Chapter XIV: The Glory of the Tree

It was the day before Christmas Eve.

Though the time had gone slowly to Noel, Christmas had come at last.

The house was full of the chatter of the children. Chris had come home from school the previous evening, and he was in the best of spirits, for he was head of his form, and his report was a very good one.

It seemed as if it were going to be a real old-fashioned Christmas. There was hard frost and bright sun.

Directly after breakfast Mrs. Inglefield suggested that they should all go to the woods, and bring home some evergreens and holly.

"Take the wheelbarrow. General Herbert said you could cut as much as you like in the nearest wood. I dare say you will find Mr. Wargrave and his helpers there getting some green for decorating the church. I wish I could come with you, but I am too busy."

"Oh, Mums, when, when shall my tree be brought in?" Noel was in such a state of excitement that he could hardly contain himself.

"This afternoon, darling. You must wait till then. I have asked Foster to come round and dig it up."

A few moments later and the three children were out on the hard, frosty road wheeling their barrow along and talking hard as they went.

"Inez is going to have a party," Diana told Chris; "her father and mother have let her ask who she likes. I wouldn't have them for my father and mother for worlds! They never go about with her or have her with them, but Inez says they're nicer to her than they used to be. I think she isn't so disagreeable herself. She's going to have a conjurer at her party. It will be like our London parties, Chris. It is going to be on New Year's Eve, and we are all asked, and Ted is asked, too, and he's so much better that he can sit up now, and stand on his feet sometimes."

"But Inez's party won't be as good as mine," burst out Noel; "mine is going to be to-morrow night, and everybody is coming to it."

"Oh, we've heard of nothing but your Christmas tree for ever so long," said Diana a little impatiently. "Fancy, Chris! He has asked nearly all the village children, and Foster's little boy, and the baker's little girls, and ever so many people that he speaks to, and whom we don't know at all."

"I know them," said Noel stoutly.

"I hope you'll have presents for them all," said Chris.

Noel looked a little anxious.

"Mums says we shall, and I've bought ever so many with Granny's money."

"He keeps them hidden away in a box under his bed," said Diana.

"Yes," nodded Noel, "Mums and me are going to do it ourselves in secret."

He began to caper up and down. Diana tried to sober him.

"Nurse says you'll be ill of excitement if you don't take care. She said to Mrs. Tubbs that she knew a boy who got so excited that he had fits."

"What are fits?" asked Noel.

"You fall down and bite your tongue in half, and go black in the face!" said Chris cheerfully. "A chap at school did that once, and he had to be sent home for good."

But nothing could damp Noel's spirits.

When they came to the wood, they found others before them there. Mr. Wargrave had half a dozen of his choir-boys, and they were all as busy as they could be.

Noel was very interested in the decoration of the church. He asked Mr. Wargrave if he could help in it, and before he returned home he went into the church with the young vicar.

"It's for Jesus' birfday, isn't it? He'll like His house to look pretty."

"Yes," answered Mr. Wargrave. "I don't believe in decorating our own houses, and leaving God's house untouched."

Noel stood looking at the holly and evergreens which had been put together in a heap at the bottom of the church.

And then a gardener appeared with some white flowers from the Hall. Lady Alice had sent them. The vicar received them with much pleasure.

"I wish," said Noel, "that I could give something of my own to Jesus for His birfday. He likes things that grow, doesn't He?"

Then an idea struck him, and he darted away through the churchyard gate into their own garden. There he found Foster sweeping up the leaves on the paths.

"Thought I'd come a bit earlier and tidy-up for Christmas. I'm a-goin' to dig up your tree, Master Noel, this afternoon."

Noel did not hear him. He was standing in front of his tree talking to it earnestly:

"Your grand day is nearly here, you know, and very soon you'll be the most important person in the house, but I reely fink a part of you must be a birfday present to Jesus. You'd like to be right in God's house, wouldn't you? Just a bit of you, it's only like having your hair cut. It won't reely hurt you."

Then he called out to Foster to come and help him. But when Foster heard that he wanted to cut off one of the branches, he shook his head.

"Don't 'ee do it, Master Noel, 'twill spoil the look of it. You wouldn't go for making it just a guy, when it's grown so nice all round."

