A MERRY CHRISTMAS

Shirley’s Shop was a success. The four girls had made it so. All their friends, who heard of their efforts, came to buy gifts.

“Aren’t we lucky!” exclaimed Bet. “Everybody has been so good!”

“I didn’t know I had so many friends in the world,” said Shirley with moisture in her eyes. “I wish I could pass it on to others.”

“How can that be done?” asked Joy.

“Well, there are so many men out of work this year that I’m sure we could find lots of people to help. I hate to think of children being disappointed at Christmas.”

“Why can’t we have a tree, right here in the shop and have all the children come and get their presents?”

“That idea’s not a total loss, for a wonder, Joy. It shows a good heart but very little head-work,” answered Bet.

“Why, Bet Baxter, what’s the matter now? Why all the kitty-cat stuff! Take it back!”

“Well, I just hate that kind of a Christmas tree. Showing up the poor little things as being too poor to have one of their own.”

“What’s your idea, then?” challenged Joy.

“I want the little kiddies to wake up on Christmas morning and find a tree at home and their stockings filled to overflowing.”

“Yes, and to know that their eyes will get bigger and bigger, and they’ll even peep under the bed to make sure that Santa isn’t hiding there,” Shirley added.

“That would be a real Christmas,” agreed Kit.

“But where will our fun come in? Don’t we see their eyes getting big and bigger, or anything? I think that will spoil it all. I want to see them get their toys, put them right into their hands,” pouted Joy.

“That’s all right, Joy Evans. But what about their faith in Santa Claus? If Santa Claus doesn’t come when their Dad is out of work, what will they think of a saint like that, I’d like to know?” exclaimed Bet.

“So we’ve got to save the reputation of Santa Claus, is that it?” asked Joy.

“That’s one way of saying it. Although I would rather put it, that we are playing Santa Claus.”

“Right-O!” cried Kit. “What’s the first thing to do, General?” Kit stood at salute before Bet.

“We’ll go down to the Chamber of Commerce and find out from Mrs. Keith what needy families there are and what ones we will supply. By the way, Shirley, can we use the back room for the toys we collect?”

“Why certainly, girls, you know you don’t have to ask. And you can count on Mrs. Lester giving us a lot of things for very small children. She said the other day that the nursery was full and she wished she knew some children who needed things.”

“I’ll dress four dolls,” promised Kit. “In that way I can indulge my passion for dolls and not be laughed at.”

“Why Kit Patten, would you play with dolls? I’ve always hated them, used to crack their heads against a stone to see their eyes jump out,” confessed Joy.

“Why you cruel monster!” cried Shirley. “I always loved dolls, but I had my baby sisters to take care of so I never had much time.”

“Now I’ll confess!” laughed Bet. “I have a doll trunk under my bed where it can’t be seen, and sometimes when I am all alone, I still play with them.”

“Aren’t you girls funny!” teased Joy. “And you in the first year of high school!”

“Kit,” suddenly asked Bet, “will you act as secretary for the Merriweather Girls Helpful Aid Society and keep track of what we all must do?”

“I’m so busy, girls; will you let me buy trees and ornaments, for my share?” asked Shirley.

“Oh, that’s fine. All right, put it down, Kit. And I will be on the committee to beg old toys. And we’ll all get to work and make repairs. I have a dandy scooter bike, but it needs paint.”

A few days later they had a list of needy ones. “Oh, here’s a nice big family for us,” cried Bet. “It’s Mrs. Ryan down by the tracks. She has nine children, and listen to the names: Emmelina, Francis Drake oh, girls, isn’t it a scream! Next comes Orlando, then Amarylis, Ronald, Marcel, Babette, Ernestine and Vivienne.”

“Heaven help us! And do we have to get gifts to live up to those names? Why diamonds and pearls would be too common for such people.” Joy threw both hands in the air as a sign of distress.

“Never mind, Joy. I think the little Ryans will deign to accept a stocking full of sweets and things like jumping jacks. Dad thinks we ought to give out some of the repair work to men who are out of jobs. He says he’ll help pay for it as his share. Dad has a good bicycle which I’m sure a man can fix up.”

“Let’s put a sign in the window, ‘Man wanted for repair work on toys,’” said the quiet Shirley.

“Might be better to put ’for odd job’,” laughed Kit.

Bet took a piece of drawing paper and pencilled the sign at once. It read:

“Man wanted for repair work on toys. Apply Saturday morning at 11 o’clock.”

The sign was put in the window on Friday after school, and before the girls were well inside their shop on Saturday the first applicant arrived.

“I see you want a man to work!”

“Oh, but you weren’t to call before eleven o’clock.”

“Sure, I know that, but what chance would a fellow have to wait that long? Everybody wants work.”

“All right, take a look at that bicycle and see if you can find out what’s the matter with it.” Bet led the way to the rear room.

“It looks like a pretty good bicycle, Miss. But it’s hard to say whether it can be fixed or not. A blacksmith might tell you!”

Just then the door of the shop opened and another man entered.

“I see the ad. in the window; I want to talk to the boss.”

Shirley ran for Bet who was still interviewing the first comer, and shoved her toward the door. “You talk to him, Bet.”

“Good morning, sir,” said Bet.

“I want to talk to the boss.”

“I’m the boss.”

The man glared at her with an angry look. She saw that he did not believe her and imagined that she was making fun of him.

“When I want to see the boss, that’s who I want to see!” he muttered.

A third man appeared and the second turned on him. “Say, can’t you read? That sign says eleven o’clock! Now git out!”

“I’ll not get out. Where’s the boss?”

By this time the girls were frightened at the threatening attitude of the men. Joy was almost hysterical with fear.

“I’m the only boss there is here,” said the second visitor, doubling up his fists as if prepared to fight.

