Nancy and Plum (20 page)

Uncle John said, “Very well. Just send me a list of what you need and I’ll send a check.”

Plum said, “We don’t need anything. Look at us. New jeanies, new shirts and
new shoes
!”

She lifted up her left foot and kissed her new red tennis shoe.

I
T WAS
C
HRISTMAS
E
VE
. Big snowflakes fluttered slowly through the air like white feathers and made all of Heavenly Valley smooth and white and quiet and beautiful.

Tall fir trees stood up to their knees in the snow and their outstretched hands were heaped with it. Those that were bare of leaves wore soft white fur on their scrawny, reaching arms and all the stumps and low bushes had been turned into fat white cupcakes.

Mrs. Campbell sat in the rocking chair by the stove in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on Plum’s angel costume. Nancy’s was on the ironing board ready to be pressed.
As Mrs. Campbell worked, she hummed and rocked and took care that Penny’s three kittens, who were playing around her feet, didn’t get under the rockers.

Mr. Campbell came up on the back porch, stamped the snow off his boots, took off his cap and banged it against the house, slipped off his gloves and slapped them together, then took the broom and swept off the top of his boots and his knees. He came into the warm kitchen, hung his jacket, cap and mittens behind the stove and said to Mrs. Campbell, “Well, that’s a load off my mind. Plum’s Christmas present got here right on schedule. A beautiful little black filly with a white star on her forehead. I named her Noel. Nellie is so proud she is ready to bust.”

Mrs. Campbell said, “Oh, Angus, how wonderful! Born Christmas Eve and named Noel. Plum will love that and just think, a horse of her very own. Well, I have Nancy’s present all wrapped. I thought for a while I’d never finish ironing those little clothes. I certainly hope that I’m not just imagining that she will like the lady doll and trunk of clothes that my grandmother had when she was a little girl. The doll is still very pretty with real hair, eyelashes and eyebrows but the clothes are so old-fashioned. Hoop skirts and so many petticoats.”

Mr. Campbell said, “You know Nancy will like that doll better than anything in the whole world. She’ll like it because it is old-fashioned and because it has a trunk full of clothes.”

Mrs. Campbell said, “Well, I certainly hope so. My heavens, that doll has everything. Little fans, necklaces, capes, bonnets, mitts, parasols and dozens of petticoats and dresses.
And that trunk is almost full size. Don’t you think the girls should be back by now?”

Mr. Campbell said, “Oh, they’ll be along in a minute. Cutting your first Christmas tree is a very important job and takes lots of picking and choosing. What are you making there?”

Mrs. Campbell said, “Plum’s angel costume for the program at the schoolhouse. Nancy’s is all finished. See!” She held up the long white satin dress and stretched out the gauzy wings.

Mr. Campbell said, “Gosh, Mary Ann, that’s beautiful.” He fingered the satin and said, “Where did you ever get such fine goods?”

Mrs. Campbell snapped off a thread between her teeth and said, “My wedding dress, that’s where. For weeks those children have been talking about the program and their angel costumes and for weeks I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out what to make them out of. Then day before yesterday, I was up in the attic rummaging around in the old trunks and I came across my wedding dress, all wrapped in tissue paper and certainly as useless as a white elephant. I took it out and looked at it and I confess, Angus, I got very sentimental thinking about that day in June fifteen years ago. Then I said to myself, ‘Listen, Mary Ann Campbell, one wedding is all you’re ever going to have, and what earthly use to you is all that white satin and veiling?’ Right then and there I knew what I was going to do.”

Mr. Campbell leaned down and kissed her cheek and said, “I think angel costumes are the best use for your wedding
dress I’ve ever heard of. What bothers me, Mary Ann, is the fact that this will be Nancy and Plum’s first Christmas and I’m afraid we haven’t enough for them. They know we don’t have much money but after all they are only children and undoubtedly expect all kinds of miracles.”

Mrs. Campbell said, “I’ve thought of the same thing a million times, but I have decided that to Nancy and Plum the most wonderful thing of all is that they have a home and a family on Christmas. Stuffing the turkey, getting and trimming their own Christmas tree, going to the school program in the sleigh, these angel costumes, having Old Tom and Miss Waverly for Christmas dinner, the presents they had Uncle John buy for the other children at Mrs. Monday’s, are the important things to those children. Not expensive gifts. Anyway, I sent away and got them each a pair of party shoes and I have made them each a new dress. Plum’s is cherry-red velveteen and Nancy’s is sky blue. I also got plenty of little things for their stockings.”

Mr. Campbell said, “So did I.”

There was a loud knocking on the door. Thinking it was the children, Mrs. Campbell quickly gathered up the angel costumes and hid them under her apron. Mr. Campbell opened the door. It wasn’t Nancy and Plum. It was Danby, Uncle John’s chauffeur, standing on the porch beside two beautiful sleds and a huge box.

“Come in, come in,” Mrs. Campbell said. But Danby said no, he’d left his car down the road and he had a big load of packages to deliver to Mrs. Monday’s.

“Oh, Danby,” said Aunt Mary Ann. “Did Mr. Remson get everything on the list?”

“Got the list right here,” said Danby, pulling off one of his heavy woolen gloves with his teeth, and fumbling in his inside pocket. When he found it he read it off to Mrs. Campbell—

The rest of the little boys had sleds and new mittens, a cap and a sweater and all the children big candy canes—books—large boxes of crayons and coloring books.

When Danby finished, the Campbells said, “Oh, Danby, how wonderful! What a thrilling Christmas this will be for those poor little souls. Imagine that poor little David getting nothing but two suits of long underwear last Christmas.”

Danby said, “Mr. Remson told me to deliver the boxes to Old Tom and have him distribute the gifts. They are all wrapped real fancy.”

