THE CHRISTMAS TREE CLUB
by: Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
"We're a cheerful enough Club," Molly Newton said, laughingly, as she bit into a thick square of freshly made fudge, "but I don't think that anyone in school thinks of us as toilers exactly."
The other girls gathered in the Newtons' cheery living room in front of an open fire, looked up, a bit surprised, as Molly set the plate of candy on a table and went on. "We named ourselves the Cheerful Toilers' Club, thinking that we'd do something for our class or for somebody or something that needed us here in town; and you all know, girls, that the only toiling we've done has been to give ourselves a good time."
"We made perfectly splendid fudge this afternoon; three kinds too--plain, marshmallow, and nut," Betty Fraser said, thoughtfully, shaking out her yellow curls as she spoke.
"And we've eaten it nearly all up," Molly replied, accusingly.
"We cross stitched some beautiful work bags last week, some with wreaths, and some with flower baskets, and some with initials," Mildred Hardy said.
"Yes, and we planned them for the church fair Christmas week; and when we finished them they were so pretty that we decided to keep them ourselves," Molly added.
"Well, how about the Halloween party that we gave in our barn?" Judith Dexter asked, her dark eyes flashing. "We invited a whole lot of girls who don't belong to the Club, and we had charades and games, and cakes and chocolate that we made ourselves?"
"I know, Judith. We all worked just as hard as we could, but I don't believe it was the right kind of Club toiling," Molly answered, soberly. "We had a good time ourselves, in just the way we wanted to; and we asked only the girls that are in our set. I heard Jean speaking aobut us at recess yesterday. She said that she wished she could belong to the Cheerful Toilers' Club. She thought she ought to, because she'd been working at home, and trying to be cheerful about it, ever since she could remember.
"But she understood, she said, that the Club wasn't for the girls in the mill end of town. It was just for us."
"Well, Jean was right. It isn't. It is just for us," Betty broke in, but Molly threw her arm about the little girl's shoulder and drew her close to her as she laid soft fingers on Betty's pouting red lips.
"What I wanted to ask you this afternoon, girls, is if we can't change the Club, name and everything, until after Christmas anyway. I've got a perfectly splendid plan in my head and I want to have a chance to see how it works. Jean gave me an idea"--Molly stopped a minute as the girls frowned and shook their heads at the mention of the little French girl.
None of them had been able to quite understand the colony of foreign children that the newly built factory had brought to the town. There was Jean with her gay colors, dark, eager face, and a clever mind that sent her to the head of her class at once. Hilda, too of German parentage, had been left to study and play by herself during her six months with them. They could see her now, her pink cheeks flushing a deeper tint, and pulling her long flaxen braids in embarrassment when the town girls refused to speak to her in the school yard. They had not meant to be unkind to the strangers, but they did not understand their ways, their clothes, or their broken speech.
"Well, if we've got to take in the girls like Jean we might as well give up the Club at once," Judith said decisively.
"O, wait a minute, girls please! You don't understand; do let me try to explain," Molly begged, sitting down in the midst of the group around the fire and looking toward the door to see if anyone were listening. Then she unfolded her Christmas plan for the new Club.
The fire crackled, and the winter wind blowing down the chimney brought drifting echoes of silvery-toned sleigh bells. Through the window the girls could see the gathering snowstorm with its white, starry snow flakes. It all added charm to Molly's plan, which seemed, as she explained it a little at a time, to be quite the best fun that the Club had thought of yet. When she finished there was a shout, and a wreath of many arms about their kind little president's neck.
"We'll do it!"
"It's going to be so jolly!"
"Won't it be a surprise!"
"We'll begin tomorrow!"
That was how the new Club began.
It was fortunate that the Christmas holidays included several days before Christmas. There was so much for the girls to do. Molly's father owned the town lumber yard, and she persuaded him to lend her a sleigh and a wood cutter for one afternoon. She and the rest of the Club piled into it and had a merry ride to the woods that lay at the edge of the town. When they came back their arms and the sleigh were full of trailing lengths of ground pine, sprays of hemlock, and branches of laurel. They brought a tall, beautifully shaped fir tree that was hidden in the lumber yard until the Club should need it. The greens the girls twined into long ropes and wound into wreaths with deft fingers.
Mildred established herself as the Christmas seamstress in the Club's secret sewing bee. She scoured the attics of the town for cast-off finery and pieces of colored cloth that could be used for their needs. The girls consulted old pictures, and even persuaded Miss Thompson, the town seamstress, to cut patterns for some of the garments that they couldn't fashion themselves. It was surprising how much they could do with a little. An old white tarleton dress made all the candy bags they needed, cut and stitched in the shape of fat little stockings; and the town candy man filled them, free, when they told him the Club's secret.
