"well, so it's all settled," said stephen falsom.
"yes," assented alexina. "yes, it is," she repeated, as if somebody had questioned it.
then alexina sighed. whatever "it" was, the fact of its being settled did not seem to bring alexina any great peace of mind—nor stephen either, judging from his face, which wore a sort of "suffer and be strong" expression just then. "when do you go?" said alexina, after a pause, during which she had frowned out of the window and across the tracy yard. josephine tracy and her brother duncan were strolling about the yard in the pleasant december sunshine, arm in arm, laughing and talking. they appeared to be a nice, harmless pair of people, but the sight of them did not seem to please alexina.
"just as soon as we can sell the furniture and move away," said stephen moodily. "heigh-ho! so this is what all our fine ambitions have come to, lexy, your music and my m.d. a place in a department store for you, and one in a lumber mill for me."
"i don't dare to complain," said alexina slowly. "we ought to be so thankful to get the positions. i am thankful. and i don't mind so very much about my music. but i do wish you could have gone to college, stephen."
"never mind me," said stephen, brightening up determinedly. "i'm going to go into the lumber business enthusiastically. you don't know what unsuspected talents i may develop along that line. the worst of it is that we can't be together. but i'll keep my eyes open, and perhaps i'll find a place for you in lessing."
alexina said nothing. her separation from stephen was the one point in their fortunes she could not bear to discuss. there were times when alexina did not see how she was going to exist without stephen. but she never said so to him. she thought he had enough to worry him without her making matters worse. "well," said stephen, getting up, "i'll run down to the office. and see here, lexy. day after tomorrow is christmas. are we going to celebrate it at all? if so i'd better order the turkey."
alexina looked thoughtful. "i don't know, stephen. we're short of money, you know, and the fund is dwindling every day. don't you think it's a little extravagant to have a turkey for two people? and somehow i don't feel a bit christmassy. i think i'd rather spend it just like any other day and try to forget that it is christmas. everything would be so different."
"that's true, lexy. and we must look after the bawbees closely, i'll admit." when stephen had gone out alexina cried a little, not very much, because she didn't want her eyes to be red against stephen's return. but she had to cry a little. as she had said, everything was so different from what it had been a year ago. their father had been alive then and they had been very cosy and happy in the little house at the end of the street. there had been no mother there since alexina's birth sixteen years ago. alexina had kept house for her father and stephen since she was ten. stephen was a clever boy and intended to study medicine. alexina had a good voice, and something was to be done about training it. the tracys lived next door to them. duncan tracy was stephen's particular chum, and josephine tracy was alexina's dearest friend. alexina was never lonely when josie was near by to laugh and chat and plan with.
then, all at once, troubles came. in june the firm of which mr. falsom was a member failed. there was some stigma attached to the failure, too, although the blame did not rest upon mr. falsom, but with his partner. worry and anxiety aggravated the heart trouble from which he had suffered for some time, and a month later he died. alexina and stephen were left alone to face the knowledge that they were penniless, and must look about for some way of supporting themselves. at first they hoped to be able to get something to do in thorndale, so that they might keep their home. this proved impossible. after much discouragement and disappointment stephen had secured a position in the lumber mill at lessing, and alexina was promised a place in a departmental store in the city.
to make matters worse, duncan tracy and stephen had quarrelled in october. it was only a boyish disagreement over some trifle, but bitter words had passed. duncan, who was a quick-tempered lad, had twitted stephen with his father's failure, and stephen had resented it hotly. duncan was sorry for and ashamed of his words as soon as they were uttered, but he would not humble himself to say so. alexina had taken stephen's part and her manner to josie assumed a tinge of coldness. josie quickly noticed and resented it, and the breach between the two girls widened almost insensibly, until they barely spoke when they met. each blamed the other and cherished bitterness in her heart.
when stephen came home from the post office he looked excited.
"were there any letters?" asked alexina.
"well, rather! one from uncle james!"
"uncle james," exclaimed alexina, incredulously.
