always been a mystery to him, and it made his head ache. The banker had thought of his face some time after he had gone out with his battered umbrella and his shabby shoulders rounded as under a burden, and somehow the Christmas spirit must have come in quietly and touched the rich man too, though even the stenographer did not see what happened. For he had once been in terrible straits himself a quarter of a century ago, and someone had helped him just in time, and he knew what it meant to slink out of a big bank in shabby clothes his back bowed under the heavy weight of debt and failure. Overhold never knew, but he expressed his warm thanks for what now seemed a small favor, and with his wooden model of the casting done up in brown paper under his arm he went off to the foundry in Long Island. Much careful work had been done for him there, and the people were willing to oblige him and promised that the piece should certainly be ready before Christmas Day, and as much earlier as possible and should be made with the greatest exactness which the most precise machinery and the most careful work could ensure. This being settled, Overhold returned to New York and went to two or three places in the Bowery, well known to him, where he bought certain fine tools and pieces of the most perfectly turned steel spring and several other small objects which he needed for the construction of the new tangent balance he had to make for the reversed curve. Finally he bought a silver watch like the one Newton had sold and a new pair of skates, presents which the boy certainly deserved, and which would make a very good show at Christmas when they were to be produced. He felt as if he had come into a large fortune. Moreover when he got out of the train at his own station he went into the town and ordered beforehand the good things for the feast, though there were three weeks still and he wanted to pay for them in advance, because he felt inside of himself that no one could be quite sure of what might happen in twenty-one days. But the dealers flatly refused to take his money, though they told him what the things would cost. Then Overhold did almost the only prudent thing he had done in his life, for he took the necessary money and five dollars more and sealed it up in an envelope which he put away in a safe place. The only difficulty would lie in remembering where the place was, so he told Newton about it and the boy wrote it down on a piece of paper which he pinned up in his own room where he could see it. There was nothing like making sure of that turkey he thought, and I may as well say at once that in this matter at least no untoward accident occurred and the money was actually there at the appointed time. What happened was something quite different and much more unexpected not to say extraordinary and even amazing, and in spite of all that it will not take very long to tell. Meanwhile before it happened Overhold and the boy were perfectly happy. All day long the inventor worked at the tangent balance till he had brought it to such perfection that it would be affected by a variation of one tenth of one second in the aggregate speed of ten revolutions and an increase or decrease of a tenth of a grain in the weight of the volume of the compressed air. It was so sensitive that John Henry and Newton trod cautiously on the floor of the workshop so as not to set it vibrating under the glass clock shade where it was kept safe from dust and dampness. After it had been placed there to wait for the casting the inventor took the engine to pieces and made the small changes that would be necessary before finally putting it together again which would probably occupy two days. Meanwhile the little city of hope grew rapidly and was becoming an important center of civilization and commerce though it was only made of paper and chips and bits of matchboxes and odds and ends cleverly put together with glue and painted except the people in the street for it was inhabited now and though the men and women did not move about they looked as if they might if they were only bigger. Overhold had seen the population in the window of a German toy shop one day when he was in New York to get a new crocusing wheel for polishing some of the small parts of the engine. They were the smallest doll people he had ever seen and were packed by dozens and dozens in Nuremberg toy boxes and cost very little so he bought a quantity of them. At first Newton rather resented them just because they were only toys but his father explained to him that models of human figures were almost necessary to models of buildings to give an idea of the population and that when architects made colored sketches of projected houses they generally draw in one or two people for that reason and this was perfectly satisfactory to the boy and saved his dignity from the slide it would have suffered if he had been actually seen amusing himself with mere play things. Overhold was a divinely happy in anticipation of the final success that was so near and in the daily work that was making it more and more a certainty as he thought and then when the day was over he was just as happy with the little city which was being decorated for Christmas with wreaths in the windows of the houses and a great many more holly trees than had at first been thought of and numerous little Christmas booths round the common like those in Avenue A south of Tompkins Square in New York which make you fancy you are in Munich or Prague if you go and see them at the right hour on Christmas Eve before long over hold received a short note from the president of his old college simply saying that the latter knew of no opening at present but would bear him in mind but that did not matter now so the two spent their time very pleasantly during the next weeks but though over hold was so hopeful and delighted with his work he knew that he was becoming nervous and overwrought by the great anticipation and that he could not stand such a strain very long then two days before Christmas he received a note saying that the new piece was finished and had been sent to him by express that was almost too much happiness to bear and when he found the heavy case at the station the next morning and got it put on a cart his heart was doing queer things and he was as white as a sheet and of part six section three part six of a Christmas macelle in a 2019 by various authors this liberal box recording is in the public domain part six the little city of hope a Christmas story by Francis Marion Crawford section four eight how the wheels went round at last the hush of Christmas Eve lay upon the tumbledown cottage and on the soft fresh snow outside and the lamps were burning quietly in the workshop where father and son were sitting before the finished motor the little city was there too but not between them now though newton had taken off its brown paper cover in honor of the great event which was about to take place in order to be doubly sure of the result and dreading even the possibility of a little disappointment over hold had decided that he would subject the only chemical substance which the machine consumed to a final form of refinement by heat melting boiling and cooling it all of which would require an hour or more before it was quite ready he felt like a man who was going to risk his life over a precipice trusting to a single rope for safety that one rope must not be even a little chaffed if possible each strand must be perfect in itself and all