Penny and Peter (10 page)

The first week, he offered to give part of it to Penny but when Penny heard that Peter was working to help Daddy, Penny said, "No, I want to help Daddy, too. You put it all in the bank."

When Peter had saved up five dollars, he felt very rich. He was so happy when he went to Daddy with it. It had all been in small change, but now he had a five-dollar bill.

"Daddy," he said, holding out the five-dollar bill, "I have five dollars for you."

"For me!" exclaimed Daddy.

"Yes," replied Peter. "I earned it."

"Well, Peter! That is fine but you keep it, son. It's yours," said Daddy.

"Oh, but I earned it for you, Daddy!" said Peter. "I earned it on purpose for you. I heard you say that you needed some money."

"Why, Peter! Dear boy!" said Daddy. "That was wonderful of you. But I wouldn't think of taking your money. You use it to buy Christmas presents."

"Oh, no, Daddy! I heard you say that you wished you had some money," said Peter. "And I want very much to give it to you."

Daddy put his arm around Peter and said, "Peter, I am going to tell you why I said that. I wanted to buy something that I knew we all would enjoy. I didn't think I could afford it, but now I have almost all of the money to pay for it."

"Oh, Daddy! What is it?" said Peter.

"Well, I am keeping it a secret from Mother," said Daddy, "because I thought it would be nice to have it a Christmas surprise. But I'll tell you, if you think you can keep it a secret."

"Oh, yes, Daddy!" said Peter.

Daddy leaned over and whispered the secret in Peter's ear. Peter looked very much surprised and very delighted. "Oh, Daddy!" he cried. "How wonderful! How much more money do you need?"

"Well," said Daddy, "just about five dollars."

"Oh, isn't that wonderful!" said Peter. "Here's my five dollars. Now you can buy it."

"That's just great, Peter," said Daddy. "Now it will be from both of us to Mother."

"From Penny, too," said Peter, "because he didn't take anything for helping me deliver papers."

"All right. That's fine," said Daddy, as he reached into his vest pocket.

Peter watched Daddy put the five-dollar bill in his wallet. He felt very proud, giving Daddy five dollars that he had earned.

Daddy put the wallet in his pocket and said, "Peter, I can't tell you how much this five dollars means to me. To think that you went out and earned it for me. I'm proud to have you for my son."

Just then, Mother called from upstairs. "Peter!" she called. "It is time for you to go to bed."

"I'm coming, Mother," Peter replied. "Good night, Daddy."

Peter kissed his daddy good night and Daddy pulled out his wallet again.

"Peter," he said, "here is some money with which to buy your Christmas presents."

Daddy gave Peter five one-dollar bills.

"But, Daddy!" said Peter. "Aren't you giving back to me the five dollars that I gave you?"

"Not at all! This is the five dollars you gave me," said Daddy, patting the five-dollar bill. "And, Peter, my boy, it means a great deal to me. More than I can ever tell you."

"Well, thanks, Daddy, for the Christmas money," said Peter, as he stuffed the five one-dollar bills into his pocket. "Good night."

"Good night, Peter," said Daddy.

About two weeks before Christmas, Daddy said, "Mr. Ferguson says we can spend Christmas in his cabin."

"Oh, Daddy!" cried Peter and Penny in one breath. "That's wonderful!" And Peter's eyes twinkled when he looked at Daddy.

"Would you like it, Mother?" asked Daddy.

"I would like nothing better," replied Mother. "You know how I love the cabin."

"How long can we stay?" asked Penny.

"Just over the weekend," replied Daddy.

"Where will we have our Christmas tree?" asked Penny.

"I think it would be best to have it here," said Daddy. "We can trim it before we go and it will be here when we get back."

"Oh, Daddy!" cried Penny. "Couldn't Peter and I trim the tree ourselves this year?"

"What do you think of that, Mother?" asked Daddy.

"I don't see any reason why not," said Mother.

"Oh, goodie!" cried Penny. "Shall we let Patsy help?"

"Sure," said Peter.

A few days before Christmas, Peter, Penny,
and Daddy went out and bought a Christmas tree. Daddy put it in the living-room alcove where it would be out of the way. It was a bushy tree but it only reached halfway to the ceiling. Daddy said that was big enough because they were going to trim it themselves.

Two days before Christmas, the boys carried the boxes of Christmas tree balls downstairs from the attic.

Penny telephoned to Patsy and Patsy came over to help trim the tree. Tootsie came with her. By this time, Tootsie was just like Mary's little lamb. She followed Patsy wherever she went.

"Hello, Patsy!" the two boys called out when Patsy came into the house.

"Hello!" replied Patsy, walking into the living room. "Isn't it exciting to trim the Christmas tree? Daddy and Mother won't let me help with our Christmas tree. But they said maybe I could next year. Anyway, I'm going to help trim yours now."

The boys patted Tootsie and then she settled her great self down before the open fire.

"Well, now!" said Penny. "Here are the boxes of balls and here are the tree hooks and here are the packages of silver. Look, it looks just like spiderwebs when you put it on the tree."

"Hey!" cried Peter. "Don't put it on now, Penny. It goes on last. After all the balls are on."

"I know. I was just showing Patsy," said Penny.

"Now, be careful of those balls, Patsy," said Peter. "Don't break any."

"All right," replied Patsy, as she lifted a box off the top of the pile and put it on the seat of a nearby chair. "I'll be careful."

Penny lifted the lid of a box and uncovered twelve beautiful red balls. He put a hook through the little tin loop on each ball and hung them on the tree. At the same time, Peter was hanging striped balls.

