Chapter 2

'Merry Christmas to _you_, Sir,' replied the biggest boy, who was a very well-spoken lad, and looked as happy, though he made less noise than the rest. 'Merry Christmas--Merry Christmas,' was echoed from a number of little voices around him; and with another joyous shout, the motley group proceeded onwards through the village.

Mr. Mortimer now left his children, and proceeded also through the village where he had himself business to transact. The children went into the house to get their luncheon of bread and jam, and after the girls had rested themselves, their mother promised to take a stroll with them and their brothers round the garden and through the green-houses. At this time of year there was little to see; but still what little there was, was worth seeing, and a stroll with mamma was always a treat.

'What piles of shirts and round frocks! mamma,' said John, while they were eating their luncheon. 'And what numbers of frocks! why, you might set up a shop almost.'

'Cannot you guess what these frocks and shirts are all for?' said Harriet.

'I can,' said the quick little Frederick. 'They are for the children we saw in the lane just now; and they are to have them against Christmas.'

'You are right, Frederick,' replied his mother; 'and I have been taking the opportunity of this holiday of your sisters, to look them over and parcel them out.'

Just now the door opened, and a housemaid appeared with a large basket of shoes and stockings, and another with women's gowns and men's frocks.

'How pleased all the poor people will be, mamma!' said Elizabeth, taking up a gown from the basket; 'it is rather coarse cloth though, I think, mamma.'

'It would be very coarse for you to wear, Elizabeth,' replied Mrs. Mortimer, 'because you are born in a state of affluence, and therefore it is becoming that you should be drest according to the fortune of your papa. But to give fine garments to the poor would be no kindness to them, nor a fit manner of shewing our benevolence towards them.'

'I think papa is very good and kind, do not you, mamma?' said Harriet, looking very steadfastly at her mother.

'Your father has a great pleasure in benefiting any one it is in his power to serve, and is as you observe, Harriet, one of the kindest of men. But he does no more than his duty, and this he would himself tell you, in being a vigilant guardian over the necessities of his poor neighbours. Providence has placed a large fortune at his disposal; and one end of its being given, was, that he might clothe the naked and feed the hungry. Christmas would not be a time of much rejoicing to the poor, were not the rich to assist them in making it so: and I hope all my dear children, while they are enjoying themselves with every comfort and indulgence around them, will be rendered happier by reflecting that the inhabitants of every cottage in the village are rejoicing at the same time.'

'We shall not have a party on Christmas-day, shall we, mamma?' asked John.

'None, excepting our own family, John,' replied Mrs. Mortimer. 'I hope both your uncles will be with us, and your grandpapa and grandmamma have promised to come over from Cannon Hill. The Mortimers from Haversly too I expect, and these I think will complete our circle 'round the Christmas fire.

'Oh, I hope grandpapa will come,' said Frederick, 'because he has always such a number of battles and fighting stories to tell, and he is so droll besides.'

'And I am sure I hope uncle Philip will come,' said Elizabeth; 'for he is so fond of play, and jumping me up to the ceiling.'

'I think you are getting almost too big for this play,' said Mrs. Mortimer; 'and so uncle Philip would feel in his arms, I believe, were he to attempt to jump you now.'

'We shall all dine with you then, mamma, shall we not?' said Elizabeth; 'if there is no other company. You know they are relations, and are all fond of us children.'

'You shall all dine in the room, certainly,' said Mrs. Mortimer; 'but if the four young Mortimers come, I think some of you will be obliged to dine at the side table, but that none of you will mind.'

'Oh, we do not mind that at all, mamma,' said Harriet; 'but we had rather not have any of the Mortimers with us, for they are so rude and noisy, and papa always thinks that we make the noise; and I am sure it is always their fault, though we cannot help laughing at them.'

'You see, in the instance of your cousins, Harriet,' said Mrs. Mortimer, 'the disadvantage of never having any restraint put on little girl's educations. I myself have seen that they occasionally are boisterous and overbearing in their manners; but the fault is not their own. And, if you remember, one day when they were with us, without their own father and mother, they were as orderly and well-behaved as possible.--But will you never have finished your luncheon, Frederick?'

'I was so hungry, mamma,' replied the little boy; 'but I have done now: and now shall we go out again?'

'Did you call on nurse this morning?' said Mrs. Mortimer.

'No, mamma, I quite forgot her,' replied Frederick; 'but we will go now shall we, John, while mamma finishes sorting the things?'

