The Storyteller

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 5, 29 January 1903, Page 23

The Storyteller

LEON MATURIN'S CHRISTMAS EVE.

The snow was falling thickly and steadily, and the evening shadows were gathering so closely around the house that Leon and Annette were glad to turn from the window where they had been for the last half-hour and nestle down together in one corner of the big fireplace. Thero was no lamp or candle in the room, but the largo fire of peat and brushwood sent forth a ruddy glow, which brightened everything around it, while an occasional leaping flame would suddenly bring into view some more, distant object, and send the shadows chasing each other into the farthest corner of the low kitchen. The pot was boiling over the fire, and Mere Maturin was walking backward and forward preparing supper. ' See, Leon,' whispered Annette, ' how funny grandma's cap looks on the wall. When she crocs over to the cupboard it is quite small, and when she comes nearer here it grows upj up, half way over the coiling. Look, there it is now, just like one of Maitre Caussin's haymowers in July !' ' Yes, and see the spinning-wheel change and turn as if the fairies Were spinning on it ! ' ' Do they ever, Leon ? Perhaps they are doing it now Oh, if wo could see them ! ' ' You little silly,' replied her brother. ' Who ever saw fairies Christmas Eve ? If it were midsummer now ! St. John's Eve is the time for them. See here, Annette, if you arc good from now till St. John's Eve — if you do everything I want you to — if, if,' said Loon, wishing to make as good a bargain as possible, 'if you always drive Blanchette home from pasture when I want to play with George, if you will always get grandmother the crosses when I don't want, to go to the brook for them, I will show you the fairies that night ; that is,' added the boy, thinking, perhaps, he had better not promise too much, ' I will lot you go with mo to the bir stones in the middle of the wood yonder, just at midnight, and there — Maitre Caussin's Joseph told me so — you will ho sure to see them.' ' Oh, Leon, I will do anything for you if you will but let me see them ! But it is so long to wait ; perhaps grandmamma knows if one can see them any other time. " Grandmother (raising her voice) do the fairies ever come at Christmas Eve, and do they ever turn spinning wheels to help people 9 " ' ' Nay, child, who ever heard of fairies, then ? ' said Merc Maturin ' and if they did take the trouble to turn spinning-wheels, it would not be for idle folk, like you ! Como and put the dishes on the table, for the pot is boiling, and it is time wo had supper.' Annette speedily obeyed, and thero was no more talk of fairies for an hour. After that, the dishes being all washed and put away, and grandmother seated in the chimney-corner with her knitting, the children took thenplaces, side by side, on the health o^osite her, and hecan to plead with her for some legends and stories, such as they loved to hear. Leon and Annette lived in Brittany, in a little old cottage not far from the sea, and a few miles from the town of .St. Malo. Their eldest and only brother, Louis, had gone as a soldier, two years before, and was at Toulon with his regiment Once in a great while they heard lrom him, and his last letter but one had told them ho was married. They were looking for a letter from him now, for )t was six months since the last one came, and they said : ' Louis will surely send us a message for Christmas ' This Christmas Eve the father and mother had gone into St. Malo, to be present at the Midnight Mass and Christmas morning ser\ice, after which they were to come home, and the children had been left with their grandmother. Since sunset, the snow, which had been gathering overhead all day. had begun to fall, and was rapidly covering up the well beaten road, on which for many weeks no fresh snow had fallen. ' Talo.s, tales,' said the old woman : ' you have hoard them all many times, my children. I have no new stories for you.' ' Then tell us old onoq. dear grandmamma ! ' ' They say, then, little ones, and I have heard it ever since 1 was but half your size, that on the liolv Christmas Eve, when the hour of midnight strikes, all the oxen, cows, and asses can speak like us h uman creatures, because they stood by when the Blessed Mary laid the Holy Babe in the manger,' and the old woman made the sign of the cross devoutly. 'But is it true, grandmamma o ' said % itHe Annette eagerly. ' I cannot say for myself, as T • l ev->r 1 card thorn speak, child ; but why should not poor l<*utos I rv'o a voice gi\en them for once, for sake of Mi at l-k i scd night, that they may praise God Thero n.is y\n(oino,' the old woman went on, murmuring to h( self. ' sat up on purpose to hear them one i ight, ani twelve he went out to the stable, but the noor f->ol made «uch a clattering in undoing the door, that the 1 t-.ists >n St. Malo might have heard him through 'heir slopm. ro tho ass and the cow were warned, and never a 'vord wculd they speak before him ; and they \»vie w>L.or iha-i some folk if they had secrets to talk '(bout, for everything Antoine hoard he went straight an 1 told it, ana, indeed, T believe he could not have helped 't, if he knew ho was to swing for it the next minute , cut no is dead now, like many a one I once knew. May he rest in peace ! '