Bet came toward the two men. “I don’t want either of you men to work for me. Will you please go away?”

A small crowd of men was collecting outside the door and Bet was afraid. She went toward the back room, hoping to be able to enlist the help of the one she had been talking to. Just as she did so, the door was thrust open, and Bet, shoving the other girls in front of her, exclaimed in a whisper, “What will we do?”

But as she turned at the door, she saw a tall figure, who grabbed the ruffian by the collar and invited him outside.

“Oh it’s Phil!” exclaimed Bet hysterically. “Now we’re all right!”

After Phil had persuaded the men in the crowd to leave, he returned to the room to find the first caller making ready to go. “I don’t know anything about bicycles. Anyway it’s steady work I want. There’s no money in odd jobs.”

“What under the sun is it all about?” demanded Phil anxiously as more men began to collect.

“We put a sign in the window asking for a man to help on the repair work!” said Bet.

“Then get it out as quick as you can. You’ll have a line here soon.”

“How are we going to get someone to help, then? Dad thought it would be a good idea to hire men who are out of work.”

“He probably expected you to call up the Chamber of Commerce and get a man. They know everybody who needs work.”

“Oh dear, what a lot of things one has to learn when they go into business!” mused Kit. “I thought we were doing just right.”

That afternoon the bicycle was being repaired by old Bill Colby, a fine old man who lived with his invalid wife in a small shack on the back street. He took such pride in his work that the bicycle looked like new when he finished it. And the pay warmed his heart. The girls were generous.

During the next two weeks, the back room of Shirley’s Shop looked as if there had been a revolution in toyland. Dolls without heads, others without arms or legs, eyeless ones, big and little were strewn about the room, while doll carriages minus wheels, kiddie cars, battered and streaked, awaited the skillful hand of the old man.

One afternoon shortly before Christmas as he was leaving Bet said, “We will have a Christmas package to send down to Mrs. Colby.”

The old man’s face flushed with pleasure. “Mother is bedfast with rheumatism,” he said, “and it would do her a power of good if you would run in and see her sometime. She’ll like the present too, but she gets very lonely.”

“There Joy, there’s your chance to do personal work. You can go and call on Ma Colby and see her eyes shine.”

“I’ll just do that. I want to be Lady Bountiful but I also want to get some thrill out of giving,” laughed Joy.

“All right, there’s your chance.”

The report that they were going to give out toys soon got around, and the day before Christmas Mrs. Ryan appeared leading four of her children. “I just came in to say that Emmelina needs a new dress, worst way, and Orlando must have shoes.”

“I’m very sorry,” replied Bet. “You see we are giving out only toys. You should go down to the Chamber of Commerce, they are attending to the clothing.”

Mrs. Ryan looked disappointed. “Lots of people pretend they need help when they don’t. The Nestors next door to me, they don’t need it at all. They have plenty. And I’m a worthy object. Mr. Ryan has been out of work considerable this year.”

The girls looked their sympathy but could do nothing. “You go down to the Chamber of Commerce,” they advised.

In a few minutes after she had left, another woman called. “I just come in to see if you could get my little Mike an overcoat. He needs one terrible. He gets that cold!”

Again Bet referred the woman to the Chamber of Commerce, and as she left, she whispered, “There are some people who apply for help who don’t need it at all. There’s Mrs. Ryan next door to me. She gets plenty. And my Mike needs a coat.”

The girls laughed long and merrily over the two women. They called Mrs. Keith at the Chamber of Commerce and had a further laugh over the recital of the efforts of the two women to see who would get the most.

At last everything was ready and the girls waited patiently for the Shop to close. Phil and Bob arrived with two cars to take the things to the different houses.

As they stopped the car a little way down the street from Mrs. Ryan’s and approached the gate with their arms full, they heard the loud voice of that woman calling over the back fence, “I’ve got two Christmas trees already, I’ll sell you one cheap. You can have it for fifty cents.”

“Indeed and I’ll not give you fifty cents for it, Mrs. Ryan, I’ll not give you twenty-five cents for it.”

“I know where I can sell it for sixty cents, Mrs. Nestor.”

“Then that’s where you should sell it.”

“Being as it’s you, Mrs. Nestor, I’ll give you the tree for fifteen cents.”

“Does that mean ornaments, too?”

“Ornaments,” cried Mrs. Ryan. “I haven’t any ornaments to spare. Oranges and apples are plenty good for you.”

“Then I’ll only give you ten cents for it. Take it or leave it.”

“Ten cents! Why I’m ashamed of you, Mrs. Nestor, for being so close-fisted!”

“You took two trees! I’d like to know who’s close-fisted! Ten cents it is, Mrs. Ryan or nothing.”

“All right, Mrs. Nestor, but I must say I’m disappointed In you. I allus thought you were a good, kind neighbor.”

“Give me the tree! And here’s your ten cents! I have some ornaments left over from last year.”

“If she had only waited a little longer, she might have saved ten cents and got some ornaments as well,” laughed Phil, as Bet signalled him to put the tree back.

“It’s a good thing,” sighed Kit as they got into the car again, “that not all cases are like that. There was Mrs. Delaney, and how grateful she was for every little thing. By the way, they didn’t get a tree. This will just round out their Christmas in style.”

“I’m so glad that Hal Delaney got that bicycle of your father’s, Bet. He will put it to good use in delivering his papers.”

When the girls went to bed that night they felt they had earned their rest.

Shirley’s Shop had done remarkably well during the Christmas rush and all the girls were delighted. To Shirley it meant that she saw hope ahead of being able to finish High School and perhaps go on to college. She went to sleep that night dreaming of the rosy future that she painted for herself.

“And I’ll make it come true!” she declared, as she opened her eyes the next morning and found that the Shop and the bank account was not all a dream.