Cotton-batting, dotted with black worsted stitches, made ermine that looked like real fur. Gilt paper stars glued to an old white blanket made it into a royal cloak. Tinsel stars, strings of popcorn and cranberries, and such useful gifts as warm mittens and woolen mufflers grew in the girls' fingers and those of their mothers and grandmothers who shared their secret.
Judith's house resounded with the Club girls' voices as they practiced Christmas carols; and above them, like a lark's clear note, could be heard Jean's sweet voice.
What could it mean? The girls who did not share the secret wondered. They watched the houses of the Club girls to see what new mystery might appear in each window or front door. No one thought of going near the schoolhouse, closed for the holidays. That was how the Club was able to make its secret preparations for Christmas Eve without anyone seeing them.
It was a wonderful Christmas Eve. A heavy fall of snow, a cold snap without wind, and an early starlight made a shining, white world for the coming of the Holy Child into the hearts of men.
A flash of light in the big, white schoolyard and the glimpse of green that late Christmas shoppers had as they passed was the first hint of the surprise.
There's a big Christmas tree, outdoors, in the school yard."
"It's lighted with red and yellow electric bulbs."
"It's for all the school-children"--the news was winged through the town as if a Christmas angel had carried it.
The schoolyard was open to anyone who wished to come. The children from the factory end of town came, shyly, but they found the teachers waiting for them and a welcome among the others.
It was a beautiful tree. Just to look at it was to feel a Merry Christmas in one's heart. As if it grew there, it stood in the center of the snowy yard, its myriad of lights shining and twinkling like so many stars. About it, marked by a rope of evergreens, was a great green circle and wreaths of greens were hung on the school fence. Every one was quite satisfied and content to only look at the outdoor Christmas tree, but suddenly a strange procession wound into the schoolyard.
Every one had been inclined to make fun of the little white donkey that Jean's family had brought to their tiny home, and that Jean sometimes drove into town. Now the donkey, with Jean, the Christmas Herald, riding him, seemed a lovely part of the Christmas pageant. Jean's dark eyes shone like stars. Her long brown hair, lying loosely on her shoulders, curled like a soft cloud beneath the gilt crown she wore. Her white cloak, spangled with stars, almost covered the little donkey. She carried a silver trumpet that she blew to announce the coming of the girls who walked behind her.
Gretchen came next, quite transformed by her scarlet cloak and hood, and with a bag of gifts, for she was Father Christmas. Following her came other quaintly garbed girls; a group of Christmas waifs, Mrs. Santa Claus, the Russian Babouscka, Piccola of the quaint old story--each in a simple costume that was slipped over their warm wraps. In one respect all were alike, though: each girl carried in her hand a tiny Christmas bough.
When they reached the schoolyard, Jean dismounted and they all stood beside the green circle about the tree. It was Jean's sweet voice that led them in the old Christmas songs and carols that all knew, and so all could join in singing. "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," "Carol, Brothers, Carol," "Once in Royal David's City"--the music echoed through the schoolyard in the light of the Christmas stars.
Then Gretchen emptied her bag of gifts and stripped the tree for the Christmas guests. There was a tiny gift for each child, if it were only a stocking of sweets or a rosy apple.
Last of all, Molly stood in front of the tree. Her Mrs. Santa Claus costume of white cap, scarlet frock, and white apron made every one listen as she raised her hand for silence, and then spoke to the others:
"I think you all know that a few of us girls had a Club," she said, "and we called it the Cheerful Toilers. Well, we found out a while before Christmas that we weren't doing the best kinds of things in the Club, and we needed more members, especially girls that we want to know better.
"So we changed the Club, and it's ever so much bigger, and better, and more exciting now. It's called the Christmas Tree Club, because a Christmas Tree stays green and grows almost all over the world. Jean has helped us think a lot. O, you tell the rest, Jean," and Molly pulled the little French girl to her side.
The children had not known how winsome Jean was. She looked like her namesake, the girl soldier of France, as she spoke to them.
"In my country," Jean said, "we have our happiest times out of doors, and together. That is what the Club will do; it will help us all to keep our good holidays together and give happiness to others. We will sing around the flag, and we will play about a May pole. When there is no holiday we will try and make happy all those children who are sorrowful."
As the little girl stopped, a bit frightened at speaking to so many, her teacher finished:
"So this Christmas tree will be green in our hearts and lives until another year," she said.
"Hurrah for the Christmas Tree Club! Hurrah! Hurrah!" the shout pealed out through the schoolyard in a merry Christmas chorus.
"Wasn't it wonderful?" Molly asked as the girls of the old Club crowded about their little Christmas Herald on the way home.
"O, yes!" Jean sighed, happily. "And now there will be no more lonesomeness among us."
END
