It was Christmas Day, and Toddy and Tita were alone
Papa and mamma had gone out West to see their big boy
who was ill. They had promised to be home for
Christmas, but a big snow had blocked the railroad
track, and nurse was afraid the train would
be delayed until the day after Christmas
What a dull Christmas for two little girls
all alone in the great city house, with only
the servants! They felt so lonely that nurse
let them play in the big drawing-room
instead of in the nursery, so they arranged
all the chairs in a row, and pretended it was a
snowed-up train. Tita was the conductor
and Toddy was the passengers. Just as they
were in the midst of it, they heard music
in the street, and, running to the window
they saw a little boy outside, singing
and beating a tambourine
"Why," said Tita, "his feet are all bare!"
"Dess he hanged up bofe stockin's an' his shoes, too," said Toddy.
"Let's open the window and ask him."
But the great window was too high to reach,
so they took papa's cane and pushed it tip
The little boy smiled, but they could not
hear what he said, so they told him to come in
and ran to open the big front door.
He was a little frightened at first,
but the carpet felt warm to his poor bare feet.
He told them that his name was Guido, and
that he had come from Italy, which is a
much warmer country than ours.
And that he was very poor, so poor
that he had no shoes, and had to go
singing from house to house for a few
pennies to get some dinner. And he was so hungry.
"Poor little boy!" said Tita.
"Our mamma is away, and we're having
a pretty sad Christmas, but we'll
try to make it nice for you."
So they played games, and Guido sang to them.
Then the folding doors rolled back, and
there was the dining-room and the table
all set, and Thomas, the black waiter,
smiling, just as if it had been a big dinner party.
Instead of two very little girls. Nurse said:
"Well, I never!" when she saw Guido,
but she felt so sorry for the lonely little
girls that she let him come to the table.
And such a dinner as he ate! He had never had
one like it before. "It is a fairy tale," he said.
Just as dessert came on, the door opened
and in rushed mamma and papa; the
train had gotten in, after all. They were
so glad to see their darlings happy instead of
moping that they gave them each some extra kisses.
You may be sure little Guido never
went hungry and barefoot after that.
Long afterward he would say: "That was
a fairy Christmas!" That night,
after Tita had said her prayers, she said:
"Mamma, I know something. Whenever
you feel sad and lonely, if you will just
ind somebody sadder and lonelier than
yourself and cheer them up, it will make you all right."
And I think that that was the very best kind
of a Christmas lesson of love. Don't you?