j
innie! vir-r-rginia-a-a! you ‘jin’! if you’re not here in a minute, i’ll whip you within an inch of your life!”
it was the shrill voice of mrs. tyke. down from some mysterious part of the recesses of the house it came with the force and precision of a rifle-ball, through the narrow hall and open door to the ears of jinnie, who was scrubbing the front steps.
why mrs. tyke desired that the steps and the pavement should be scrubbed upon that cold and dismal december morning cannot be imagined. probably she herself could not have given a reason for it if she had been asked. the bricks looked very clean and wholesome before the work began, and the marble steps were almost painfully white. now, the pavement was covered with a film of ice upon which pedestrians slipped and were provoked to anger, and the steps were positively so icy as to be unfit for use.
312 the voice of mrs. tyke gave fresh impetus to the arm of the child, who was just giving a few finishing wipes to the uppermost step. she was a little child, surely not more than eight years of age. as she knelt upon the marble, rather painful prominence was given to a pair of shoes which might once have been the property of mrs. tyke herself, but which were now worn, as forlorn and riddled wrecks, upon feet which were stockingless. the thin little legs above the leather ruins were blue with cold, and the tiny arms which wielded the wiping-cloth with accelerated speed were bare and chapped to redness.
if it was an offence to cover a pavement with ice upon such a morning, it was a bitter wrong to compel a little child so poorly clad to perform the work.
before jinnie had replaced her cloth in her bucket, mrs. tyke appeared in the doorway with anger in her face. she took hold of one of the child’s ears with her coarse fingers and pulled her into the hallway head foremost with as much force as if she had been shot out of a catapult. then mrs. tyke, with a vigorous hand, boxed the ear that she had pulled, cuffed the other ear, impartially, knocking the child against the wall.
“i’ll teach you to mind me when i call you! pottering and fooling with your work! now you go right out into the yard and scrub those bricks313 in a jiffy, or you’ll know how the broom-handle feels.”
mrs. tyke was going to have the back-yard scrubbed also. why mrs. tyke did not scrub the four walls of the house, and the roof, and the chimney flues and the fence, and why she did not scrub the cobble-stones in the street, is an impenetrable secret.
jinnie picked up the bucket, and went staggering through the hall, into the kitchen, with a feeling that her head might at any moment tumble off, as a result of mrs. tyke’s blows, and roll upon the floor. she refilled her bucket at the hydrant, and began her work with a vigor that promised to make mrs. tyke’s back-yard within a few moments a fit place for skaters.
just before the work was done, mrs. tyke appeared at the window with her bonnet on, and in a severe tone gave jinnie some directions respecting the preparation of dinner during her absence. then mrs. tyke withdrew, and just as the front door slammed jinnie saw the head of a child appear over the top of the partition fence, between the yards of mrs. tyke and mrs. brown.
young miss brown watched jinnie putting away the scrubbing implements, and when jinnie drew near to the fence with an apparent purpose to have some conversation, the little brown said:
“it’ll pretty soon be christmas, now.”
314 “will it?” said jinnie, without manifesting any trace of interest in the fact.
“yes, and kris kingle is coming to our house. mamma said so. does kris kingle come to your house on christmas?”
“nobody ever comes to our house but the milkman. he is not kris kingle, is he?”
“oh, no! don’t you hang up your stockings on christmas eve?”
“i have no stockings to hang up.”
“where does kris kingle put all your pretty things, then?”
“he don’t bring me any. who is kris kingle?”
“why, don’t you know? he comes in a sleigh full of toys, pulled by reindeer, and—”
“where does he come from? ohio?”
“i guess so. but he comes down the chimbley every night before christmas, and—”
“i expect our chimbley must be too little. or maybe he don’t know we live here.”
“oh, he knows where everybody lives; all the little children.”
“i’m so sorry he forgets me! maybe it’s because i have no stockings! oh, i wish, i wish i had!”