the strands must be laid up without a fault of the rest of the machine itself over hold felt absolutely sure yet although a slight impurity in the chemical would certainly not enter the whole from working it might interfere with the precision of the revolutions or even cause the engine to stop after a few hours instead of going on indefinitely as long as the supply of the substance produced the alternate disturbance of equilibrium which was the main principle on which the machine depended that sweetly prophetic evening silence before the great feast of good will does not come over everything each year even in a lonely cottage in an abandoned farm in Connecticut than which you cannot possibly imagine anything more silent or more remote from the noise of the world sometimes it rains in torrents just on that night sometimes it blows a raging gale that twists the leafless birches and elms and hickory trees like dry grass and bends the dark furs and spruces as if they were feathers and you can hardly be heard unless you shout for the howling and screaming and whistling of the blast but now and then once in four or five years perhaps the feathery snow lies a foot deep fresh fallen on the still countryside and in the woods and the waxing moon sheds her large light on all and nature holds her breath to wait for the happy day and tries to sleep but cannot from sheer happiness and peace indoors the fire is glowing on the wide hearth a great bed of coals that will last all night because it is not bitter weather but only clear and cold and still as it should be or if there is only a poor stove like over holds the wide door is open and a comfortable and a cheery red light shines out from within upon the battered iron plate and the wooden floor beyond and the older people sit around it not saying much but thinking with their hearts rather than with their heads but small boys and girls know that interesting things have been happening in the kitchen all the afternoon and are rather glad that the supper was not very good because there will be the more room for good things tomorrow and the grown-ups and the children have made up any little differences of opinion they may have had before supper time because good will must reign and reign alone like Alexander so that there is nothing at all to regret and nothing hurts anybody anymore and they are all happy and just wishing for king Christmas to open the door softly and make them all great people in his kingdom but if it is the right sort of house he is already looking in through the window to be sure that everyone is all ready for him and that nothing has been forgotten now although over holds cottage was a miserable place for a professor who had lived very comfortably and well in a college town and although the 13 year old boy could remember several pretty trees lighted up with colored candles and a gleaming with tinsel and gilt apples they both felt that this was going to be the greatest Christmas in their lives because the motionless motor was going to move and that would mean everything most of all to both of them the end of the mother's exile and her speedy homecoming therefore neither said anything for a long time while the chemical stuff was slowly warming itself and getting ready inside a big iron pot of which the cover was screwed on with a high temperature thermometer sealed in it and which stood on the top of the stove where over hold could watch the scale he would really have preferred to be alone for the first trial but it was utterly impossible to think of sending the boy to bed he was sure of success it is true yet he would far rather have been left to himself till that success was no longer in the future but present then at last even if newton had been asleep he would have waked him and brought him downstairs again to see his triumph the lads presence made him nervous and suggested a failure which was all but impossible more than once he was on the point of trying to explain this to newton but when he glanced at the young face he could not find it in his heart to speak if he only asked the boy as a kindness to go into the next room for five minutes while the machine was being started he knew what would happen newton would go quietly without a word and wait till he was called but half his christmas would be spoiled by the disappointment he would try hard to hide had they not suffered together and had not the boy sacrificed the best of his small possessions dearly treasured to help in their joint distress it would be nothing short of brutal to deprive him of the first moment of triumphant surprise that was going to mean so much hereafter yet the inventor would have given anything to be alone he was overwrought by the long strain that had so often seemed unbearable and when the liquid that was heating had reached the right temperature and the iron pot had to be taken off the stove his hands shook so that he nearly dropped it but newton did not see that it's wonderful how everything has come out just right the boy exclaimed as he looked at the machine out of your three wishes you'll get two father for the wheel will go round and i'm going to have a regular old patent double-barreled christmas with a guilt edge his similes were mixed but effective in their way and you'll probably get the other wish in half a shake now for mother will come right home won't she if the trial succeeds over hold said still instinctively seeking to forestall a disappointment he did not expect nothing is a fact until it has happened you know well said newton if i had anything to bet with and somebody to bet against i had bet that's all but i haven't it's a pity too now that everything's coming out right do you remember how we were trying to make bricks without straw less than a month ago father it didn't look just then as if we were going to have a roaring old christmas this year did it he chattered on happily looking at the motor all the time and over hold tried to smile and answered him with a word or two now and then though he was becoming more and more nervous as the minutes passed and the supreme moment came nearer in his own mind he was going over the simple operations he had to perform to start the engine yet easy as they were he was afraid that he might make some fatal mistake he did not let himself think of failure he did not dare to wonder how he should tell his wife if anything went wrong and all her hard-saved earnings were lost in the general ruin that must follow if the thing would not move there was next to nothing left of what she had sent now that everything was paid for it would support him and the boy for a month if so long but certainly no more he was ready at last but strange to say he would gladly have put off the great moment for half an hour now that there was no reason for waiting another moment he sat down again in his chair and folded his hands aren't you going to begin father as newton what are you waiting for over hold pulled himself together rose with a pale face and laid his shaking hands on the heavy plate glass case it moved upwards by its chain and counter-poise almost at a touch till it was near the low ceiling quite clear of the machine he was very slow in doing what was still necessary and the boy watched him in breathless suspense for he had seen other trials that had failed more than two or three perhaps half a dozen everyone who has lived with an inventor even a boy has learned to expect disappointment as inevitable only the seeker himself is competent