"It's to go into the church," said Noel firmly. "Mr. Wargrave is putting all the nicest holly and flowers there, and my Chris'mas tree would like to be there, too. Not the whole of him, only a bit."

So after some further discussion a branch was cut off, and Noel bore it into the church with a mixture of reverence and pride in his heart.

If it had been a casket of gold or of precious stones, it could not have been given into the vicar's hands with more solemnity of purpose.

"It's my darling tree. He wants a bit of himself to be in church. It's a present for Jesus."

And Mr. Wargrave understood in a moment, and though there was a murmur amongst his helpers, "Not that ugly old branch," he hushed them at once, and with his own hands arranged the branch in the middle of the pulpit.

Noel looked at it there with a smile all over his face, and then he trotted home to his dinner, but never said a single word to anyone of what he had done.

The event of that day was the carrying of the fir tree into the house. It was dug up carefully, and then put into a big pot, Noel watching the process throughout with big anxious eyes. The drawing-room had been emptied of its furniture, and Mrs. Inglefield and Noel were the only ones allowed to go inside.

It was enough to make any small boy feel important, for he and his mother were going to trim the tree themselves, and it took a long time to do it. Only a very little was done on this afternoon, and then the room was locked up until the next day.

Mrs. Inglefield had noticed that a branch was missing, and Noel's explanation had brought a smile to her face.

"A very nice thought, my boy. We shall like to see it in church on Christmas Day."

There seemed so much to do that day that time flew. The children put holly and ivy and mistletoe all over the house, even twining it round the banisters of the staircase.

When Christmas Eve came, Chris and Diana went up to the nursery to get their presents ready for Noel, and their mother and the servants. Noel went into the drawing-room with his mother, and was not seen for the whole morning. When he appeared at dinner, he said triumphantly:

"It is finished, and it looks glorious!"

But when Noel was not looking Mrs. Inglefield slipped into the room and put a few finishing touches to the tree. At half-past four the children were receiving their guests.

There was a big tea laid out in the nursery. The Vicar, Ted and Inez were the chief guests. But just before they sat down Miss Constance and her husband appeared. They had driven over in a car from their house, which was twenty-five miles away, but Noel had written in his own handwriting asking them to come, and they did not disappoint him.

Then Tom Thorn, his wife, and little boy arrived, the postman, the baker, who was a widower, brought his three little girls, and there were about a dozen other children, eight of them choir-boys.

Altogether there were thirty guests, including the three children. Noel felt he was master of the ceremonies, but to his brother's and sister's surprise, he suddenly turned shy. And during tea, he spoke to nobody. His excitement was so great that he could hardly eat, and it left him speechless.

Mrs. Inglefield called Mr. Wargrave out of the room directly after tea. They were going to light up the tree, but Noel's quick eyes spied them and he slipped out after them.

"I must see it all, Mums, from the very beginning," he said.

It was a magnificent tree. To Noel it seemed the most wonderful sight he had seen in his life, and when the candles were ablaze, and it glittered and shone through all its frosted tinsel and finery, he simply stood still gazing at it with open eyes and mouth.

"It's as good, better, much better than the picture books, Mums," he gasped. "Why, it is good enough to be in heaven!"

"Run and bring your guests in," said his mother, smiling. "We want them to get all the good of the candles when they are lighted."

So Noel ran upstairs, and down trooped the merry throng. Soon Mrs. Inglefield and the vicar were cutting the presents off the tree. Every one had been provided for, and Noel trotted round and round, giving all of them their gifts.

Mrs. Inglefield made a little speech.

"This is entirely my little boy's idea," she said; "he bought the tree early last spring, and has taken the greatest care of it ever since. And a great many of the presents have been bought with his own money. We wish you a very happy Christmas, and hope that you will enjoy it with all your hearts."

Then all the children clapped vociferously.

"Well," said Noel, going up to Chris and Diana, who were in one corner together, "what do you think of my Chris'mas tree now?"

It was the only bit of triumph he showed that evening. Chris and Diana meekly said:

"It's one of the best Christmas trees we have ever seen."

And every one agreed with them.

Chris received a box of fretwork tools, Diana a beautiful leather manuscript book with clasps, and Noel, to his surprise, a big paint-box. These, they discovered, were given to them by Miss Constance. Their mother's presents were kept till Christmas Day.

