《Brothers and sisters兄弟姐妹》
作者：[]Abbie Farwell Brown
内容简介：
IT was the day before the day before Christmas, and there came a big snowstorm, so that Kenneth and Rose were shut up in the house....
CHAPTER I THE CHRISTMAS CAT
IT was the day before the day before Christmas, and there came a big snowstorm, so that Kenneth and Rose were shut up in the house. Now that was a very hard thing to bear, for as every one knows, the last two days before Christmas are the longest, slowest days in the whole year. But if one has to stay in the house and just think, it seems as though the time would never go by.
If it had been a pleasant day they could have gone out of doors to skate, or to coast, or to play any number of jolly games which they now remembered sadly. Perhaps they would have gone to their cousin Charlie’s house, which was in the next block but one beyond theirs. Perhaps their papa would have taken[2] them down town for a last look at the Christmas shops, and the wonderful toys, some of which they hoped Santa Claus would remember to bring to the Thornton house. There were ever so many nice things which they could have done to make the time pass away, if only it had been a pleasant day. But now there seemed nothing in the world to do.
Kenneth and Rose wandered dismally about the house. They peeped into the play-room, where the toys were lying about looking very lonely, as though they would say,—
“O Kenneth! Do come and play with us. Please, Rosie, don’t go away and leave us all alone!”
But Kenneth and Rose were tired of all the old toys, they had played with them so many, many times. They hoped that Santa would bring them some new ones on Christmas morning, if Christmas morning would ever, ever come!
In the dining-room Rose’s old doll, Matilda, was lying face downward on the sofa, quite[3] heart-broken because she had been so long deserted. Rose looked at her, then she turned her back sadly.
“Matilda is growing very ugly,” she said. “No wonder she hides her face, with only one eye and a broken nose. I still love her very much, but I do so hope that Santa will not forget how much I need a new dollie.”
They went down into the kitchen, with a vague hope that Katie might find them something to do. But Katie was too busy baking the Christmas pies and cake to bother with children. She would not even give them a bit of dough to play with.
“Whisht!” she cried, flapping a dishcloth at them fiercely, “Rin out o’ me kitchen, you childer! I can’t have ye fussing about here this day, niver a bit. Rin off an’ play somewheres else, like a good little lad and lassie, now.”
Run off and play! Where should they run, and what should they play? There was no one to help them. Papa was down town in[4] spite of all the snow. Kenneth wished that he too was a big man who could go out of doors in spite of all the snow. Mamma was busy in the library with secrets of her own, and would not let them in. Rose wished that she too was a big lady who could have secrets all by herself. Then she would not mind however hard it might storm outside.
Kenneth flattened his nose against one dining-room window, and Rose flattened her nose against the other, and they stared out at the snow smoothly spreading itself over everything, just as Katie was frosting the cake downstairs. Big drifts were piling up beyond the curbstones, and in the doorways opposite. Now and then a sleigh floundered past, the horses making their way with difficulty. Supposing, oh, supposing that it should storm for two whole days, and the snow should grow so deep that even Santa Claus’s reindeer could not get through with the gifts for their Christmas stockings!
Suddenly Kenneth jumped right up in the[5] air and cried, “Look, Rose!” And at the same moment Rose pressed her nose even flatter on the window and said, “O Kenneth, what is it?”
Something tiny and black was moving along through the snow on the sidewalk. It gave little hops, each time sinking down almost out of sight, stopping to rest between jumps as though it were very tired. The children watched it breathlessly.
At last it came to the long flight of steps, which looked like a smooth toboggan-slide of snow. But the little black creature seemed to know what was underneath the cold white covering, for it hopped bravely up on the lowest step, then up and up, step by step, to the landing, where the snow was not so deep. And now the children could see it plainly.
“Why, it’s a poor little kitty!” cried Kenneth, almost pushing the glass out of the window with his small, cold nose, so eager was he to watch the little stranger.
“And she has come to our ownty-donty[6] steps!” echoed Rose. “Poor little kitty, how cold she must be!”
Just at that moment the wet little black thing looked up at the window where Rose stood, and just as if she had heard what Rose said, the poor kitty answered very sadly, “Mi-a-o-ow!”
All this time it had been snowing harder and harder, and already the tracks which the kitty had made in the snow were blotted out of sight. At the same moment Kenneth and Rose made a dash for the front door. “We mustn’t let the poor kitty stay there,” said Kenneth, “she will be all drowned in the snow, and frozen, too.”
“Yes, we must bring her in and make her nice and warm,” said Rose.