up to a certain point and then his own hand trembles when the moment of trial is gone over hold poured the chemical into the chamber at the base screwed down the airtight plug and opened the communication between the reservoir and the machine then he took out his watch and waited four minutes that being twice the time he had ascertained to be necessary for a sufficient quantity of the liquid to penetrate into the distributors beyond he next worked the hand air pump keeping his eye on the vacuum gauge and lastly as soon as the needle marked the greatest exhaustion he knew to be obtainable he moved the starting lever to the proper position and then stepped back to watch the result for a moment in the joy of anticipation a strange light illuminated his face his lips parted as in a foretasted wonder and he forgot even to drop the hand he had just withdrawn the boy held his breath unconsciously till he was nearly dizzy then a despairing cry burst from the wretched man's lips he threw up his hands as if he had been shot through the heart and stumbled backwards the motor stood still motionless as ever and gleaming under the brightly shining lamps oh helen god forgive me with the words he fell heavily to the floor and lay there a nervous breathless eep newton it was kneeling beside him in an instant father cried the boy in agony bending over the still white face father speak to me you can't be dead you can't in his mortal terror the lad held each breath till it seemed as if his head must burst then breathed once and shut his lips again with all his strength some instinct made him lay his ear to the man's chest to listen for the beatings of his heart but he could hear nothing half suffocated with sudden mingled grief and fright he straightened himself on his knees and looked up at the cursed machine that had robbed such awful destruction then he in turn uttered a cry but it was low and full of wonder long drawn out and trembling as the call of a frightened young wild animal the thing was moving steadily noiselessly moving in the bright light the double levers worked like iron jaws opening and shutting regularly the little valve rods rose and sank and the heavy wheel whirled round and round the boy was paralyzed with amazement and for ten seconds he forgot that he was kneeling beside his father's fallen body on the floor then he felt it against him and it was no longer quite still over hold groaned and turned upon his side as his senses slowly came back and his agony tortured him to life again instantly the boy bent over him father it's going wake up father the wheels going round at last nine how the king of hearts made a feast in the city of hope when over hold understood what he heard he opened his eyes and looked up into his son's face moving his head mournfully from side to side as it lay on the boards but suddenly he caught sight of the engine he gasped for breath his jaw dropped and his eyes were starting from their sockets as he struggled to get up with the boy's help his voice came with a sort of a rasping scream that did not sound human and then broke into wild laughter interrupted by broken words mad he cried I knew it it had to come my boy we get away from that thing I'm raving mad I see it moving but it really is moving father wake up look at it the wheel is going round and round then over hold was silent sitting up on the floor and leaning against his arm slowly he realized that he was in his senses and that the dream of long years had come true not a sound broke the stillness so perfect was the machinery except a kind of very soft hum made by the heavy flywheel revolving in the air aren't you sure boy aren't we dreaming he asked in a low tone it's going like clockwork as sure as you're born the lad answered I think you're falling down shook it up and started it that was all it wanted the inventor got up slowly first upon his knees at last to his feet never once taking his eyes from the beautiful engine he went close to it and put out his hand till he felt the air thrown off by the wheel and he gently touched the smooth swift turning rim with one finger incredulous still there's no doubt about it he said at last yielding to the evidence of touch and sight it works and it works to perfection if it doesn't stop soon it will go on for 24 hours almost as much overcome by joy as he had been by despair he let himself sink into a seat get me that tea bottle he said unsteadily quick I feel as if I were going to faint again the draft he swallowed steadied his nerves and then he sat a long time quite silent in his unutterable satisfaction and newton stood beside him watching the moving levers the rising and sinking valve rods and the steadily whirling wheel she did it my boy over hold set up last very softly your mother did it without her help the motor would have been broken up for old metal three weeks ago it's something like a christmas present newton answered but then I always said she wouldn't let you give it up do you know father when you fell just now I thought you were dead you looked just awful and it was quite a long time before I saw that the motor was moving and then when I did see it and thought you were dead well I can't tell you poor little chat but it's all right now my boy and I haven't spoiled your christmas after all not quite newton laughed joyfully and turning around he saw the little city smiling on its board in the strong light with the tiny red and green wreath in the windows and the pretty booths and the crowds of little people buying christmas presents at them they're going to have a pretty good time in the city too the boy observed they know just as well as we do that hope has come to stay now but over hold did not hear silent and wrapped he sat in his old shaker rocking chair gazing steadily at the great success of his life that was moving ceaselessly before his eyes where motionless failure had sat mocking him but a few minutes ago and as the wheel whirled steadily round and round throwing off a little breeze like a fan the cruel past was wafted away like a mist by a morning wind and the bright future floated in and filled its place all together and more also as daylight shows the distance which was all hidden from us by the close darkness we groped in before it rose over hold sat still and saw and wondered and little by little the wheel and the soft vision of near happiness hypnotized him for his body and brain were weary beyond words to tell so that all at once his eyes were shut and he was sleeping like a child as happy in dreamland as he had just been awake and happier far for there was a dear presence with him now a hand he loved lay quietly in his and he heard a sweet low voice that was far away the boy saw and understood for ever since he had been very small he had been taught that he must not wake his father who slept badly at all times and little or not at all when he was anxious so newton would not disturb him now and at once formed a brave resolution to sit bolt upright all night if necessary for fear of making any noise besides he did not feel at all sleepy there was the motor to look at and there was christmas to think of and it was bright and clear outside where the snow was like silver under the young moon he could look out of the window as he sat or at his father or at the beautiful moving engine or at the little city of hope all without doing more than just turning his head to tell the truth it was not really a great sacrifice he was making for if there is anything