“won’t mrs. tyke lend you one of hers?”
“i’m afraid to ask her. i wonder would kris kingle come if i put a bucket there for him?”
“i never heard of his giving toys in a bucket.315 if he gave you a large doll maybe he would. have you got a large doll?”
“i never had any doll. i made one once out of a dust brush and some rags, but mrs. tyke whipped me and took it away. if i had a real doll i’d be so happy that i couldn’t stand it.”
“if mrs. tyke whipped you for it that would keep you from being too happy, wouldn’t it?”
“yes.”
“why didn’t you ask your mamma to write to kris kingle to come?”
“i never had a mamma; and no father, either. i was born in an asylum, and mrs. tyke always says it’s a pity i was ever.”
“maybe he’d come if you’d pray to get him.”
“i only know ‘now i lay me.’ i learned it at the asylum; but i daren’t say it out loud any more.”
“i don’t know what we can do about it, then.”
jinnie began to cry; but suddenly remembering the imminent probability of mrs. tyke’s return, she wiped her eyes with a rag of her dress, and said,—
“good-bye; i must go in now. i have to get dinner.”
so she ran into the kitchen, and the head of the youthful brown slowly descended until it was eclipsed by the fence.
jinnie went to work to prepare the vegetables316 for dinner, with her poor little brain in such a stir of excitement about kris kingle and the possibility of his remembering her or forgetting her, that she could hardly keep her mind upon the task that her hands were doing; but she was recalled from her dreams by the sound of mrs. tyke’s step in the hall; and as mrs. tyke perceived that she had not been very industrious, mrs. tyke promptly boxed her ears. she fell to the floor, and then mrs. tyke kicked her two or three times. this energetic treatment effectively dispelled all of jinnie’s visions of kris kingle. she had rarely had any information upon which to build pleasant thoughts of what life might have been to her; and now when her little mind was taking its first flight into those realms of imagination wherein so many of the forlorn of earth find at least a taste of happiness, the red and vigorous hand of mrs. tyke hurled her back once more into the dreary and dreadful reality of life.
for the rest of the day jinnie hurried through her myriad duties with a tremulous fear upon her that if she should dare even to think of that mysterious being who loved the little children she might invoke still further blows. the blows came at any rate, more than once, despite her carefulness; but that was always a part of her experience, and she bore them perhaps a little better now because she was looking forward with a faint317 suggestion of happiness to the night, when she should lie beneath the scant covering of her bed, and think without fear of harm of the reindeer and sleigh and the toys of the kind old man, who might perhaps not forget her this time.
when supper-time came mrs. tyke ordered her to go to the baker’s for bread. the shop to which she had been accustomed to go was closed, for some reason, and jinnie sought another, upon another street. on her way home through the dusky thoroughfare she came suddenly upon a show-window brilliantly lighted, and filled with childish splendors belonging to the christmas season.
she had never seen so many beautiful things before. there were toys of all kinds, some of which she understood and some of which were all the more fascinating for the mystery that surrounded them. there were wagons and horses, and miniature tea-sets, and pop-guns, and baby houses, and jumping-jacks, and railroad cars, and tin steamboats, and make-believe soldier caps; and these were mingled with clusters of glass balls of various colors, which glittered in the gaslight in a most wonderful manner. but the glory of the window was a huge waxen doll dressed as a bride, in pure white, with a veil and a wreath and the loveliest satin dress. she had real golden hair and the softest blue eyes, that stared and stared as though they were looking into some other surprising show-window over the way.
