The Childrens Book of Christmas Stories | Page 9

she was all alone. She was very old,
and had brought up a great many children, and she was considered
remarkably wise.
But when the Aldermen reached her hut and found her seated by the
fire, holding her Black Cat, a new difficulty presented itself. She had
always been quite deaf and people had been obliged to scream as loud
as they could in order to make her hear; but lately she had grown much
deafer, and when the Aldermen attempted to lay the case before her she
could not hear a word. In fact, she was so very deaf that she could not
distinguish a tone below G-sharp. The Aldermen screamed till they
were quite red in the faces, but all to no purpose: none of them could
get up to G-sharp of course.

So the Aldermen all went back, swinging their gold-headed canes, and
they had another meeting in the City Hall. Then they decided to send
the highest Soprano Singer in the church choir to the Wise Woman; she
could sing up to G-sharp just as easy as not. So the high Soprano
Singer set out for the Wise Woman's in the Mayor's coach, and the
Aldermen marched behind, swinging their gold-headed canes.
The High Soprano Singer put her head down close to the Wise
Woman's ear, and sung all about the Christmas Masquerade and the
dreadful dilemma everybody was in, in G-sharp--she even went higher,
sometimes, and the Wise Woman heard every word.
She nodded three times, and every time she nodded she looked wiser.
"Go home, and give 'em a spoonful of castor-oil, all 'round," she piped
up; then she took a pinch of snuff, and wouldn't say any more.
So the Aldermen went home, and every one took a district and marched
through it, with a servant carrying an immense bowl and spoon, and
every child had to take a dose of castor-oil.
But it didn't do a bit of good. The children cried and struggled when
they were forced to take the castor-oil; but, two minutes afterward, the
chimney-sweeps were crying for their brooms, and the princesses
screaming because they couldn't go to court, and the Mayor's daughter,
who had been given a double dose, cried louder and more sturdily: "I
want to go and tend my geese. I will go and tend my geese."
So the Aldermen took the high Soprano Singer, and they consulted the
Wise Woman again. She was taking a nap this time, and the Singer had
to sing up to B-flat before she could wake her. Then she was very cross
and the Black Cat put up his back and spit at the Aldermen.
"Give 'em a spanking all 'round," she snapped out, "and if that don't
work put 'em to bed without their supper."
Then the Aldermen marched back to try that; and all the children in the
city were spanked, and when that didn't do any good they were put to

bed without any supper. But the next morning when they woke up they
were worse than ever.
The Mayor and Aldermen were very indignant, and considered that
they had been imposed upon and insulted. So they set out for the Wise
Woman again, with the high Soprano Singer.
She sang in G-sharp how the Aldermen and the Mayor considered her
an impostor, and did not think she was wise at all, and they wished her
to take her Black Cat and move beyond the limits of the city.
She sang it beautifully; it sounded like the very finest Italian opera
music.
"Deary me," piped the Wise Woman, when she had finished, "how very
grand these gentlemen are." Her Black Cat put up his back and spit.
"Five times one Black Cat are five Black Cats," said the Wise Woman.
And directly there were five Black Cats spitting and miauling.
"Five times five Black Cats are twenty-five Black Cats." And then
there were twenty-five of the angry little beasts.
"Five times twenty-five Black Cats are one hundred and twenty-five
Black Cats," added the Wise Woman with a chuckle.
Then the Mayor and the Aldermen and the high Soprano Singer fled
precipitately out the door and back to the city. One hundred and
twenty-five Black Cats had seemed to fill the Wise Woman's hut full,
and when they all spit and miauled together it was dreadful. The
visitors could not wait for her to multiply Black Cats any longer.
As winter wore on and spring came, the condition of things grew more
intolerable. Physicians had been consulted, who advised that the
children should be allowed to follow their own bents, for fear of injury
to their constitutions. So the rich Aldermen's daughters were actually
out in the fields herding sheep, and their sons sweeping chimneys or
carrying newspapers; and