that strikes a boy of 13 as more wildly exciting than anything else in the world it is to sit up all night instead of going to bed like a christian child moreover the workshop was warm and his own room would be freezing cold and he was so well used to the bile odor of the chemical stuff that he did not notice it at all it was even said to be healthy to breathe the fumes of it as the air of a tannery is good for the lungs or even london coal smoke but it is one thing to resolve to keep awake even with many delightful things to think about it is quite another to keep one's eyes open when they are quite sure that they ought to be shut and that you ought to be tucked up in bed the boy found it so and in less than half an hour his arm had got across the back of the chair his cheek was resting on it quite comfortably and he was in dreamland with his father and quite as perfectly happy so the two slept in their chairs under the bright lamps and while they rested the air motor worked silently hour after hour and the heavy wheel whirled steadily on its axis and only its soft and drowsy humming was heard in the still air that was the most refreshing sleep over hold remembered for a long time when he stirred at last and opened his eyes he did not even know that he had slept and forgot that he had closed his eyes when he saw the engine moving he thought it was still nine o'clock in the evening and that the boy might as well finish his little nap where he was before going to bed newton might sleep till ten o'clock if he liked the lamps burned steadily for they held enough oil till last sixteen hours when the winter darkness is longest and they had not been lighted till after supper but all at once over hold was aware of a little change in the color of things and he slowly rubbed his eyes and looked about him and towards the window the moon had set long ago there was a gray light on the snow outside and in the clear air and over hold knew that it was the dawn he looked at his watch then and it was nearly seven o'clock for in new york and connecticut as you may see by your pocket calendar the sun rises at twenty three minutes past seven on christmas morning he sprang to his feet in astonishment and at the sound newton awoke and looked up in blank and sleepy surprise merry christmas my boy cried over hold and he laughed happily not yet answered newton in a disappointed tone and rubbing his arm which was stiff i've got to go to bed first i suppose oh no you and i have slept in our chairs all night and the sun is rising so it's merry christmas in earnest and the motor is running still after nine or ten hours what a sleep we've had the boy looked out the window stupidly and vaguely wished that his father would not make fun of him then he saw the dawn and jumped up in wild delight hurrah he shouted merry christmas hurrah hurrah if anything could make that morning happier than it had promised to be it was to have actually cheated bed for the first time in his life they were gloriously happy as people have a right to be and should be when they have been living in all sorts of trouble with a great purpose before them and have won through and got all they hoped for if not quite all they could have wished because there is absolutely no limit to wishing if you let it go on the people watched them curiously in church for they looked so happy and for a long time the man's expression had always been anxious if it had no longer been sad of late and the boy's young face had been the preternaturally grave yet everyone saw that neither of them even had a new coat for christmas day and that both needed one pretty badly but no one thought the worst of them for that and in the generous goodwill that was everywhere that morning everybody was glad to see that everyone else looked happy in due time the two got home again the motor was still working to perfection as if nothing could ever stop it again and overhauled oil the bearings carefully passed a leather over the fixed parts and examined the whole machine minutely before sitting down to the feast while newton stood beside him looking on and hoping that he would not belong the boy had his new watch in his pocket and it told him that it was time for that turkey at last and his new skates were in the parlor and there was splendid ice on the pond where the boys had cleared away the snow and it was the most perfect christmas weather that ever was and in order to enjoy everything it would be necessary to get to work soon the two were before the air motor turning their backs to the door and they heard it open quietly for old barber always came to call overhaul to his meals because he was very apt to forget them we are just coming he said without turning around but the boy turned for he was hungry for the good things and suddenly a perfect yell of joy rent the air and he dashed forward as overhaul turned sharp around mother hellen and there she was instead of in munich for the rich people she was with had happily smashed their automobile without hurting themselves and had taken a fancy to spend christmas at home and after the manner of very rich people they had managed everything in a moment had picked up their children and the governess had just caught the fastest steamer afloat asherberg and had arrived in new york late on christmas eve and hellen overhauled had taken the earliest train that she could manage to get ready for and had come out directly to surprise her too in their lonely cottage so john henry overhauled had his three wishes after all on christmas day and everybody had helped to bring it all about even mr. bernside who had said that hope was cheap and that there was plenty of it to be had but as for the little christmas city in which hope had dwelt and waited so long they all three put the last touches to it together and carried it with them when they went to the college town where they felt that they would be happier than anywhere else in the world even if they were to grow very rich which seems quite likely now and that is how it all happened end of part six section four part seven of a christmas macellany 2019 by various authors this liber box recording is in the public domain part seven when christmas crossed the piece by nellie l mcloon section one bringing the joys of christmas to the north country the north bank of the peace and its autumnal dress of tawny gray was overwashed with the pale december sunshine as the empty grain wagons returning from the crossing leisurely wound their way through the shaded valley below over the gravelly road that roughly follows the turns in the river once in a while the road emerging from the shrubbery comes so near the stream that a full view of its placent majestic zinc colored waters was given to the drivers but their thoughts were not of nature her beauty's overmoods and not even the mighty peace pursuing its even way could lift the burden from their souls bill luke's leaving his horses to follow climbed into his neighbor's wagon for bill was a sociable soul and craved the moral support that a kindred spirit like dad to peters could and would freely give in this perplexing time and the country north of the peace had its grievances to in this year of our lord 1919 in as much as the hand of the law was laid heavily upon them without preamble the discussion began i may be wrong said dad peter slowly as he crowded the tobacco into his pipe with a blunt forefinger i may be wrong here he paused as one who wishes to be fair even to an unworthy adversary