318 jinnie trembled when she saw this marvellous doll. she had no idea that anybody ever wore such wonderful clothing as that. she had never dreamed that anything could be so beautiful. she thought she would be perfectly happy if she could stand there and gaze at it during the remainder of her life. oh, if kris kingle would come and leave her such a doll as that! no, that could not be; it was impossible that she should ever have such a joyful experience. but maybe he might bring her a doll like some of the smaller and less splendid ones which surrounded the bride in swarms. yes, she would be satisfied with the very poorest one of them. she would hide it somewhere, under her bed covering, perhaps, where mrs. tyke could not see it, but where she could find it and kiss it and hug it and take it close in her arms when she went to sleep at night.
the thought of mrs. tyke came to her like a blow in the midst of her delight. she remembered that she must hurry homeward, and so taking a last, long look she turned and ran along the pavement, her heart filled with a wild, passionate longing that kris kingle would come to her and bring her something she could love.
of course mrs. tyke greeted her with angry words and two or three savage thumps. she expected that. but mrs. tyke was not content with this. when she sat down to supper she told jinnie319 that as she had been unusually idle and bad that day she should go hungry to bed. then mrs. tyke ate a particularly hearty meal, with the child watching her; and when she had finished she sat by, growling and threatening, while jinnie cleared away the tea-things preparatory to being marched off to bed.
jinnie missed her supper sadly, but she did not mind the hunger so much on that night, for her mind was busy with new delights.
it was dark in her room, but she knew where the chimney was; and before she undressed she went over and felt it. there was a hole there for a stove-pipe, but it had paper pasted over it.
“perhaps,” said jinnie, “kris kingle did not come because the hole was shut.”
he would not come down the chimney and out into the dining-room, she knew, because he would have to go through the stove; and that would burn him, and his toys, too, perhaps. she thought it might be an inducement for him to come if she should punch a hole through the paper. she was afraid to tear it off, afraid of mrs. tyke’s vengeance; so she pushed her finger through it. then she undressed, and went hopefully to her bed upon the floor.
but not to sleep; she was too greatly excited. she began to wonder why it was that life was so terrible. she never imagined that her life differed320 from those of other children. it is the peculiar infamy of brutality to a child that the victim does not know how to sound the cry for the help that is almost always near to it. it accepts its lot as a thing of course; it does not know that there are perhaps within a few short steps of its house of suffering hearts that would stir with wrath for its wrongs, and that there is within reach a law which would bring retribution upon the head of its oppressor.
jinnie believed that all childhood was a time of punishment and misery. she saw other children playing in the street who seemed merry and joyous, and she could not understand why they were so. she remembered the brown girl, also, and how she had heard her sometimes laughing and singing. jinnie could not laugh and sing in her house with mrs. tyke near her. she thought the other children might be happy because they had dolls, and because they could have their stockings filled at christmas time. she knew that grown-up people were not abused as she was, but it seemed such a long, long time to wait until she was grown up. she felt that when she was she would be kinder to children, and not strike them with the poker, at any rate, as mrs. tyke sometimes struck her.
and if kris kingle should come down into her room through the hole in the paper, she thought she would like to be awake and to ask him to take321 her away with him in his sleigh somewhere. as she dwelt upon this she pictured herself going up the chimney and then flying over the roofs behind the reindeer, and looking back at mrs. tyke standing at the window and cursing her. and so she fell asleep and into a tangled maze of dreams, wherein kris kingle, mrs. tyke and the doll-baby bride were mingled in great confusion.
jinnie’s first thought in the morning was the last that she had upon the night before. but as she hurriedly dressed herself it flashed across her mind that as there was grave peril that kris kingle might not come to her, perhaps it would make matters surer if she should go to him.
the milkman, whose cry she expected every moment, to her seemed a likely person to know where kris lived, and to take her there. young miss brown had rather indicated that kris’s home was in ohio; but whether ohio was a little piece up the street or millions of miles away, or whether it was a house or a stable or a town, she did not know. the milkman had spoken pleasantly to her sometimes, and he had a wagon. it was not as attractive as a sleigh with reindeer, but she had often longed to ride in it. she determined to speak to him. but when he came and she opened the door with a beating heart, he snatched the pitcher from her hand and frowned while he filled it. he was thinking of some offensive suggestions made by322 mrs. tyke upon the preceding evening in reference to his too intense partiality for water; and he seemed so cross that jinnie was afraid to speak to him.