"yes, beloved sis. oh, you needn't try to look as surprised as i did. and i ordered the turkey after all. uncle james has invited himself here to dinner on christmas day. you'll have a chance to show your culinary skill, for you know we've always been told that uncle james was a gourmand."
alexina read the letter in a maze. it was a brief epistle, stating that the writer wished to make the acquaintance of his niece and nephew, and would visit them on christmas day. that was all. but alexina instantly saw a future of rosy possibilities. for uncle james, who lived in the city and was really a great-uncle, had never taken the slightest notice of their family since his quarrel with their father twenty years ago; but this looked as if uncle james were disposed to hold out the olive branch.
"oh, stephen, if he likes you, and if he offers to educate you!" breathed alexina. "perhaps he will if he is favourably impressed. but we'll have to be so careful, he is so whimsical and odd, at least everybody has always said so. a little thing may turn the scale either way. anyway, we must have a good dinner for him. i'll have plum pudding and mince pie."
for the next thirty-six hours alexina lived in a whirl. there was so much to do. the little house was put in apple pie order from top to bottom, and stephen was set to stoning raisins and chopping meat and beating eggs. alexina was perfectly reckless; no matter how big a hole it made in their finances uncle james must have a proper christmas dinner. a favourable impression must be made. stephen's whole future—alexina did not think about her own at all just then—might depend on it.
christmas morning came, fine and bright and warm. it was more like a morning in early spring than in december, for there was no snow or frost, and the air was moist and balmy. alexina was up at daybreak, cleaning and decorating at a furious rate. by eleven o'clock everything was finished or going forward briskly. the plum pudding was bubbling in the pot, the turkey—burton's plumpest—was sizzling in the oven. the shelf in the pantry bore two mince pies upon which alexina was willing to stake her culinary reputation. and stephen had gone to the train to meet uncle james.
from her kitchen window alexina could see brisk preparations going on in the tracy kitchen. she knew josie and duncan were all alone; their parents had gone to spend christmas with friends in lessing. in spite of her hurry and excitement alexina found time to sigh. last christmas josie and duncan had come over and eaten their dinner with them. but now last christmas seemed very far away. and josie had behaved horridly. alexina was quite clear on that point.
then stephen came with uncle james. uncle james was a rather pompous, fussy old man with red cheeks and bushy eyebrows. "h'm! smells nice in here," was his salutation to alexina. "i hope it will taste as good as it smells. i'm hungry."
alexina soon left uncle james and stephen talking in the parlour and betook herself anxiously to the kitchen. she set the table in the little dining room, now and then pausing to listen with a delighted nod to the murmur of voices and laughter in the parlour. she felt sure that stephen was making a favourable impression. she lifted the plum pudding and put it on a plate on the kitchen table; then she took out the turkey, beautifully done, and put it on a platter; finally, she popped the two mince pies into the oven. just at this moment stephen stuck his head in at the hall door.
"lexy, do you know where that letter of governor howland's to father is? uncle james wants to see it."
alexina, not waiting to shut the oven door—for delay might impress uncle james unfavourably—rushed upstairs to get the letter. she was ten minutes finding it. then, remembering her pies, she flew back to the kitchen. in the middle of the floor she stopped as if transfixed, staring at the table. the turkey was gone. and the plum pudding was gone! and the mince pies were gone! nothing was left but the platters! for a moment alexina refused to believe her eyes. then she saw a trail of greasy drops on the floor to the open door, out over the doorstep, and along the boards of the walk to the back fence.
alexina did not make a fuss. even at that horrible moment she remembered the importance of making a favourable impression. but she could not quite keep the alarm and excitement out of her voice as she called stephen, and stephen knew that something had gone wrong as he came quickly through the hall. "is the turkey burned, lexy?" he cried.
"burned! no, it's ten times worse," gasped alexina. "it's gone—gone, stephen. and the pudding and the mince pies, too. oh, what shall we do? who can have taken them?"
it may be stated right here and now that the falsoms never really knew anything more about the disappearance of their christmas dinner than they did at that moment. but the only reasonable explanation of the mystery was that a tramp had entered the kitchen and made off with the good things. the falsom house was right at the end of the street. the narrow backyard opened on a lonely road. across the road was a stretch of pine woods. there was no house very near except the tracy one.
stephen reached this conclusion with a bound. he ran out to the yard gate followed by the distracted alexina. the only person visible was a man some distance down the road. stephen leaped over the gate and tore down the road in pursuit of him. alexina went back to the doorstep, sat down upon it, and began to cry. she couldn't help it. her hopes were all in ruins around her. there was no dinner for uncle james.