but he leaned closer to his friend as if the afternoon air might carry his words farther than he intended him to go but i blame the whole thing on these darned women bill luke's his friend throughout his hands in disagreement what have they to do with it he said in surprise lot said dad lot look they've got a society now at the crossing another at the waterhole another at spirit river they get speakers from edmonton and travel and libraries then comes the nurses living alone too and that's no way for young women to live they tell the women what they should have and shouldn't have take my woman she's lost four kids already always was resigned always said it was the lord's will but now you should hear her she used hard words bitter words harsh words the last time it was mentioned said it was my fault for not bringing the doctor and all that his friend nodded sympathetically maybe so maybe you're right he said maybe they've done it i always knew no good would come a let them vote it upsets the home i always said it would but i don't just see how they could be at the bottom of this oh you don't see don't you said dad to peter scornfully can they write or can they not have the education bill did you never happen to notice i'll say they have could they send a letter unknown to us or could they send a word by some of these foreign speakers i'll say they could and then there comes this young upstart 25 years old maybe no more with the yellow stripe down his pant leg and he'll clean up the whole country will he it looks as if he will said his friend the gloomily i was in a barge yesterday and when i asked jen if it wasn't about time for a drink he twisted his face up until i thought he was going into a fit and when i asked him where it hurt him he crossed behind me quick and kind of hissed in my ear the house is haunted he says and then i caught on that the new policeman was standing in the door with a grin on his face i could have knocked him down oh pity you didn't said dad indignantly serve him right if you had what right has this young pup to come here and arrest decent men went doing no harm it's the law dad said bill sadly it's the law the law says a man can't buy liquor for drinking purposes he can buy it to run his machinery or preserve snakes or shampoo his hair or clean his clothes or polish his glasses oh shut up said dad indignantly no one waste good liquor them ways but what i says is this up north here we're bound to be different it's a cold country and it's a lonesome country a man needs something to warm him and something to cheer him what is there that both cheers and warms and at the same time does no harm in summer there's the flies and sometimes the terrible heat nothing helps a man through like a little nip two or three times a day all right this man comes along and because he finds a bottle or two he sees of them that's bad enough but he finds the man that has them it ain't reason and it ain't fair and here's the worst of it bill he has no respect for god or man he even found liquor in the magistrates house and made trouble he didn't he did sure if any place should have been safe it was the magistrates house what's our institutions coming to when a magistrates house even can be searched well they tell me he confiscated what he found and you know yourself bill it was prime good stuff that the magistrate always kept but it's gone there's no hope of getting a drop now and in two weeks it's christmas it will be a lonesome one in these parts bill luke's thoughtfully stroked his chin on which a three days growth of whiskers resisted the free passage of his hand it's sure tough dad ain't there no way what's wrong with going to the cross and the policemen there are good fellas and bringing out some and other towns ain't safe i know but the cross and i've had all i want to do with the law said dad dejectedly when i paid by fine i didn't know he had caught you too dad exclaimed his friend when i paid my fine the magistrate made it as easy as he could and says he mr. peters i have no option but to find you says he and he reminded me the young pup did that the next offense was jail but dad we could keep him busy down our way and you could slip down to the cross and just the day before and bring it out pretend and it was christmas things or something you don't say pride dad sounds awful easy to hear you tell it and who take my place when i was into jail no sir i don't fancy it this fella is a darn crook anyway he must be or he wouldn't know everyone's business so well tom's nedon had a few bottles hid in a load of hay he found it john wallace had his box sent in as usual marked books just as he had always done and it always came through every other time but this time though there wasn't anything creeping from it nor nothing to excite suspicions just a plain box of books he nabbed it the undertaker shipped in a few coffins last week getting ready for the winter trade and he went through them as quick as they were put off the train that's what i call insulting the dead did he find anything in the coffins asked bill eagerly sure he found it ain't i telling you he found it there's nothing safe or sacred anymore we might as well give up and settle down to ginger tea give up nothing said bill luke's surely one policeman can't run all this country north of the piece darn it all he can't be everywhere at once we've got the money and we'll have it for christmas anyway i'll bet bill adams ain't afraid of him old bill will talk up to him bill adams has been sick said dad gloomily he's been down with pneumonia i hear with the nurse waiting on him he's getting better though they say the nurse scrubbed his house and then scrubbed him in spite of all he could say well that wouldn't hurt bill none no but i'll bet it was an awful come down on a man like bill that's never had it to bear to be bossed around by a woman it's different with us we're sort of hardened to it but bill has led a free and happy life he's never had his spirit broke like some of us and i guess that's why he isn't as easily scared as we are bill adams may be willing to risk it he's our last chance as you might say while dad peters and friend bill luke's were discussing the arid conditions of the land of their adoption the same subject was being taken up from another angle in the home of the latter in the big kitchen the early twilight of the december day was reflected in the face of the tall woman who needed her bread on the long unpainted table her movements were slow and hopeless she wore a flannelette wrapper as faded and anemic as herself and as she worked she sighed deeply sitting on a stool made of tomato cans and covered with a gaily flowered gratone her daughter was peeling potatoes and taking a delight in peeling them much deeper than was necessary just as a protest against prevailing conditions all her life she thought she had appealed thin and what good had it done madge luke's threw back her mop of red hair indignantly there was rebellion in every movement it's no use madge her mother began in a voice as colorless as her face it's no use there will be no christmas this year the weather has gone against us somewhat and your paw is that cross there's no living with him let us just get on with him in the easiest way it's the best way after all the resignation in her voice the pathetic droop of her mouth was like a spark in the long dry grass madge's eyes flamed with indignation and two brilliant spots of color burned in her cheeks ma you're