' But did you ever know anyone else who tried it ? * cried both the children at once. ' Only Pierre. Pretty Madeline, old Jacques the miller s daughter, waited up one Christmas Eve, and, when midnight drew near, she was too afraid all at once to stir out in the dark alone for anything so strange and wonderful, so she sent Pierre, her cousin. He had heard nothing, he said,- when he came back ; but nobody thought that counted for much, for though Pierre was a clever fellow enough, and could even read in the newspapers all by himself, without the priest to help him. everybody knew he wouldn't have heard the church bells, if they had all rung at once and he in the same tower, jf he wore thinking of Madeline, and that same evening didn't the miller — Jacques was lame then — ask him to give him his crutch, and put a stick on the fire, and didn't Pierre put the crutch o n the fire and ~tvc Jacques the stick, and Madeline was but just in time to pull the crutch out of the flames, and it was scorched ever after. So you see he was not much to be depended on till he married Madeline and settled down. ' Madeline was only a goose-girl ; but she was a stout, comely maid, with cheeks like roses, and Pierre lrom a boy had always been fond of her. He taught her to read while she was minding the geese, and there never was a storm so bitter that Pierre wasn't glad to face it, if he could only help Madeline home with her geese. Ah, they've risen a bit since that day, for Pierre turned out a thrifty fellow, and— the saints shield us ! Leon, what was that ? ' ' I heard nothing but the night wind blowing ' said Leon gravely. But Annette clung to her grandmother, and the grandmother laughed lightly to think how slight a thing startled her in her old days. The little girl listened for some time longer, while Mere Maturm wandered on, telling old stories of the pooplo she had known in her youth, but Leon was strangely silent. A thought was working in his brain. Why should not he, that very night, find out with his own ears if this were true. He would not tell Annette, for she might be afraid and cry or make a noise, and snoil all, and he would succeed no better than did Antoine, whom his grandmother knew. So when Mere Maturin said it was time to go to bed, he undressed and said his prayers and climbed up to his little mattress in the loft. He had grown too big for it, but it was the best ho had, and his sleep was always sound. Grandmother and Annette would soon be asleep in the room off the kitchen, and Leon lay in bed watching the faint glimmers and shadows that fell on the loft stairs from the remains of the fire that burned low in the wide chimney. They had had a larger fire than usual, for it was very cold weather and Christmas Eve, and Mere Maturin had said : 'We must be warm to-night, if we are cold all the rest of the winter.' He kept his eyes open for some time, but fell asleep at last, and started awake again in a sudden fright lest the magic hour had slipped away" from him in his sleep, and he would have a whole year to wait before he could try his chance again The clouds had all cleared away, and the moon was shining brightly in through the diamond-shaped panes in the little window. Leon slipped out of bed and into his clothes, and then softly crept down the stairs. He could just see the face of the old clock in the corner, and ho was in time. It wanted five minutes of twelve Ho crossed the kitchen so softly that he did not disturb his grandmother and sister, and, unfastening the door, stood alone out in the night. Leon was a brave boy, so no thought of fear came to him, but ho shivered in the nipping winter air, and pulled his cap further down over his ears. He could easily see by the moonlight where the path to the stable ought to be, although it was covered by several inches of snow, and in a few minutes he was at the door. Very softly now, Leon, or Blanchette will lift her h^ad and look at you out of her large, fentle, brown eves, and old Jeanette will move her long ears and snuff danger near, and you will spoil it all. Po gently ho undid the door, so quietly he stole in and stood in the shadow, that neither cow nor ass could be disturbed, yot surely something has aroused and affrighted them both. Leon listened breathlessly. Suddenly both the animals beside him moved uneasily. Presently, from outside the stable, came, clearly and distinctly on the night air, the bray of an ass. It made Loon start more than whon Jeanette answered it from within the stable with another bray. He was only frightened for a moment, however, and then he turned and went out of the door to see who this midnight visitor could be. There was nothing in the yard, but he crept along by the fence, and when he reached the trate, there, standing in the moonlight, was an ass, her head pushed far over the gate, and her long ears bent forward, listening for some answer to her summons. There was a saddle on her back, but no one on it. For a moment Leon paused. He knew she had not come there all alone, but that probably somewhere along that lonely country road she had parted from her burdon The nearest house was four miles off, and in a different direction from that by which the ass had come, for Leon saw her footprints in the snow. He might have to walk far ore ho should find those whom she had carried, but if he did not go — if he waited till daylight — it might be too late for help to reach those whom cold and snow had, perhaps, overcome. Ho opened the gate, then fastened it securely behind him, and gently turned the ass round. To his surprise she made no objection, but somewhat wearily retraced her footsteps in the snow. They had not to go very far. however. A few "irds from the house the road turned and crossed a little