'You must never forget her, my dear boy,' replied the tender mother; 'for without her care of you, when your own mother was too weak to attend to you, you would not have been the stout active boy you now are.'

'I hope you have a nice gown and petticoat for nurse, mamma?' said Frederick.

'She has not been forgotten,' replied Mrs. Mortimer; 'and you shall have the pleasure of carrying the bundle prepared for her yourself. There it is:--the cotton gown, and stuff petticoat, the shoes, stockings, and apron, lying together at the corner of the table.'

Frederick, with a little of his mother's assistance, soon made these separate articles into a bundle; and the two boys set off for Nurse Winscomb's cottage.

The stroll round the garden did not take place on that day; for the boys met their father returning from the cottage of the nurse, and he took them with him to call on a gentleman residing about two miles distant, and whose family were to be invited, with a few others, to meet together in the Christmas week. The young people were to be indulged with a little dance; and although neither John nor Frederick knew much about dancing, they were pleased at the idea of joining with those who did, and already began to talk over the little young ladies of the neighbourhood, and to settle with whom they would, and with whom they would not dance.

They came home quite tired, and only in time to have their dress changed before dinner. Harriet and Elizabeth thought they had been absent a long while, and on their return into the drawing-room, were ready with their smiling countenances to receive these dear boys.

The next morning after breakfast, Mr. Mortimer employed a few hours in examining his boys in the improvements they had made during the last half-year; for he had wisely resolved, for the comfort of the whole family, that the entire day was not to be given up to play. During this time, Harriet and Elizabeth were occupied with their mamma; and after this as the day continued bright, though cold, it was determined to put into effect the proposed stroll of yesterday. And first to the farm-yard, where the poultry-maid supplied them with corn: and with this enticement, the fowls and ducks were called together and numbered, and the various beauties of both enumerated. This speckled hen had been such a good mother, and a good handful of grain was tossed to her;--then the beautiful little bantam had been nursed in a stocking, and was so tame that it would come and eat out of the hand;--then there was the fine old cock that crowed so loud he might be heard all over the parish, and a handful was thrown to him;--then there was the young one which the old one drove about so, that it could get nothing to eat;--Harriet made his necessities her care: but it was useless to throw him any: for the old cock would not allow him to come near the grain.

'Nasty greedy fellow,' said Elizabeth, 'I am sure there is enough for all, but the young cock cannot get a morsel.'

'I believe we must get rid of him,' observed Mrs. Mortimer; 'for it is miserable to see him driven about so.'

'He is to be killed next, Madam,' answered the poultry-maid, who now approached with two fowls hanging from her hands, from which drops of blood were falling.

Mrs. Mortimer moved away with the children: for she saw that Harriet turned pale at the sight of the blood.

'I cannot think how Jane can kill the fowls, mamma,' said Elizabeth; 'I am sure I could not, if we never had any at all.'

'I should be very sorry if you could, my dear little girl, for there is no necessity for your doing it; and without conquering your feelings of tenderness, you never could acquire the resolution to do it. In Jane's situation it was necessary for her to habituate herself to an employment which devolves to her as the rearer of the poultry: but I assure you it was a long time before she could first bring herself to deprive those creatures of life which she had been accustomed to look after and feed. And even now I believe when she can meet with the gardener or groom, she most generally employs them.'

'Are there no ducks, mamma?' said Frederick: 'we used to have such a number.'

'There is your old favourite drake just stopping under the gate,' replied Mrs. Mortimer: 'and we will follow him into the field, for it is rather cold standing still.'

They then went into the field, and after that came round to the green-house, where the gardener was very busily employed in gathering some beautiful grapes.

'How nice and warm it is here,' said several of the children, on entering the house. The gardener then approached to ask the young gentlemen how they did, and to tell them how much they were grown, and to say that he hoped they would like the grapes. John and Frederick answered all the old man's questions with kindness and civility; and as the young party were leaving the green-house, he asked them whether they should not want some flowers and evergreens against their little dance?

'Oh yes, if you please, gardener,' was the ready and quick answer:--'we may, mamma, may we not?' said Harriet, looking up at her mother before she gave her reply.

'The gardener may give you what he can spare,' replied Mrs. Mortimer. 'And gardener,' added she, looking back towards the green-house, 'desire your grandson to go into the copses, and bring home a little cart of holly, that we may have the kitchen well ornamented, when the tenantry come to their dinner.'

'He shall be sure to do it, ma'am,' replied the gardener. 'I look we shall have a merry Christmas, and I do like to see the room well dressed up.'