too dead easy with him you've lost all your pep these last two or three years i remember when you used to stand up to him but now you're so darned full of resignation you make me tired you're just as much to blame as he is always taken the quiet way because it's easiest why don't you ever stand up to him like you used to mrs luke's stopped her work and looked wide-eyed at the furious face of her daughter oh madge she managed to say don't talk like that i will talk cried madge and you'd be better if you talked more what right is he to hog up every cent and blow it in for his own pleasure and then get so cross when he's sober enough that we can't live with him you work for this money so do i so do the boys but he has the spending of it you've been too blamed easy ma mrs luke's mechanically attempted the defense of her husband you couldn't talk that way madge about your pa and me we've done the best we could only we've had some trials too these past years and we kind of lost heart and if he gets a little off once in a while you mustn't blame him it's just so he can forget all his troubles oh is that it said to madge ma you sure are easy you'd make excuses for the devil if he was here that's why is it why did he drink in the good years then why does he drink every chance he gets oh i know it keeps him hot in winter and cool in summer keeps him dry when it rains and from being parched when it don't rain makes him better when he's sick and keeps him from getting sick but it doesn't keep him from making fool bargains and giving away things when he goes to sell him it doesn't keep him from being so cross that bill couldn't stand him and left home we've been here five years and we've all worked harder than he has but he handles the money and doesn't even give himself a good time with it now ma you may be willing to slave all your life but i'm not i see nothing ahead but hard work and sour looks and i won't stand it mrs luke's began to cry with her face twisting piddly but without a sound madge whose back was to her did not see there's no fight left in me mage i'm beat clean beat she said at last through her sobs i have fought and fought and there's no good in it it's better just to quit fighting it's like that piece of paper out there caught on the fence flapping in the wind small good it's flapping does it it just tears itself to pieces that's all it does that's just like me only i've quit i'm done flapping mage sprang to her feet and threw her arms around her mother's heaving shoulders don't cry ma she cried it will be all right i'm a brute to talk to you that way i just got too sore for a minute i didn't mean what i said about not standing it sure i will i'll stick by your ma i'm all that you have now that's any help and i'll sure stay until the kids are all raised anyway you bet i will i won't leave my ma your young madge said her mother patting her back gently with her rough hand and i wouldn't blame you there's not much life for you here i've often thought lately that there's a sort of curse on people that venture too far we had no need to come so far when there was lots of land back home but he would come and i have been easy just as you say but there's a curse i know on them that's too ventures them we're too far away here too far we're behind god's back he can't see us at all and all sort of evil spirits get in their bad work on us and god doesn't know i see it when the northern lights hiss out at me like a nesta snakes and even the cows i catch whispering behind my back when they don't think i know whispering and mocking at me and wanting to tell me something and there's noises in the house at night wanting to warn me about something i hear them but i don't answer them it's best not to answer them i'm hoping they will give it up if i don't answer them they always get worse at christmas taunting me that my children have never known a christmas since we came up here they tell me there's no christmas north of the peace and there never will be they mock us and remind me of the fun i had when i was a little girl back in Nova Scotia we always had a christmas tree with candles and clove apples and tissue paper balls and a doll for the little girls but here there's nothing but hard work and sour looks christmas will never cross the peace madge's eyes were filled with alarm as she listened never before had she heard her mother speak such words and a grim possibility now stared her in the face but with characteristic wisdom she gave no indication of her fears but began to talk about other things it's getting in on ma she thought in horror she's going queer she's slipping well now there has to be something done and done quick her first thought in her hour of need was the nurse miss downey would know across the fields of grass and poplar scrub from the luke's home and about a mile distant stood the nurse's house with a grove of popular trees sheltering it from the northwest a roughly built house of logs with long windows in each side and half-sized ones in the ends with the smoke curling bravely up from its rusty stovepipe for the nurse was at home during a temporary law in the condition of the neighborhood's health a fire burned cheerfully in the big wood range and a small tea kettle threatened to dislodge its lid in its bubbling exuberance the nurse set it back on the stove where it's boiling died slowly away but suddenly changing her mind she put it back on the very hottest place where it caught up at speed again and burst into a thunder of bubbles i like the sound of it she said as if in explanation there are not too many cheerful sounds in this house though i'll never admit that i am lonesome a nurse must never be lonesome sick or tired that's the first lesson diana do you hear me i'm following out your instructions she addressed a large textbook over which she had spent many hours in her days of training which occupied the position of honor on the library table the nurse's home was divided into four rooms although no such partitions were visible to the human eye but miss downy strong in youth and imagination saw in her one big room a living room clearly defined by the library table filled with books the morris chair beside it placed well under the bracket lamp on the wall and on the floor the one and only rug the kitchen could be located easily by the presence of the range a small table and on the wall a roll of shining tins the bedroom and dispensary were harder to distinguish for their boundaries overlapped in a confusing way the bed itself was screened from view by curtains of blue died to match the table runner but the dressing room consisted of one mirror and one packing box also draped in blue was clearly a part of the dispensary for below the blue curtains stood bottles and boxes and packages whose pervading odor was faintly reminiscent of hospitals a light both lamps said miss downy as she rolled up her blinds and tied the crochet rope below so anyone who passes will know i am at home and will drop in and now for the Elijah box and see what my supplies are behind the house and sheltered in summer by trees stood the improvised refrigerator made by sinking a box in the ground there being no difficulty at this season of the year about keeping it cool removing the stone which kept the lid in place miss downy beheld the offerings of her grateful patience one chicken ready to serve one bottle of cream one roll of butter a jar of pickles inside she had found bread and potatoes two pies and a cake left by anonymous