she came into the house again sorrowfully, but with a strong purpose to seek some other means of reaching kris kingle; and she carried this determination with her stubbornly through all the fatigues and hardships of the day.
about four o’clock in the afternoon mrs. tyke went out. jinnie felt that her time had come. she resolved to make an effort to find kris kingle, to tell him of her longing desire, and to return home again before mrs. tyke got back. she put her woollen hood upon her head, wrapped around her shoulders the thin and faded rag which mrs. tyke dignified with the name of a shawl; and then she concluded to take a newspaper with her, so that if kris kingle showed any disposition to urge the doll-baby upon her in advance of christmas, she could have something to wrap it in.
when she came out of the house she crossed the street so that she could notice particularly whether there was anything in the construction of the roof of mrs. tyke’s dwelling which would be likely to discourage kris kingle from attempting to reach the chimney. she saw that the roof was much lower than the roofs of the houses upon each side of it, and that it sloped at a sharp angle toward323 the front, while they were flat. the chimney, also, was certainly smaller than others in the vicinity, and the conclusion reached by the child’s mind was that kris kingle had probably been indisposed to take the risks of running his sleigh upon so precipitous a roof for the sake of descending such a very narrow chimney.
this gave a fresh impulse to the child’s purpose to visit kris kingle, so that she might plead with him to make a call at mrs. tyke’s despite the inconveniences of the construction of the house. it occurred to her that she might possibly arrange for him to come to the front door and ring the bell, when she would come softly down stairs and open to receive him.
while she thought of the matter she walked quickly up the street, now somewhat gloomy in the early dusk, but before she had gone far she reflected that she ought to inquire the way to ohio before the darkness should come. she paused to speak to two or three men who were hurrying by, but evidently they thought she intended to ask alms of them, and so they would not pause to listen to her. she was discouraged; but at last she saw a boy standing by a street lamp, doing nothing, and she resolved to ask him.
he laughed rudely at her question and walked away. a moment later he turned and threw a snowball at her. it hit her in the face and hurt324 her badly; and her foot slipping upon the icy pavement, she fell. a moment elapsed before she was able to rise; but at last she got up, and although she was cold and weak and greatly discouraged, she thought she would press on. she might never have so good a chance again; and if she did not see kris kingle now, christmas would come, and he would come and go, and there would be no doll for her.
while she was standing there, in a very miserable frame of mind, a nicely dressed lady went past her. presently the lady turned and looked at her; then she came back to where jinnie stood and spoke to her.
“what is your name, my child?” asked the lady.
“virginia, ma’am. but mrs. tyke generally calls me jinnie.” she had never heard so sweet a voice. it seemed so beautiful, so gentle, so full of tender pity, that it thrilled her with a strange joy.
“and where are you going?”
“i am going out to ohio, to see kris kingle.”
the lady smiled; but the smile faded into a look of deep compassion, and she said,—
“did your mother let you come away from home?”
“i have no mother. i’m a bound girl.”
“who sent you to find kris kingle?”
“nobody. he always forgets to come to our house, so i was goin’ to put him in mind.”
325 “don’t you get any toys or candy on christmas?”
“no, ma’am. mrs. tyke won’t give me any, and kris kingle forgets me. and i never tasted candy but once.”
“is mrs. tyke the woman you live with?”
“yes, ma’am.”
“does she treat you kindly?”
“whips me and knocks me down sometimes.”
“will you go back to her?”
“oh yes, ma’am. i am going right back as soon as i see kris kingle.”
the lady took her hand and resolved to go back with her, and to see the terrible mrs. tyke. she told jinnie so, and jinnie submitted, although she was grieved to forego her errand.
“do you know who kris kingle really is?” the lady asked.
“yes; he brings nice things down the chimbley to children.”
“he does better things than that, my dear. the real kris kingle is the christ-child.”