The only sad part of the evening to Noel was when the candles were put out, and the tree stood there stripped of most of its finery and looking very forlorn. He lingered on in the room after the others had left it.

His mother understood the wistful look in his eyes.

"We must let him rest here all to-morrow, darling," she said, "and then the next day Foster will take him out into the garden, and put him back into his own corner. He will be quite happy there, and we'll hope that next Christmas, he may give us this pleasure again. I expect he will be much bigger then."

Noel brightened up a little.

"I wish he could have stayed lighted up for ever. Don't you think he was much more beautiful than Hans Andersen's tree, Mums?"

"I daresay he was," said his mother, laughing. "Now run along, I am going to lock this room up again."

"Well, Cherub," said Miss Constance to Noel as she was wishing him good-bye, "has this quite come up to your expectations? I have never come across a small boy before who grew his own Christmas tree. I think it quite a good idea. Perhaps I had better start doing it. What do you think? Anyhow, you've managed to give us all a lot of pleasure. I really don't see that you'll have any left for Christmas Day, we have had it all beforehand."

"But to-morrow is my birfday," said Noel; "and it's Jesus Christ's birfday too. That's the enormous day to me."

"Is it? I thought the tree was the biggest thing in your life."

Noel pondered.

"So it is," he said, "but it's only because it belongs to it."

Miss Constance laughed, then she said:

"I'm afraid I shan't be able to get over to your church to-morrow. I must go to my own, so I wish you now, darling Cherub, very many happy returns of your birthday. I'm sure you'll have a happy day. I envy you."

She embraced him, with a smile on her lips and a sigh in her heart.

"One ought to be a child at Christmas time!"

Inez left the party very reluctantly.

"I wish I could spend Christmas Day here," she said to Ted, who was sitting in his chair in the hall waiting to be wheeled away by his brother.

"Oh, that wouldn't do at all," Ted said cheerfully: "Christmas is a family day. We all like to be in our own homes then. I know I do, though we aren't many in family."

"I shall spend it in the nursery with Julia. Father and mother are dining out, and if I go down to lunch with them, I shan't be able to talk—they always do the talking, and if I join in, they tell me to be quiet. Julia is always her crossest when she has to look after me, and she knows a good time is going on in the kitchen. The kitchen doesn't want me, and the drawing-room doesn't want me, so there I am!"

"Poor little lonely soul!" said Ted, laughing. "Now from the look of you I should say you could make yourself happy anywhere! Would you like to come to tea with us? Ask permission and come along. There's a carol service at four o'clock, but it doesn't last an hour. Come to that."

Inez's eyes brightened.

"I hope I haven't asked myself to tea," she said; "and I didn't mean to grumble, because when I'm alone I think about going to school, and that cheers me up. Will Mr. Wargrave like to see me?"

"Very much, I know."

Inez went home with a happy heart. And she had the surprise of her life the next morning, when a beautiful little gold watch lay upon her plate on the breakfast-table, a gift to her from her father and mother.

Even Julia had remembered her, and presented her with a big box of chocolates.

Christmas Day had begun well. She went to church with her father and mother, and lunch was a much more cheerful meal than usual. She had permission to go out to tea, and thoroughly enjoyed herself at the Vicarage. Ted had presented her with a little carved bookcase of his own making, with which she was delighted.

"This is a very happy Christmas to me," he said to her as they were wishing each other good-bye, "for I believe I shall be back at school very soon. It's the end of my invalid stunt."

"I'm sorry you're going to school. Will you never make any more of those wonderful little wooden toys?"

"I was going to say I hope not, but I dare say I may while away my time in the holidays. Oh, Inez, if you only knew how I've longed to be on my feet again! Now it has come, it seems too good to be true."

"If you go to school and I go to school, Diana and Noel won't have anybody left to play with."

"That won't trouble them. Diana will be wrapped up in her stories, and Noel will have his Christmas tree. What a funny kid he is."

"Yes, he kept saying last night, 'How pleased my tree must be!' He thought more of the tree than of the presents! But I like Noel, he's helped me."

"Yes," said Ted; "I know he has."

"How do you know he has?"

"Oh, you're different, not quite so harum-scarum, and I saw you sloping off to church one day and I guessed, because he talks to me sometimes, and I always feel as if he's pretty near heaven."

"'Cherub' is a very good name for him," said Inez.

And Ted agreed with her.