Fairy Prince and Other StoriesAbbott, Eleanor Hallowell
General
Fairy Prince and Other Stories
Abbott, Eleanor Hallowell
Children -- Fiction; Families -- Fiction; Villages -- Fiction
Christmas eve it snowed some more. It was beautiful. We were very much
excited. We clapped our hands. We stood at the window to see how white
the world was. I thought about the wise men's camels. I wondered if
they could carry snow in their stomachs as well as rain. Mother said
camels were tropics and didn't know anything about snow. It seemed
queer.
A sleigh drove up to the door. There were three men in it. Two of them
got out. The first one was young Derry Willard. It was a fur coat that
he had on. He was full of bundles. My father gave one gasp.
"The--the impudent young--" gasped my father.
We ran to the door. The second man looked just exactly like young Derry
Willard except that he had on a gray beard and a gray slouch hat. He
looked like the picture of "a planter" in "Uncle Tom's Cabin." My father
and he took just one look at each other. And then suddenly they began to
pound each other on the back and to hug each other. "Hello, old top!"
they shouted. "Hello--hello--_hello_!" Derry Willard's father cried a
little. Everybody cried a little or shouted or pounded somebody on the
back except young Derry Willard and Rosalee. Young Derry Willard and
Rosalee just stood and looked at each other.
"Well--well--well!" said Derry Willard's father over and over and over.
"Twenty years! _Twenty_ years!" The front hall was full of bundles! We
fell on them when we stepped. And we fell on new ones when we tried to
get up. Whenever Derry Willard's father wasn't crying he was laughing!
"So this is the wife?" he said. "And these are the children? Which is
Rosalee? Ah! A very pretty girl! But not as pretty as your wife!" he
laughed. "Twenty years! _Twenty_ years!" he began all over again. "A bit
informal, eh? Descending on you like this? But I couldn't resist the
temptation after I'd seen Derry. We Southerners, you know! Our impulses
are romantic! Tuck us away anywhere! Or turn us out--if you must!"
My father was like a wild man for joy! He forgot all about everything
except "twenty years ago."
We had to put the two Mr. Derry Willards to bed in the parlor. There was
no other room. They insisted on sleeping with the Christmas tree. They
had camped under every kind of branch and twig in the world, they said.
But _never_ had they camped under a Christmas tree.
Father talked and talked and talked! Derry Willard's father talked and
talked and talked! It was about college! It was about girls! It was
about boys! It was about all sorts of pranks! Not any of it was about
studies! Mother sat and laughed at them!
Rosalee and young Derry Willard sat and looked at each other. Carol and
I played checkers. Everybody forgot us. I don't know who put me to bed.
When we came down-stairs the next morning and went into the parlor to
see the Christmas tree we _screamed_!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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