“who is he?”
“did you never hear anybody tell of christ?”
“no, ma’am.”
“he is god. he came down here to live upon earth, where he suffered and died for us. he loved little children, for he was himself once a child.”
“was he little, like me?”
326 “yes.”
“how did he suffer?”
“wicked men insulted him and beat him and killed him.”
“did they beat him and strike him like they do me?”
“yes, my poor child.”
“what makes him love me? because i am beaten just like he was?”
“yes, yes, that is it. but he loves everybody, good and bad.”
“he doesn’t know mrs. tyke, does he?”
“he knows everybody in the world.”
“where is he now?”
“up in heaven.”
“is that farther than ohio?”
“yes, that is far, far away in the skies.”
“then how does he get here? i always thought the real kris kingle came down chimbleys.”
“he comes in your heart, my dear child. you will understand it all some day.”
the lady seemed strangely moved as she said this to jinnie; but she said nothing, and led jinnie through the street, towards the child’s home.
when jinnie and her companion reached mrs. tyke’s house and rang the bell, mrs. tyke herself came to the door and opened it. as soon as she saw jinnie she poured out at her a volley of abusive327 words, without regarding the presence of the lady who accompanied her. the lady remonstrated with mrs. tyke, and then mrs. tyke assailed her with her tongue. the lady then told mrs. tyke that she knew of the cruel treatment to which the child had been subjected, and that she would interfere if it was repeated.
jinnie was astonished that any one should be so bold as to speak with so much severity to mrs. tyke. the response made to this threat by mrs. tyke was to seize jinnie by the arm, to drag her suddenly into the hallway, and to slam the door in the lady’s face.
the lady stood upon the step and listened. she could hear mrs. tyke beating the child and cursing her; and then the sounds receded, as if mrs. tyke were dragging jinnie into a room at the end of the hallway. mrs. tyke was in a paroxysm of fury; and she intended to visit upon jinnie the vengeance she would have liked to inflict upon jinnie’s unknown friend.
beating was too common and too tame a form of punishment. mrs. tyke’s ingenuity devised a more terrible one. she made the child remove her shoes, and then she tied her upon a chair, with her naked feet within a few inches of the hot stove. in that position she left jinnie, who bore the frightful pain bravely, until presently she fainted.
328 if there is no hell, what is going to become of people like mrs. tyke?
when jinnie regained consciousness, mrs. tyke sternly ordered her to go up to bed; and jinnie crawled up the staircase slowly and painfully upon her hands and knees, suffering so much that she could hardly help screaming aloud.
she reached her room at last, and flung herself down upon the bed. her pain was so great that it was a long while before she could go to sleep; and she lay there thinking with all her might about kris kingle and the doll baby, and her adventures in the street, and wondering if she would ever be any happier. then she remembered what little miss brown had said about praying, and what the sweet lady had told her about the christ-child and his wondrous love; and so she thought she would try to pray to him; and praying, she fell asleep.
the lady who brought jinnie home turned away with her soul filled with indignation at mrs. tyke’s cruelty to the child, and she determined to have it ended. she knew a man, thomas elwood, who was active in the service of the society for protecting children from cruelty, and she went to his house. he was a very plain friend; a young man, and of a fair countenance. he was at home with his wife, and both expressed deep interest in the visitor’s story. the visitor left with the assurance329 from elwood that the case would receive attention early the next morning.
next morning, when mrs. tyke called jinnie, jinnie tried to rise, but found that she could not: she was too feeble and wretched. mrs. tyke saw this, and she did not compel jinnie to get up. mrs. tyke was beginning to be frightened. so jinnie fell asleep again, and when she awoke it was broad daylight, and a man with what seemed to be an angelic face was standing beside her. it was thomas elwood. jinnie was startled; her first impression was that this was kris kingle, come in answer to her prayer. but when jinnie looked at the finger-hole she had made in the fire-board and at the man, and particularly at the circumference of his hat, it seemed to her impossible, if this was kris kingle, that he should have come in by way of mrs. tyke’s chimney.
thomas elwood spoke to her and asked her if she suffered much. she said yes, and then she asked him if he really was kris kingle.
thomas smiled and said,—
“no, dear child; but i am thy friend, and i am going to take thee away from this misery and keep thee until thee is well again.”
then he lifted jinnie in his arms, bore her downstairs and out, and placed her in a carriage.