As Tom, the gardener's grandson, was a steady, well-behaved lad, Mrs. Mortimer allowed John and Frederick to accompany him to the copses, in search of the holly. Harriet and Elizabeth would, no doubt, very much have liked to belong to the party also, but they were easily convinced of the propriety of their not doing so, and were therefore satisfied to see their brothers drive off with Tom Harding, and return in two or three hours afterwards, walking by the side of the little vehicle, which then appeared a moving shrub of red-berried holly.

On Christmas-day the expected party met round the hospitable dinner-table of Mr. Mortimer, having all of them arrived on the preceding day at the grove, excepting the other branch of the Mortimer family, who attended their own parish church in the morning, and did not arrive till the hour of dinner.

The children of the village school, all in their new clothes, and with a sprig of holly in their bosoms and button holes, walked from the church to the Grove; and there partook, as they had been invited to do, of beef and pudding, and good home-brewed beer. The young Mortimers waited upon them at dinner, and before they left the Lodge, presented them each with a plumb cake; and Mrs. Mortimer gave them each an amusing little book to read to themselves and their parents, who had not like themselves possessed the advantages of learning to read.

The family dinner party went off as happily as that in the kitchen. The young Mortimers all sat together at the side table, and their papa, had not once occasion to call them out for being noisy, though they were merry and cheerful enough. It was certainly true, as Harriet had said, that her cousins would be noisy; on this day, however, being dispersed amongst the party at the large table, they were very orderly and well-behaved; and after dinner, when the young people had had taken as much fruit as was good for them, they retired into their play-room together: they sat round the blazing fire there provided for them, very comfortably and happily, and without one word of dissension till they were again called back for tea into the drawing room.

The next day was the day appointed for the dinner of the tenantry, and busy indeed were the young Mortimers, in dressing up the Hall, and making it look smart and lively. A very large party assembled here to enjoy the squire's hospitable table, at which he himself presided; and the day after this, the labouring cottagers and their wives met in the same room at one o'clock, round a table well covered with meat pies, legs of mutton, roast beef, potatoes, and plum pudding. They brought with them those of their children, who were too young to be in the school: and, on this occasion, all the new round frocks, and cotton gowns were exhibited. Little Frederick led his nurse up to the head of the table, and was very attentive to her; and whenever her plate was empty, he took care that it should not remain long so.

This party went off as happily as the last; and two days after was to take place the little dance, so anxiously looked forward to, not only by the Mortimers, but by all the young people in the neighbourhood. The Wexfords came very early in the morning, to assist their young friends in preparing the ball-room: and the gardener had taken good care to provide plenty of shrubs and flowers, for the necessary decoration. Mrs. Mortimer lent her assistance where it was required, and she was only fearful that the children would tire themselves before the pleasure of the evening commenced; for Mr. Mortimer had now pronounced the sheet of water in the park sufficiently frozen to bear any weight that might be ventured on it; and he had given several village lads permission to slide there, and prepare it for the use of his own boys. He now called upon both his own lads, and the young Wexfords, to join him, and for John he had provided a pair of skates. John met with a great many tumbles, to the amusement, not only of himself, but of his companions; but he had no serious bruises, and soon jumped up and laughed at his own awkwardness. Frederick longed to try the skates out. Mr. Mortimer thought him too little to venture upon them, so that he was obliged to be satisfied with sliding. And very prettily he did slide, and very much did Elizabeth wish to slide with him; for she was indeed a merry little girl, besides being always desirous of doing every thing which she saw her brother Frederick engaged in. But mamma thought it not a very fit amusement for little girls; so Elizabeth joined Harriet and the Miss Wexfords in a run round the park, all of them occasionally returning to the ice, to see how the skaters and sliders went on.

The hour of dinner was a very early one on this day, for the evening party was to be an early one. The young people, with their papas and mammas began to assemble at a very unfashionable hour, as early indeed as seven o'clock, and by eight they were all dancing away very merrily. Dancing was kept up with great spirit till towards eleven, when there was a summons to supper. Another hour was spent in taking refreshments, and during this time there was much merriment, and many jokes passing round, as well amongst the elder part of the assembly, as in that with which we are more particularly interested. Soon after twelve the party began to separate;--all had appeared to be very well satisfied with the pleasure they had been enjoying;--every one seemed in high good-humour and glee; and all the young visitors, as well as the four Mortimers, joined in acknowledging that the dance had gone off very well indeed; and in pronouncing that certainly 'Christmas was a very happy time.'

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