“But you see, dear,” he added, seeing the disappointment in the child’s face, “you have here in your hands the very things that poor woman would like to buy for her little boy. Give her the fine hobby-horse and the drum and the paint-box, too, if you like, and she can give him the finest Christmas that ever a poor boy had.”
Jack’s face lighted up again, and a smile flashed through the tears that stood in his sweet blue eyes. “I never fought of that!” he cried, joyfully.
“And,” continued the old gentleman, drawing a gold piece from his pocket and putting it in the little chubby hand, “you may give that to the poor woman to buy a turkey with.”
“And that,” cried the second old gentleman, putting another gold piece on top of it, “to buy mince-pies with.”
“And that,” cried the third old gentleman, while a third gold piece clinked on the other two, “to buy a plum-pudding with.”
“And God bless you, my dear little boy!” said the first gentleman, “and may you always keep your loving heart, and never want a piece of money to make Christmas for the poor.”
Little Jack looked from one to the other with radiant eyes. “You are _very_ good shopkeepers,” he said. “I love you all _very_ much. I should like to kiss you all, please.”
And none of those three old gentlemen had ever had so sweet a kiss in his life.
“WHAT _shall_ I do all this long afternoon?” cried Will, yawning and stretching himself. “What—shall—I—do? A whole long afternoon, and the rain pouring and nothing to do. It will seem like a whole week till supper time. I know it will. Oh—_dear_—me!”
“It _is_ too bad!” said Aunt Harriet, sympathetically. “Poor lad! What will you do, indeed? While you are waiting, suppose you just hold this yarn for me.”
Will held six skeins of yarn, one after another; and Aunt Harriet told him six stories, one after the other, each better than the last.
He was sorry when the yarn was all wound, and he began to wonder again what he should do all the long, long afternoon.
“Will,” said his mother, calling him over the balusters, “I wish you would stay with baby just a few minutes while I run down to the kitchen to see about something.”
Will ran up, and his mother ran down. She was gone an hour, but he did not think it was more than ten minutes, for he and baby were having a great time, playing that the big woolly ball was a tiger, and that they were elephants chasing it through the jungle.