“where is mrs. tyke?” thought jinnie. mrs. tyke was at a magistrate’s office, listening to mrs.330 brown and others of the neighbors while they testified of her brutal treatment of jinnie. the lady who had brought jinnie home was there also; and jinnie was kindly pressed by the magistrate to tell what mrs. tyke had done to her.
mrs. tyke gave bail and went home. thomas elwood took jinnie to his own house, and his wife wept as he told her how the child had been tortured. she carried jinnie upstairs and washed her, and dressed her in clothes that jinnie thought were wonderful, though they were so plain. then she kissed jinnie and said to her,—
“i once had a little girl of thy age; but a year ago she died. she even looked like thee, my dear.”
jinnie was so weak that she had to lie upon the bed when the washing and dressing were over; “and such a bed!” thought jinnie. thomas elwood’s wife brought some breakfast up to her, and jinnie thought that she had never tasted anything so good. she did not know that such delicious food could be found anywhere in the world.
jinnie grew better and stronger in a few days, and thomas elwood and his wife became so much attached to her that they resolved that they would keep her and adopt her in the place of the child that had been taken away from them.
jinnie was very happy, and she talked freely with them. she told them about her search for kris kingle, and about that splendid doll she saw in the331 window on the night she went to the strange baker’s.
although entertaining sentiments which forbade any enthusiasm for christmas and kris kingle, and dolls in gorgeous apparel, something impelled thomas elwood to go to see that special doll.
that night, as he sat with his wife in front of the grate fire in the sitting-room, she said to him, jinnie being in bed,—
“thomas, does thee think there would be any harm in giving virginia a little pleasure on the 25th of this month?”
“how does thee mean, rachel?”
“well, she seems to have her little head filled with nonsense about kris kingle and christmas, and as the poor child has had a life so full of misery, i thought, perhaps, we might—”
“thee doesn’t mean to keep christmas in this house, does thee?”
“not exactly that, but—”
“what would friends say if we should do that?”
“no; but there can be no harm in giving the poor child some playthings, and we may as well give them upon one day as another.”
“what kind of playthings would thee give her?”
“why not buy her a doll? she seemed to like that doll at thomas smith’s store very much.”
332 “but, rachel, that doll was dressed in a most worldly manner. ought we to risk filling the child’s mind with vain and frivolous notions about dress?”
“she has hardly had a chance to feed her vanity in that manner thus far.”
“thee would be willing, then,” said thomas, “to buy for her that gaily-dressed doll?”
“i think i would; just this once.”
“well,” said thomas, slowly, “i am glad to hear thee say so, because to-day i bought that very doll.” and he produced it from a bundle that he took from under the sofa.
kris kingle came to jinnie that christmas eve, and in the morning her joy as she clasped the doll in her arms was so great that she could not express it. while she was at the breakfast table thomas elwood was called to the parlor to see a visitor. presently he summoned jinnie, and when jinnie came into the room she was startled to see mrs. tyke. it flashed across her mind that mrs. tyke had come to take her away, and she began to cry. thomas elwood comforted her. mrs. tyke had come to beg for mercy. she wished to escape prosecution.
thomas turned to jinnie and said,—
“virginia, this is the woman who has done thee so much harm. i can have her punished if i333 wish. what would thee do to her if thee had thy way?”
“i would forgive her,” said jinnie, timidly.
it seemed as if jinnie had been visited also by the real kris kingle. mrs. tyke was permitted to go unpunished.