So they opened the front door, and stood at the head of the steps calling, “Kitty, kitty!” very gently, while the snow whirled in about their ankles.
“Mi-a-ow!” answered the black cat, but this time she spoke more cheerfully. “Thank[7] you!” she seemed to say. “May I really come in?”
“Come in,” said Kenneth.
“Poor kitty, do come in!” cried Rose, holding out her hand invitingly. And the black cat walked in.
She was very wet and draggly, but Kenneth took her in his arms and carried her upstairs. Rose ran before, and they knocked on the library door, where their mamma was hidden with her secrets.
“Mamma, Mamma! Come here a minute!” they cried. “Come and see what we have found. Come quick, Mamma!”
In a minute their mamma came hurrying, and opened the door just a tiny little crack, through which she peeped at them. But when she saw what Kenneth had in his arms she came out quickly, shuttling the door carefully behind her (to keep the Christmas secrets from running away, I suppose).
“What have you found, Kenneth?” she cried, holding up her hands.
[8]“A kitty, a poor kitty, lost in the snow,” said Kenneth.
“We had to take her in and make her warm and comfy at Christmas time, didn’t we, Mamma?” said Rose.
“Please, Mamma, you will let us keep her, won’t you?” they both pleaded.
Mrs. Thornton hesitated. The cat was very wet and homely. She had meant to give the children a pretty little kitten some day. But just then the poor hungry animal looked up and gave a pitiful “Mi-a-ow,” and Mrs. Thornton remembered how dreadful it was that any living creature should be miserable and cold and homeless at the happy Christmas time.
“Yes, you may keep her, children,” she said. “Keep her and make her have a merry Christmas.”
Kenneth and Rose took the little cat downstairs and gave her a good dinner. “But you shall have a better one on Christmas Day,” promised Kenneth. Rose found a tiny basket[9] and made a bed beside the fire in the dining-room. And there the black cat slept all the afternoon, she was so tired, and so glad to rest and to be warm. Rose sat beside her, stroking her soft fur, and Kenneth sat at the other side of the fireplace trying to think up a good name for the new kitty, so that the time went before they knew it, and they had forgotten to wish it were Christmas day.
“What have you named the little cat?” asked their papa when the children showed him their new pet that evening.
“Oh, Kenneth has thought of the loveliest name!” cried Rose, jumping up and clapping her hands. “We are going to call her Christine,—because she is a little Christmas cat. Isn’t that a beautiful name, Papa?”
And Papa said that he thought it was a very beautiful name indeed.
CHAPTER II THE CHRISTMAS CAT’S PRESENT
THE next morning when Kenneth and Rose awoke, it was bright and fair. The storm had cleared away, and the whole world was white and wonderful with spangled snow. Now the children could play out of doors as much as they liked, and the time went so fast that they almost forgot to wish Christmas would hurry up. Their cousin Charlie came over to play with them, and they built snow forts and snowballed one another; they made big statues of snow in the back yard and shoveled the sidewalks and the front steps nicely. Before they knew it it was evening again,—Christmas eve, and their mamma was inviting them to come and see her secret in the library.
And what do you think the secret was? When the folding doors were thrown open[11] there was a glare of light and a smell of woodsy green, and Kenneth and Rose and their cousin Charlie cried “Oh!” they were so surprised. For there stood a beautiful Christmas tree, glittering with spangles and icicles and silver balls and tiny candles.
Kenneth and Rose and Charlie danced around the tree, and they had a beautiful time finding the little bags of candy which were hidden for each of them among the green branches.
“It was a lovely, lovely secret,” whispered Rose in her mamma’s ear. “And when I grow up I will make one just like it for my dolls.”
When all the candles had sputtered and gone out, Charlie’s papa came to take him home. And after that it was time to go to bed. But first they must hang up their stockings for Santa Claus to fill. They tied them up over the fireplace in the library,—Kenneth’s long black stocking and Rose’s shorter brown one. Then Kenneth said,—
“Oh, Mamma, we must hang up a stocking[12] for Christine. I am sure Santa will want to remember the poor little Christmas cat.”
“I know!” cried Rose. “I will hang up one of my little summer socks. That will be just right for a little kitty-cat’s Christmas.”
So she brought one of her short white socks and they hung it up in the chimney-place right between the other two stockings,—between Kenneth’s and Rose’s. And Christine looked pleased. Then everybody said good-night, and the children went to bed.