josephine tracy saw her crying. now, josie honestly thought that she had a grievance against alexina. but an alexina walking unconcernedly by with a cool little nod and her head held high was a very different person from an alexina sitting on a back doorstep, on christmas morning, crying. for a moment josie hesitated. then she slowly went out and across the yard to the fence. "what is the trouble?" she asked.
alexina forgot that there was such a thing as dignity to be kept up; or, if she remembered it, she was past caring for such a trifle. "our dinner is gone," she sobbed. "and there is nothing to give uncle james to eat except vegetables—and i do so want to make a favourable impression!"
this was not particularly lucid, but josie, with a flying mental leap, arrived at the conclusion that it was very important that uncle james, whoever he was, should have a dinner, and she knew where one was to be had. but before she could speak stephen returned, looking rueful. "no use, lexy. that man was only old mr. byers, and he had seen no signs of a tramp. there is a trail of grease right across the road. the tramp must have taken directly to the woods. we'll simply have to do without our christmas dinner."
"by no means," said josie quickly, with a little red spot on either cheek. "our dinner is all ready—turkey, pudding and all. let us lend it to you. don't say a word to your uncle about the accident."
alexina flushed and hesitated. "it's very kind of you," she stammered, "but i'm afraid—it would be too much—"
"not a bit of it," josie interrupted warmly. "didn't duncan and i have christmas dinner at your house last year? just come and help us carry it over."
"if you lend us your dinner you and duncan must come and help us eat it," said alexina, resolutely.
"i'll come of course," said josie, "and i think that duncan will too if—if—" she looked at stephen, the scarlet spots deepening. stephen coloured too.
"duncan must come," he said quietly. "i'll go and ask him."
two minutes later a peculiar procession marched out of the tracy kitchen door, across the two yards, and into the falsom house. josie headed it, carrying a turkey on a platter. alexina came next with a plum pudding. stephen and duncan followed with a hot mince pie apiece. and in a few more minutes alexina gravely announced to uncle james that dinner was ready.
the dinner was a pronounced success, marked by much suppressed hilarity among the younger members of the party. uncle james ate very heartily and seemed to enjoy everything, especially the mince pie.
"this is the best mince pie i have ever sampled," he told alexina. "i am glad to know that i have a niece who can make such a mince pie." alexina cast an agonized look at josie, and was on the point of explaining that she wasn't the maker of the pie. but josie frowned her into silence.
"i felt so guilty to sit there and take the credit—your credit," she told josie afterwards, as they washed up the dishes.
"nonsense," said josie. "it wasn't as if you couldn't make mince pies. your mince pies are better than mine, if it comes to that. it might have spoiled everything if you'd said a word. i must go home now. won't you and stephen come over after your uncle goes, and spend the evening with us? we'll have a candy pull."
when josie and duncan had gone, uncle james called his nephew and niece into the parlour, and sat down before them with approving eyes. "i want to have a little talk with you two. i'm sorry i've let so many years go by without making your acquaintance, because you seem worth getting acquainted with. now, what are your plans for the future?"
"i'm going into a lumber mill at lessing and alexina is going into the t. morson store," said stephen quietly.
"tut, tut, no, you're not. and she's not. you're coming to live with me, both of you. if you have a fancy for cutting and carving people up, young man, you must be trained to cut and carve them scientifically, anyhow. as for you, alexina, stephen tells me you can sing. well, there's a good conservatory of music in town. wouldn't you rather go there instead of behind a counter?"
"oh, uncle james!" exclaimed alexina with shining eyes. she jumped up, put her arms about uncle james' neck and kissed him.
uncle james said, "tut, tut," again, but he liked it.
when stephen had seen his uncle off on the six o'clock train he returned home and looked at the radiant alexina.
"well, you made your favourable impression, all right, didn't you?" he said gaily. "but we owe it to josie tracy. isn't she a brick? i suppose you're going over this evening?"
"yes, i am. i'm so tired that i feel as if i couldn't crawl across the yard, but if i can't you'll have to carry me. go i will. i can't begin to tell you how glad i am about everything, but really the fact that you and duncan and josie and i are good friends again seems the best of all. i'm glad that tramp stole the dinner and i hope he enjoyed it. i don't grudge him one single bite!"
