"A Merry Christmas" - Page 15

“That’s loving our neighbor better than ourselves, and I like it,” said Meg, as they set out their presents, while their mother was upstairs collecting clothes for the poor Hummels.

Not a very splendid show,¹ but there was a great deal of love done up in the few little bundles; and the tall vase of red roses, white chrysanthemums, and trailing vines, which stood in the middle, gave quite an elegant air to the table. 

“She’s coming! Strike up, Beth, open the door, Amy. Three cheers for Marmee!” cried Jo, prancing about, while Meg went to conduct mother to the seat of honor. 

Beth played her gayest march ², Amy threw open the door, and Meg enacted escort with great dignity. Mrs. March was both surprised and touched; and smiled with her rheumatic eyes full as she examined her presents, and read the little notes which accompanied them. The slippers went on at once, a new handkerchief was slipped into her pocket, well scented with Amy’s Cologne, the rose was fastened in her bosom, and the nice gloves were pronounced “a perfect fit.”

There was a good deal of laughing, and kissing, and explaining in the simple, loving fashion which makes these home-festivals so pleasant at the time, so sweet to remember long afterward, and then all fell to work. 

As the girls turned to their tasks, Marmee lingered over the well-loved gifts. Beth’s dear handkerchiefs in particular caught her eye - ironed fresh, with the inscription of “Mother” on the corner. She indeed preferred it over ‘M. March,” and even more so than her given name. “Much better than - gracious, what was my name? _{What was my name?}”

The morning charities and ceremonies took so much time, that the rest of the day was devoted to preparations for the evening festivities. Being still too young to go often to the theatre, and not rich enough to afford any great outlay for private performances, the girls put their wits to work, and, necessity being the mother of invention, made whatever they needed. 

Very clever were some of their productions ³; paste-board guitars ⁴, antique lamps made of old-fashioned butter-boats, covered with silver paper ⁵, gorgeous robes of old cotton, glittering with tin spangles from a pickle factory, and armor covered with the same useful diamond-shaped bits, left in sheets when the lids of tin preserve-pots were cut out ⁶. The furniture was used to being turned topsy-turvy, and the big chamber was the scene of many innocent revels.

¹ _{”The presents looked like shit, just to be clear.”}

² _{Said march.}

³ _{Let’s talk about 1800s things that look like other things that are also from the 1800s! There’s gonna be a lot of this for the next few pages.}

⁴ _{Essentially a paper-mache-type process. In guitar form!}

⁵ _{What I thiiiiink this is: using dishes like the one below, with silver paper pasted on them, to make something akin to footlights.}

⁶ _{You’ve probably gathered this, but a nearby pickle factory cut up sheets of tin for their (pickle) cans, and whatever was left was thrown out, so the gals picked it up and turned it into shiny scales and stars. Fun! Useful! Sharp!}

Hello babies! Tomorrow is MY BIRTHDAY.

If you do one thing for MY BIRTHDAY, share the newsletter with a friend or two! I went ahead and created an ongoing web-only post that goes through the story so far, with useful links for folks just jumping on.

I hope you stay warm in these dregs of February, and are excited to jump feet-first into the dregs of March!