contributors so there seemed to be no reason to fear that unexpected company would cause any embarrassment returning to the house she put the chicken in the oven and prepared a pot of potatoes and set her table there will surely be someone over to see how bill Adams is she said hopefully as she set out her best cups and saucers when they see the light and know i'm home but the night came on black and starless and in spite of the beacons which gleamed from each window no one came and she was compelled to eat her chicken dinner alone when she went back to the refrigerator to replace the part of the chicken her visitors should have eaten she saw the northern lights that were darting and shooting across the sky with tongues of violet amber and opal and with a rustling sound like the crumpling of silk folding and unfolding creeping and rushing in a way that fascinated yet odd her and when tinkerbell her little dog who followed her everywhere turned her little nose skyward and broke into a dismal cry miss downy sought the shelter of the house with its reassuring warmth and light but the north window drew her and putting out the lamps she stood gazing in wrapped attention at the panorama of the sky now they look like pink edged sheets on the line in a perfect gale she said and if they are not taken in that fancy edge will soon be nothing but a fringe and now they are advancing like the cadets at school and unconsciously she began to sing the marching song which she had so often played at home and here come the girls and white in a fan drill with pink and blue sashes with the colored lights on them they will be training for christmas now everyone will be there but me then a blur of homesickness shut out the glory of the sky and the brave miss downy so calm and resolute and determined to obey diane's precepts came as near to tears as a self-respecting nurse can come over her own griefs suddenly outside tinkerbell began to bark in sharp little staccato yelps as if she could not find words to express her excitement here is something that will surprise you she seemed to telegraph back and so impressed was her mistress with a note of honesty in tinkerbell's voice that she lighted both lamps and hastily arranged her hair at the glass and dabbed a little powder on her nose to be ready for anything soon a clatter of horses hoofs mingled with the dog's bark and a heavy knock sounded on her door she flung it hospitably open and behold a young man in uniform who politely bad her good evening and waited for her invitation to enter the invitation came readily for she was glad to see anyone anyone to whom she could talk and as she stirred the fire she asked her visitor if she could not offer him something to eat don't start me off unless you have plenty on hand he laughed showing a fine set of teeth where i haven't had anything for 12 hours why where have you been she asked in surprise i'm on my way to the crossing he said from spirit river and there's some sort of an agreement it seems that they won't feed me i'm sergeant woods of the app and i guess i am in wrong with the men anyway for i have been rounding up the bootleggers but even women turned me down today his face was so solemn and rueful the nurse laughed in spite of her so superly not she said you bet they do the last house i went to was bill loots over here and that poor whiteface stooped shoulder to wife a is said to me i wouldn't dare to let you come in paul wouldn't like it but the girl spoke up i guess paul hasn't got her subdued and said go to the nurse's house she is at home and she will feed you she's not afraid of anything and she's got lots of grub on hand so if you're not afraid and if you have lots of grub on hand we can proceed i can do the rest when sergeant woods had satisfied his hunger he looked at her quizzically do you know what i am wondering no she said how you come to be here a young girl like you in this wild place it's not wild she said and i'm not young i was three years overseas and i am a graduate nurse well you're young he reaffirmed and you are living alone i'm not very much alone she corrected him i board around though generally i get home at night if i'm not too far away i have been away three nights now but that was because i had a bad case that i couldn't leave where were you he asked i was with bill adams an exclamation broke from him bill adams he cried the worst old soak in the country do you mean you stayed in his shanty that dirty little hole oh you should see it now she said probably and you should see bill i shaved him trimmed his hair gave him the first bath he'd ever had and cleaned his house he looked at her with increasing wonder that's no work for a woman he cried well have you seen any man volunteering for the job no he said and i won't be likely to you see mr adams was a very sick man delirious and threatened with pneumonia off on a bat i suppose he said quickly very likely anyway he was very sick i did not probe the past and he was a very repentant ah the old bounder aren't you glad he was repentant she said opening her eyes very wide and he told me all his story he was a member of parliament once and studied for the ministry church and state have both had their deliverances and he's going to remember me in his will and he called me dolly when he was delirious and he said i was an angel well i am glad the old rascal hits the truth once in a while said sergeant woods gallantly she laughed whiteheartedly with a color in her cheeks that made the whole room glow what does he say about this bootlegging business that he has been carrying on well we argued quite a bit about that she confessed you see mr adams claims he is doing a real service in bridging the gap as he says in between the thirsty homesteader and the supply he says in this cold climate so far away and so lonesome people need something he says it transmutes this dull existence changing drab to rose those were his words and he says if the women would drink too it would be better for them and he spoke nicely of you he said you were an officious young man who took the law seriously but he said you would find just as he had found that human nature could not be changed by laws and quoted the casita of somebody to prove he was right he says no one has a right to interfere with another and quoted this verse do what thy manhood bids thee do from none but self expect applause he noblest lives and noblest dies who makes and keeps his self-made laws the sergeant made a gesture of impatience that's another way of saying do what you like mind your own business and let the world go to the devil if it wants to that's an easy philosophy if a person has neither heart nor conscience well i told him that said the nurse oh i told him and i rubbed it in by asking him where he would have been if i had simply minded my own business and left him alone to mind his and what did he say to that he said hell and i didn't contradict him i told him he got it right the first guess but aren't you afraid said the sergeant going into such places and dealing with such people have you no fear of course i have she said i'm often afraid i won't arrive in time or that i'll fall asleep when i should stay awake and tonight i was afraid i had not enough chicken for you and i am often afraid this is my biggest fear that i'll get lonesome dead lonesome and chuck it all and go home that's what i do he said decidedly you would not said the nurse shaking her head you have a harder job than mine but you stick