stream where there was a bridge ; beyond this was a hollow, and then came woods. At the entrance to these woods was one of those wayside shrines which you often see in France, in which was an image of the Virgin with the infant Saviour in her arms ; beneath this, on the white snow, lay something dark, and when she reached it the ass stood perfectly still. Leon came up to her, and stooping down by this dark mass u{?on the snow, saw lying there a young woman, unconscious, with a baby in her arms. What was the boy to do ? His stout arms could not lift the inanimate form. There was no one but his grandmother and Annette within call, and they would be but little help to him. Yet something must be done. Leon felt her. She was not quite cold, and the baby, wrapped in the mother's cloak and clasped to her breast, was still warm. Leon tried to make the ass kneel down. She did it readily enough, as if she were accustomed to it, and understood the need now. Then he laid his warm cheek against the girl's and breathed into her lips and called to her, and strove in every way to rouse her. She stirred, but did not open her eyes. The baby, however, awoke and cried. That cry did more to fully arouse the mother's consciousness than anything else, and to Leon's joy she murmured, ' Hush, mv darling ! ' Then he called aloud to her, and at last tried to take the baby from her arms. She opened her eyes than, only half understanding, and with great difficulty obeyed Leon's words when he told her to rise. She could not stand, but Leon got her upon the saddle, and, putting one arm around her to hold her firmly there, he guided the ass down the road and over the bridge to the gate. They arrived there safely, though many times on the way Leon thought they would not. He ran into the house and woke Annette and his grandmother. It was some time before he could make them understand, but at last they did. Fortunately there were still hot embers on the hearth, and Annette heated a little milk, which they poured down the poor woman's throat. This brought her to herself enough for them to lead her into the house, where the warmth soon revived her. Leon put more wood on the fire, which soon gave out a good heat, while Annette and the grandmother warmed blankets, and put them about the woman and child, and rubbed the mother's cold limbs. When •they had quite recovered, and had partaken of bread ar d milk, Mere Maturin would not allow them to sj)eak, tut put them in her own bed, and left them to sleep. The first red streaks of dawn were seen in the eastern sky before Leon had quite satisfied his grandmother and sister on this wonderful adventure. Then he went back to bed, and did not wake till the Christmas sun streamed in at his window, and he heard Annette calling out her greeting to him from the foot nf the f-tairs Their strange visitors slept till quite late in the morning, and had not yet appeared when the father and mother came homo You may be sure there was much to tell and hear about this odd adventure of Leon's, and then Pere Maturin held up a letter from Louis — a Chnstmas letter — which made the children fiance with \o\ In the midst of it till their visitor tame into the- kitchen from the inner room, her baby in nor arms, r>nd looking quite bright again after her rest. She \rasi - i-ry small, .so tiny that Leon wondered that such a. 'tout h< y as he was should have had so much iroqble in I'tiing her on to the ass, and she looked very 7 oung uidjod. Then she told them her story. Her husband was a soldier. He bad ni i t her a. Toulon, her native place, and married ho* tlicre. She had continued to live at her father's I'll n>> rlu'd. lt>jv\ ins: her a little money Her husband's r' i s.im." i nt was ordered to Algeria soon after, and as she had no -relations ill Toulon or anywhere else, he thought it best to rend her and her child to his mother in Brittany He had wntien home some tune before he left, and said lie knew his father would meet her at St Malo, as he had ipquested in his letter But when she reached there after her lons journey she did not find him, and, being a stranger in the place, she thought the best thing she could co would be to hire an ass, and take the straight road to her husband's home. The landlord at the inn in the town ■■" where she had stopped to inquire the way, had told her that she could not fail to find the house, but the snow had come and hidden the path, and she grew wearied. They wandered out of the way many times, sometimes finding the road and then losing it again, till, worn out, she had fallen from the ass right below the shrine on tho road. ' When I looked up and saw the gentle face smiling down upon me, I thought,' she said, ' heaven would have pity on me and my baby, and I said mv prayers and had just fallen asleep, when the good God sent you, Leon, to wake me. And now, dear friends. I will not trouble you more ; and if you will kindly tell mo where the Pere Maturin lives I will go and find him. and my Louis and I will bless you always in our prayers ' ' Pere Maturin ' Louis ' ' they all exclaimed, and then followed such explaining, and laughing and crying, and kissing as never was known before At last, when all was quiet, the father read out Louis's letter, and it was the one Ihey ought to have received long before, t.>!]ine: thorn his Marie wns coming to them, and asking them to love and care for her and the baby for his sake Oh, how happy were they all together, and how pleasant was it that the joy should come to them on Christmas day ' When dinner was over, and they had said everything they could think about this wonderful adventure, and had admire little Marguerite, Annette suddenly exclaimed : ' Leon 1 did the ass and the cow speak ? ' ' T didn't hear them,' said Leon, shaking his hor.d ruefully ; ' but tho ass did everything but speak when

she looked at me over the gate, and then took me to Marie. • *u Ye ?i', said his mother » ' and though there is nothing in tne idle tale to speak of, you may be sure God led the ass to you, .Leon, and taught it how to make its wants known to you, though it was not by speech, and He cared for Marie and her babe, for the sake of the Holy Child, lying in His mother's arms in the stable, among oxen and asses, that first Christmas night. ' Boston Pilot.