It was evening again. Ina and Sadie
snuggled under the quilt in the big rocking chair, looking through Ina’s
collection of old Christmas cards.
“Gram, what was your first Christmas
here at the farm like,” asked Sadie.
“Well,” began Ina, “it was 40 years
ago. Your mother wasn’t born yet. We shared a makeshift cabin with Uncle June
and Aunt Bertha down in the gulch. We had two little girls who were dreaming of
Santa, and Irl was just a baby. Since we had no chimney, no stockings were hung,
but visions of sugarplums were dancing in Pearl and Myrtle’s heads
nevertheless. We were prepared for a disappointment.
It was cold outside and the cabin
wasn’t much protection, so we went to bed early and settled down for a long
winter’s nap. I tied a kerchief over my head and Grandpa wore his cap.” (Sadie
laughed at Ina’s attempt to parody “The Night Before Christmas.”)
The moon on the breast of the
new-fallen snow,
Gave the luster of midday to objects
below.
“Truly, it was a beautiful moonlit
night – the kind that’s full of enchantment and expectation. Your grandpa and I
were just nodding off, when we were startled by footfalls coming closer and
closer, crunching through the snow. The children slept on, but we four adults were
suddenly awake and alert. Who – or what – could it possibly be?
“No, it wasn’t Santa, but it might
as well have been. My sisters, your great-aunts Ida and Mabel, appeared at the
door, carrying treats for our Christmas. They had potted two young evergreens, and
then they spent the long December afternoons and evenings, making things for
the little ones. They even baked cookies and cakes as best they could.
“Well, Santa never lingers in one place
too long, you know, and my sisters left the gifts, wished us a merry Christmas,
and went on their way home. We of the cabin settled back down under the warm
covers, and I guess we were sort of spellbound. Did this visit really happen or
had we imagined it. Your grandpa asked me to light the lantern, and we four
adults marveled over those clever gifts again. Oh, they were just silly little
things, but Ida’s thoughtfulness touched us deeply.
“Ida says the memory of that
Christmas is one of her favorites. She says the way we four Dobsons looked when
she and Mabel presented their trees was pay in plenty.”
Ina concluded her account by
reminding Sadie that we are happiest when we make others happy. KW
3 comments:
I love this story!!
Thank you, Chris. The story is in a letter that Ina's older sister Ida wrote in 1924. I imagined it from Ina's point of view.
There really was no fireplace in the first cabin? How did they cook let alone stay warm? Maybe they still had a wood stove that would provide heat?
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