“How wonderful,” said Mrs. Campbell.

“All the credit goes to Nancy and Plum,” Mr. Campbell said. “If they weren’t such unselfish children they could have had all that money spent on presents for them.”

“Oh,” said Danby, “their uncle said that he appreciated their unselfishness but he just sent along these sleds and this box for them. Well, I must get along. Mr. Remson told me to give any of the kids that wanted, and were going home, a ride to the city.”

“How nice,” said Mrs. Campbell, “and how much pleasanter than riding on the train with Mrs. Monday and that horrid little Marybelle. Well, a merry, merry Christmas to you, Danby, and thank you so much for driving way out here in the snow.”

“ ’Twasn’t anything,” Danby said. “Merry Christmas to you all, too,” he called as he hurried down the steps and disappeared into the snowstorm.

“Just wait until Nancy and Plum hear that Uncle John got everything on their list. They’ll be the happiest children in Heavenly Valley. Now, Angus, you hurry and put on your jacket and take those sleds down to the barn and hide them. I’ll just see what’s in this other box.”

Mr. Campbell slipped on his jacket, grabbed up the sleds and ran down to the barn. As he opened the door, he could hear Nancy and Plum’s voices down the lane.

Mrs. Campbell spread newspapers on the floor, brought in the huge box and cut the strings. As she raised the lid, yards and yards of white tissue paper fell to the floor. Carefully she reached in and lifted out first a beautiful little dark green coat trimmed with gray squirrel, a darling little hat and a gray squirrel muff. “For my Nancy,” she said, her eyes bright with happiness.

Then a beautiful little bright red coat trimmed with gray squirrel, a darling little hat and a gray squirrel muff. “For my Plum,” Mrs. Campbell said, a smile lighting up her whole face.

Then black patent-leather party shoes, silk socks, heaps of lacy underwear and two party dresses, with the fullest, whirliest skirts ever made. Dark green taffeta for Nancy, dark blue taffeta for Plum.

There were also two packages for Old Tom, one a very large box, two beautifully wrapped silver and green packages for Miss Waverly and, to Aunt Mary Ann’s astonishment, a small box marked “Mrs. Campbell from a very grateful Mr. Remson” and a small box marked “Mr. Campbell from a very grateful Mr. Remson.”

“My goodness, my goodness, what a Christmas this is going to be,” she said. Then hearing Nancy and Plum on the back porch, she grabbed up the packages for Old Tom, Miss Waverly, Angus and herself and stuffed them in the front hall coat closet; snatched up all the clothes, ran upstairs and laid them out on the girls’ bed.

When she came down, Mr. Campbell had set the box on
the back porch and was helping Nancy and Plum put up their tree.

Both children had snow on their caps, their shoulders, their mittens and galoshes and had tracked big gobs of it into the parlor but Mrs. Campbell hugged them, kissed their cold pink cheeks and said, “What a beautiful tree!”

Plum said, “We walked for about a hundred miles looking for a perfect one.”

Nancy said, “See, this one even has little cones on it!”

Mr. Campbell said, “I’ve got the standard all ready. While you take off your wraps and brush the snow off you, I’ll put it up. Then you can decorate it.”

Nancy said, “Oh, Plum, look how much snow we brought in and on the clean floor, too.”

Mrs. Campbell said, “Nobody can bring in a Christmas tree without tracking in a little snow. Now go out on the porch and sweep each other off and hurry because I’ve got to put up your hair in curlers.”

As soon as the back door closed, she told Mr. Campbell about the beautiful new clothes Uncle John had sent.

Mr. Campbell said, “Golly, that’s fine, Mary Ann, but what about the dresses and new shoes you have for them?”

Mrs. Campbell said, “I’ll just not say anything about them and then a little later on when these shoes have gotten kind of scuffy and they’ve worn their new dresses quite a few times, I’ll bring mine out.”

Mr. Campbell said, “Sure, that’s a fine idea. I think that
two pairs of new party shoes right now would be too much for Plum anyhow. Probably send her out of her head.”

They both laughed. As soon as Nancy and Plum had hung their coats, caps and mittens behind the stove to dry, Mrs. Campbell put their hair up in curlers, then sent them up to their room to see the surprise. They racketed up the stairs like streaks. Then Mr. and Mrs. Campbell, who were following, heard loud Oh’s and Ah’s and squeals of pure delight. When the Campbells reached their room, the children were trying on the new coats, hats and muffs.

Plum looked in the mirror and said, “Wow, I look just like a princess, even with these curlers in my hair.”

Nancy stood quietly stroking her muff. Mrs. Campbell said, “Isn’t the coat beautiful, Nancy? And it fits just perfectly.”

Nancy said, “Oh, Aunt Mary Ann, I’m so happy I feel funny. I keep thinking ‘All this can’t be happening to me.’ Pretty soon I’ll wake up and know that it was only another one of my dreams.”

Plum said, “Wow, Nancy, come and look how full the skirts on our party dresses are. And
new party shoes
! I didn’t even see them before. Oh, Nancy, Nancy, look, black patent-leather slippers just like Marybelle’s.” Plum held one of the slippers up and rubbed its smooth shininess against her cheek.

Nancy picked up her slippers carefully, as though they were crown jewels, stroked the toes, felt the straps and her lips trembled as she said, “I just don’t think I could hold any more happiness right now. My heart feels like it’s going to burst.”

Mrs. Campbell hugged her and said, “Well, I don’t want
you bursting and spoiling your new coat, but I’ve got two more surprises for you. The first is that Danby drove in a few minutes ago to tell us that Uncle John got every single thing on the list and he’s delivering them to Old Tom right now. He couldn’t wait to see you because he had to get the presents to the Boarding Home before Mrs. Monday and the children left for the train.”