The Christmas Dinner | Page 3

that, we raced down to the crossroads to see if the
postman had brought any mail.
Oh, yes, GERTRUDE agrees, and you tripped and fell down in the
snow drift, and oh, grandfather, you ought to have seen him when he
got up; he was a sight. But it all brushed off.
And don't you feel tired after doing all that? GRANDMOTHER asks.
No, says GERTRUDE, I'm not a bit tired; are you, Walter?
Not a bit, says WALTER.
Well, that's the beauty of being young, GRANDMOTHER says, in a
tired sort of voice. I suppose that when I was your age, I was just the
same as you children are now.
How long is it since you were our age? WALTER asks.
So many years, says GRANDMOTHER, that I haven't time to count
them up. But I can remember it all clearly enough, even if it was so
long ago. Everything about it was very different then from the way it is
now.
How was it different, grandmother? asks GERTRUDE.
Why, in all sorts of ways, GRANDMOTHER answers. For one thing,
the days seemed ever so much shorter when I was a little girl.

And the nights, adds GRANDFATHER. Nowadays the nights are
sometimes quite long, but when I was a boy they were so short, that it
almost seemed as though there weren't any nights at all.
And food used to taste quite different then, says GRANDMOTHER. I
used to care a lot more for breakfast and dinner and supper then than I
do now.
Grandfather, asks WALTER, do you wish that you could have stayed
on being a little boy, always?
Well, I don't know, Walter, GRANDFATHER replies thoughtfully;
there are two sides to that. I'll tell you what I would like, though. I'd
like to be a little boy now and then, just for a short time, to see once
more how it would feel to run and shout and play and eat and laugh, the
way I used to. But then I think I'd pretty soon want to be myself again,
old as I am, because there are some grand things about old age that I
think I'd miss if I had to be a little boy for good and all. A good many
wonderful things happen to you when you grow old, and even if my old
body does get pretty tired sometimes, and you children think perhaps
that grandfather looks very stupid, sitting so quiet by the fire-side here,
I'm often thinking, inside, of splendid things that little boys and girls
don't know anything about.
But, grandfather, says GERTRUDE, tell us some more things that were
different when you were a boy.
Well, let me see, GRANDFATHER says, and stops for a moment to
think. Then he goes on. There were the brownies. I haven't said
anything about them, have I?
The brownies? exclaims WALTER, his eyes big with interest. What
about the brownies?
Only that when I was a little boy, answers GRANDFATHER, I used to
see the brownies sometimes. But now I never see them. It's many a
long year since I caught sight of a single one.
Where did you used to see them? asks WALTER, still excited.
Right here in this room, answers GRANDFATHER. There used to be
two of them, when I was a boy; and often I would see them, though
none of the grown-up people could see them at all. During the daytime
they used often to hide in the wood-box over there: and then at night,
they used to come out and play. And sometimes they worked, too, for I
can remember my father saying sometimes in the morning, "The floor

looks so clean that I think the brownies must have swept it last night."
But, Grandfather, says WALTER, for there is one thing about this that
puzzles him, I'm a little boy, and I've never seen the brownies.
No, not yet, GRANDFATHER admits, but I think you're likely to any
time now. You see, they don't show themselves to very little boys, for
fear of frightening them.
GERTRUDE, who has been listening carefully to all of this, has a
question to ask. Grandmother, she says, did you see the brownies, too,
when you were a little girl?
No, indeed, answers GRANDMOTHER. The brownies never wanted
any girls to see them. But I used to see the house-fairies often, and they
always hid away from the boys, so that only we girls ever saw them.
How many house-fairies were there, Grandmother, asks GERTRUDE
eagerly, and where did you see them, and what did they do?
My, what a lot of questions! GRANDMOTHER says, smiling at
Gertrude's excitement. There were two of them at our house, and they
lived in the kitchen just as the brownies did here.