The balls that Patsy was hanging were silver. When she looked at them, she could see her own face. Only it was a funny Patsy face. The side of the ball made her face look very broad and her cheeks stuck out on each side like a chipmunk with nuts in its cheeks. Patsy got the giggles.

"Stop giggling, Patsy," said Penny. "You'll break a ball if you're not careful."

"I'm being careful," said Patsy.

Peter's next box of balls looked like brightly

painted tops, while Penny's were red bells. They tinkled when he shook them.

Patsy finished hanging her silver balls and picked up the next box. When she lifted the lid, there were twelve golden reindeer.

"Be very careful of those reindeer," said Penny. "They're very special."

"I am careful," said Patsy, as she hung a reindeer on a branch of the Christmas tree.

"Say! It's beginning to look nice!" said Penny. And he flopped himself down on the nearest chair. Immediately, there was the crunching sound of breaking Christmas tree balls. Penny's eyebrows flew up in surprise as he lifted himself out of the chair. There, on the seat of the chair, was a broken box and six crushed balls.

"Oh, Penny!" cried Patsy and Peter together. "Look what you did!"

"I didn't see the box on the chair," said Penny.

"Well, you should have looked," said Peter. "That was the box I was using. Now look at them! Just look at them! Nothing but crumbles."

"I'm sorry," said Penny.

"Well, you have to be more careful," said Peter. "Look out there, Patsy! You nearly dropped an angel."

Penny gathered up the crumpled cardboard box and the crumbled glass and threw all of it into the fireplace.

The tree was beginning to look very lovely but there was still a long way to go before it would be finished. Peter stood off and admired it. "It's going to look awfully pretty," he said.

Penny picked up another box of balls. He removed the lid and began to hang golden stars on the tree.

"I'm thirsty," said Peter. "I'm going to get a glass of milk."

"So am I," said Penny. "Come on, Patsy, let's get a glass of milk."

The three children traipsed out to the kitchen. Minnie poured out three glasses of milk and the children returned to the living room. They each carried a glass of milk in one hand and a cookie in the other.

"Now, don't sit on any balls," said Peter.

They all sat down without sitting on any balls. They sat munching their cookies and drinking their milk and admiring the Christmas tree.

"I'm going to get another cookie," said Peter, putting his glass on a small table.

"Bring me another, too," said Penny. "And one for Patsy."

"Okay!" replied Peter, as he left the room.

Tootsie, who had been asleep in front of the fireplace, got up and followed Peter to the door of the living room. There, just inside of the door, she lay down.

In a few moments, Peter came back with the cookies. As he passed Tootsie, he tripped over her big paw. Peter didn't fall but he kept right on tripping and he tripped all the way through the living room and headed right for the alcove and the Christmas tree.

Penny and Patsy sat watching this performance in amazement. It didn't seem possible that Peter was going to crash into the Christmas tree. But he went right on tripping, straight into the alcove. And then,
Crash!,
down came the tree, balls, Peter, cookies, and all.

The children were so surprised that they were speechless. Peter lay on the floor, not knowing exactly what had happened.

Just then, Daddy appeared in the doorway.

"Great snakes!" he cried. "What is going on?"

When he saw Peter lying under the Christmas tree, he couldn't help laughing. This made Patsy and Penny laugh, too.

"I don't think it is funny," muttered Peter from under the tree. And then Peter did something that he hardly ever did. He began to cry.

"Oh, come!" said Daddy, picking up the tree. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"No," said Peter, "but I made such an awful mess of the Christmas tree. Look at all of the balls I broke."

Daddy stood the tree upright. By a miracle, there were still a lot of balls that had not broken.

Peter brought the dustpan and brush and swept up the broken balls. Every once in a while he had to wipe away a tear.

The children finished the tree by dinnertime. Not once did anyone say, "Be careful. Don't drop the Christmas tree balls."

The following day, Daddy and Mother, Peter and Penny left for the cabin. Peter sat in the back of the car in the midst of packages of all sizes and shapes. There were also boxes and the big picnic basket, bulging with everything for Christmas dinner.

The ride up into the mountains was very different from the last time. Now, in place of the yellow, orange, pink, and red of the leaves, the bare branches of the trees showed gray against the paler gray sky. They passed brown fields with patches of snow, left over from the last snowstorm. The only bright color was the green of the fields sown with winter wheat.

"That sky looks full of snow," said Daddy. "We'll probably have snow before morning."

"Oh, goodie!" cried Penny.

"I hope so!" said Peter.

Sure enough, by the time they reached the cabin, it was snowing very hard.

"Oh, I hope I am going to get those skis I asked for," said Peter, looking at a very long package that stuck way up inside of the car.

"No fair guessing," said Daddy. "You are supposed to be looking out of the window, Peter."

Peter laughed. "All right," he said.

When they drove up to the cabin, the roof and the steps and the pine trees looked as though they had been dusted freely with powdered sugar. The snow was falling so hard that it hid the lake from view.

"Now, you wait here a few minutes," said Daddy, "while I unlock the door and light the fire."

Daddy got out of the car and took some bags out of the back. He carried them up the steps and went into the cabin. In a few minutes, smoke was curling out of the chimney.

When Daddy returned to the car, he said, "Come on, now. The fire is burning."

Peter, Penny, and Mother got out of the car. With their arms filled with bundles and boxes, they paraded up the path to the cabin. When they reached the door, there, hanging on the doorknob, was a great big Christmas card. It said, "Love and a Merry Christmas to Mother, from Daddy and the boys."