It was very, very early in the morning when Kenneth opened his eyes and said out loud, “It is Christmas Day! Oh, at last it is Christmas Day!” Then his eyes opened very wide indeed, and he said nothing at all. The bedposts looked so queer!
Kenneth scrambled over and examined them. On each post at the foot of the bed was a big yellow orange. These were the first signs of Christmas, and they kept Kenneth busy for some minutes. But when he had eaten one of the oranges he could not wait any longer.
[13]He ran to Rose’s room and thumped on the door. “Merry Christmas, Rose! Wake up!” he cried, poking in his head. But already Rose was wide awake, and was sitting up in bed eating one of the oranges which had grown on her bedposts, too, during the night.
“Merry Christmas yourself,” cried Rose, jumping out of bed. “Let us run and wake up papa and mamma.”
So they trotted down the hall to mamma’s room and thumped on the door. “Merry Christmas, Mamma! Merry Christmas, Papa!” they cried. “We are going down to look at our stockings and see whether or not Santa really did come last night.”
Papa and mamma sighed a little, for they were still very sleepy. But mamma said, “Well, children, you may go down. But first you must put on your clothes, so that you will not take cold. Papa and I will be there in a little while.”
Kenneth was dressed first. He ran downstairs to the library, and sure enough! there[14] hung the three stockings, bulgy and knobby and queer. He shouted up the stairs, “Oh, Rose! Hurry, hurry! He really came, Santa Claus came, and he did not forget even Christine.”
In a minute down came Rose, with her shoes half buttoned and her curls all tangled. She could not wait this morning to make everything just right.
They seized their stockings and sat down on the floor to pull out the “plums,” like little Jack Horner. In Kenneth’s stocking he found a big red apple, and a bag of lovely marbles. Under these was a new game in a box, and a horn of candy. Kenneth dived down lower and found a toy cart, and a top, and a baby camera. At last he reached the toe of the stocking, where there was just one thing left. “I think it is a stick of candy,” said Kenneth. But when it came out, it was a jack-knife with four blades. You can imagine how pleased Kenneth was.
As for Rose, what do you suppose she[15] found in her stocking? She had a red apple, too, and a horn of candy. Then there was a cunning pocket-book, and a little coral necklace in a velvet box. There was a red rubber ball and a harmonica, and away down in the little brown toe of her stocking hid a tiny doll’s watch and chain. But the best gift of all poked its head out of the top of her stocking and smiled at her the very first thing. It was a lovely little doll, with yellow curls like Rose’s own, and blue eyes, and a white dress with blue ribbons.
“Oh, you dear doll!” cried Rose, hugging her tightly. “I knew that Santa would bring you to me! You are ever so much prettier than Matilda, and I shall call you Alice.”
Now Papa and Mamma came down, and they were eager to see what was in Christine’s stocking. “Let us take it down to the dining-room where Christine is,” said Mamma. “Katie tells me that there are some queer-looking bundles there for you, which Santa could not crowd into your stockings.”
[16]With a whoop of joy Kenneth ran down the stairs to the dining-room, and Rose followed as fast as she could, carrying the little white sock with the presents for the Christmas cat. She went up to the basket beside the fire, where Christine lay just as they had left her the night before.
“Oh, Kitty, see what Santa has brought you,” said Rose, holding out the little bulgy stocking. Then she stared hard into the basket where Christine lay. “Oh-h-h! Kenneth!” she cried. “Come here quick! See what Santa has brought the Christmas cat!”
For there, cuddled close up against Christine’s black fur, were two tiny round things mewing with baby voices; one little black kitten, and one as yellow as Rose’s curls, both with their eyes shut tight.
“Well, well!” said papa. “Santa could not get those into Kitty’s stocking, so he brought them here. Isn’t it a lovely present for a little Christmas cat?”
“Of course they both belong to Christine,”[17] said Kenneth, “but may I not call one of them mine, and the other one Rose’s?”
“I want the yellow one,” said Rose.
“I like the black one best,” said Kenneth, “so that is all right.” But Christine licked both the kittens with her pink tongue and purred happily.
“I like them both best, and they are both mine,” she seemed to say.
Then the children took out the presents from the little white sock. There was a pretty collar and a bow of ribbon,—yellow, which was Christine’s most becoming color. And there was a little bunch of catnip instead of candy. Santa seemed to know just what a little cat would best like. But nothing seemed to please Christine so much as the tiny balls of black and yellow fur in her basket. And the children did not blame her. For indeed, of all their Christmas gifts,—except Alice, the new doll, and Kenneth’s jack-knife,—they each liked best the kitten which they had chosen.