because you think you should i just can't make you out he said again you are too young and too pretty to be wasting your life out here you could practice your profession just as well in a city and have some of the pleasures of life i know she said simply i suppose i could but i've changed my mind on what constitutes pleasures i got that overseas just as you did i want a hard job a real job i liked cleaning up old bill adams it's great to get really next to people and change the current of their thoughts he felt like a different man when i was through with him and put clean sheets on his bed clean pillowcases and a red cross night shirt on him it comforts me to be able to do this i also like their grateful words are they always grateful he asked wistfully not always at first they rebel old bill said he be hanged before he let me watch him i told him the hangman would have to hurry then for the water was nearly ready he grumbled all the time but i didn't mind i just scrubbed all the harder but they're all pityably grateful afterwards i should say they would be he said with a faceful of admiration you're a wonder i'd say then he knitted his brows thoughtfully my work is different he said after a pause i am a spoil fun a blight they think i'm just trying to spite them with you all as well for they don't want to be sick but they are sore at me for they do not want to be good and i am as tired of the job as they are if they only knew it why do you stay then she asked she wanted to tell him that she was equally curious about his choice of work his jaw set squarely and there was a look in his eyes that to her quick understanding answered her question without words i'm not going to fall down on the job now that i've started it isn't just that either it seems too bad to let these bootleggers degrade the settlers for the sake of money to peddle this awful stuff in this country where the people have endured so much especially the women pioneering is surely tough on the women and when their men sag down and drink and so become desocialized there's nothing left for them no wonder they go crazy i often think what a hell a woman's life is when she has to live with a drunken man slobbering dirty foul mouth with the subsequent ill temper and the gradual degeneracy it isn't coming to these women after all they've come through i like the game too matching my wits against theirs and i have been able to put the fear of the law into most of them too all but your old bill i would have had him too for i caught him red-handed but the magistrate who is a friend of the whole gang said i hadn't the right number of his section and let him go but i'll end in yet they are determined to have a blowout on christmas and the gang at the crossing are going to supply it to have barrels of it cashed there somewhere i'm going there to look around and see if i can find it if you keep old bill in bed until after christmas it may help for he has been the go-between i understand he receives contributions from all the thirsty ones and then makes as good a bargain as he can with the gang at the crossing and keeps the change so keep him bed fast will you in the interest of a sober christmas i don't believe i can hold him that long she said he proposed this morning before i left that's a sure sign of returning health the old devil oh he did it very nicely with quotations from omark i am and the casida it was really very sweet about the loaf of bread and the jug of wine underneath the bow then you don't mind proposals no not from sick men professionally we consider it a good sign he looked at her with a quizzical smile i'm not feeling real well myself tonight he said laughing the next day miss downy received a hurry visit from madge luke's who burst in with disheveled hair and burning cheeks and with eyes full of terror maus had a breakdown miss downy she cried and his act in queer miss downy began to pack her little black police tell me what she's doing madge she's working around just the same but she's talking to herself all about christmas and what she will get on the tree and all that she's just gone kind of queer and childish and paul is scared stiff he wishes now he'd let her go to edmonton to the convention when she wanted to but he said then there wasn't any money to spend that way she's just like a child miss downy and it's terrible to see her i'll go with you madge said to miss downy now don't let her think you noticed anything wrong when they reached the house and went quietly in there came to the ears a sound of singing a rhythmical chant with a hand clapping accompaniment that brought miss downy back it seemed a hundred years back to the old old days before the war when all the world was young this is the way we comb our hair comb our hair comb our hair this is the way we comb our hair early on sunday morning chanted mrs luke's rocking herself and clapping her hands with every appearance of enjoyment and entirely oblivious to her surroundings this is the way we tie our shoes tie our shoes tie our shoes sang the nurse with appropriate motions mrs luke's took it up eagerly i couldn't remember what came next she said beginning to sing again now listen said the nurse drawing up a chair in front of her patient we must get ready for the christmas tree everyone will do something and we must get the baking done for the supper how many chickens can you get ready mrs luke's looked bewildered for a moment and then throwing back her tangled gray hair said to maj how many can we promise mother mother always does a lot she added in a whisper to the nurse all right said the nurse but you must help her it won't do to leave her all the work she's not very strong you know oh i love to get ready for christmas she cried clapping her rough hands together in delight and fairly beaming with excitement but teacher hear me say my piece this is the way we wash our clothes wash our clothes wash our clothes this is the way we wash our clothes early on monday morning that's fine said the nurse stroking her work worn hands tenderly now help all you can with the chickens out in the kitchen maj held to the nurse in a paroxysm of terror is she going to die nurse but for if she is it's all my fault i scolded her yesterday something awful for being so easy on paul and she broke down and cried and said she was playing beat and had no fight left in her and then this morning she began to talk about christmas and all the fun they had at home when they were all young and she just talked on and on for a long time i was likened to hear her so full of talk but all at once i saw her eyes were staring queer and then she began to sing like you heard her will she die nurse owners will she die no she won't die said the nurse calmly she'll be all right maj but we've got to have a real christmas a real big bubbling sparkling christmas full of excitement and surprises with candles and sparklers and drums and candy and mysterious parcels where everyone sings and dances and shouts and laughs and forgets their troubles we've just got to maj harness your best horse for me maj i'm going around the neighborhood to invite everyone to the hall for christmas night and to get all the women to start to cook this is going to be one grand occasion maj and you and i will have to see it through don't be frightened maj i'm full of hope that it will bring your mother right and save the other women from going queer they haven't enough excitement in their lives and it just gets them end of part seven section one