EARLY in the autumn the Peterkins began to prepare for their Christmas-tree.
Everything was done in great privacy, as it was to be a surprise to the neighbors, as well as to the rest of the family.Mr.Peterkin had been up to Mr.
Bromwick's wood-lot, and, with his consent, selected the tree.
Agamemnon went to look at it occasionally after dark, and Solomon John made frequent visits to it mornings, just after sunrise.Mr.Peterkin drove Elizabeth Eliza and her mother that way, and pointed furtively to it with his whip; but none of them ever spoke of it aloud to each other.It was suspected that the little boys had been to see it Wednesday and Saturday afternoons.But they came home with their pockets full of chestnuts, and said nothing about it.
At length Mr.Peterkin had it cut down and brought secretly into the Larkin's barn.A week or two before Christmas a measurement was made of it with Elizabeth Eliza's yard-measure.To Mr.
Peterkin's great dismay it was discovered that it was too high to stand in the back parlor.
This fact was brought out at a secret council of Mr.and Mrs.
Peterkin, Elizabeth Eliza, and Agamemnon.
Agamemnon suggested that it might be set up slanting; but Mrs.
Peterkin was very sure it would make her dizzy, and the candles would drip.
But a brilliant idea came to Mr.Peterkin.He proposed that the ceiling of the parlor should be raised to make room for the top of the tree.
Elizabeth Eliza thought the space would need to be quite large.It must not be like a small box, or you could not see the tree.
"Yes," said Mr.Peterkin, "I should have the ceiling lifted all across the room; the effect would be finer."Elizabeth Eliza objected to having the whole ceiling raised, because her room was over the back parlor, and she would have no floor while the alteration was going on, which would be very awkward.Besides, her room was not very high now, and, if the floor were raised, perhaps she could not walk in it upright.
Mr.Peterkin explained that he didn't propose altering the whole ceiling, but to life up a ridge across the room at the back part where the tree was to stand.
This would make a hump, to be sure, in Elizabeth Eliza's room; but it would go across the whole room.
Elizabeth Eliza said she would not mind that.It would be like the cuddy thing that comes up on the deck of a ship, that you sit against, only here you would not have the sea-sickness.She thought she should like it, for a rarity.She might use it for a divan.
Mrs.Peterkin thought it would come in the worn place of the carpet, and might be a convenience in making the carpet over.
Agamemnon was afraid there would be trouble in keeping the matter secret, for it would be a long piece of work for a carpenter;but Mr.Peterkin proposed having the carpenter for a day or two, for a number of other jobs.
One of them was to make all the chairs in the house of the same height, for Mrs.Peterkin had nearly broken her spine by sitting down in a chair that she had supposed was her own rocking-chair, and it had proved to be two inches lower.The little boys were now large enough to sit in any chair; so a medium was fixed upon to satisfy all the family, and the chairs were made uniformly of the same height.
On consulting the carpenter, however, he insisted that the tree could be cut off at the lower end to suit the height of the parlor, and demurred at so great a change as altering the ceiling.But Mr.
Peterkin had set his mind upon the improvement, and Elizabeth Eliza had cut her carpet in preparation for it.
So the folding-doors into the back parlor were closed, and for nearly a fortnight before Christmas there was great litter of fallen plastering, and laths, and chips, and shavings; and Elizabeth Eliza's carpet was taken up, and the furniture had to be changed, and one night she had to sleep at the Bromwicks', for there was a long hole in her floor that might be dangerous.
All this delighted the little boys.They could not understand what was going on.
Perhaps they suspected a Christmas-tree, but they did not know why a Christmas-tree should have so many chips, and were still more astonished at the hump that appeared in Elizabeth Eliza's room.It must be a Christmas present, or else the tree in a box.
Some aunts and uncles, too, arrived a day or two before Christmas, with some small cousins.These cousins occupied the attention of the little boys, and there was a great deal of whispering and mystery, behind doors, and under the stairs, and in the corners of the entry.
Solomon John was busy, privately making some candles for the tree.He had been collecting some bayberries, as he understood they made very nice candles, so that it would not be necessary to buy any.
The elders of the family never all went into the back parlor together, and all tried not to see what was going on.Mrs.Peterkin would go in with Solomon John, or Mr.Peterkin with Elizabeth Eliza, or Elizabeth Eliza and Agamemnon and Solomon John.The little boys and the small cousins were never allowed even to look inside the room.
Elizabeth Eliza meanwhile went into town a number of times.She wanted to consult Amanda as to how much ice-cream they should need, and whether they could make it at home, as they had cream and ice.She was pretty busy in her own room; the furniture had to be changed, and the carpet altered.The "hump" was higher than she expected.There was danger of bumping her own head whenever she crossed it.She had to nail some padding on the ceiling for fear of accidents.
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But what were they to put upon the tree?
Solomon John had brought in his supply of candles; but they proved to be very "stringy" and very few of them.It was strange how many bayberries it took to make a few candles! The little boys had helped him, and he had gathered as much as a bushel of bayberries.He had put them in water, and skimmed off the wax, according to the directions; but there was so little wax!
