A Christmas Fairy - John Strange Winter

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A Christmas Fairy by John Strange Winter.

It was getting very near to Christmas time, and all the boys at Miss Ware School were talking

about going home for the holidays.

I shall go to the Christmas Festival, said birdie fellows, and my mother will have a party,

and my aunt will give another.

Oh, I shall have a splendid time at home.

My Uncle Bob is going to give me a pair of skates, remark Terry Wattam.

My Father is going to give me a bicycle, put in George Alderson.

Will you bring it back to school with you, ask Terry?

Oh, yes, if Miss Ware doesn't say no, well, Tom, cried birdie, where are you going to

spend your holidays?

I'm going to stay here, answer Tom in a very four-long voice.

Here at school, oh dear, why can't you go home?

I can't go home to India, answer Tom.

Nobody said you could, but haven't you any relatives anywhere?

Tom shook his head.

Only in India, he said sadly.

Poor fellow, that's hard luck for you.

I'll tell you what it is, boys.

If I couldn't go home for the holidays, especially at Christmas, I think I would just sit down

and die.

Oh, no, you wouldn't, said Tom.

You would get ever so homesick, but you wouldn't die.

You would just get through somehow and hope something would happen before next year, or

that some kind of fairy would, there are no fairies nowadays, said birdie.

See you here, Tom.

I'll write and ask my mother to invite you to go home with me for the holidays.

Will you really?

Yes, I will.

And if she says yes, we shall have such a splendid time.

We live in London, you know, and have lots of parties and fun.

Perhaps she will say no, suggested poor little Tom.

My mother isn't the kind that says no, birdie declared loudly.

In a few days' time, a letter arrived from birdie's mother.

The boy opened it eagerly, it said.

My own dear birdie, I am very sorry to tell you that little Alice's ill was scarlet fever,

and so you cannot come for your holidays.

I would have been glad to have you bring your little friend with you if all had been

well here.

Your father and I have decided that the best thing that you can do is to stay at miswares.

We shall send your Christmas to you as well as we can.

It will not be like coming home, but I am sure you will try to be happy and make me

feel that you are helping me in this sad time.

Your little Alice is very ill, very ill indeed.

Tell Tom that I am sending you a box for both of you with two of everything, and tell him

that it makes me so much happier to know that you will not be alone.

Your own mother.

When birdie fellas received this letter, which ended all his Christmas hopes and joys,

he hit his face upon his desk and sobbed aloud.

The lonely boy from India, who sat next to him, tried to comfort his friend in every way

he could think of.

He patted his shoulder and whispered many kind words to him.

At last birdie put the letter into Tom's hands.

Read it, he sobbed.

So then Tom understood the cause of birdie's grief.

Don't fret over it, he said at last.

It might be worse why your father and mother might be thousands of miles away, like mine

are.

When Alice is better, you will be able to go home, and it will help your mother she thinks

you are almost as happy as if you could go now.

You miss where came to tell birdie how sorry she was for him.

After all, she said, smiling down on the two boys, it is an ill-win that blows nobody

good.

Poor Tom has been expecting to spend his holidays alone, and now he will have a friend

with him.

Try to look on the bright side birdie, and to remember how much worse it would have been

if there had been no boy to stay with you.

I can't help being disappointed miss where, said birdie, his eyes filling with tears.

No, you would be a strange boy if you were not, but I want you to try to think of your

poor mother and write her as cheerfully as you can.

Yes, answered birdie, but his heart was too full to say more.

The last day of the term came in one by one, or two by two.

The boys went away until only birdie and Tom were left in the great house.

It had never seemed so large to either of them before.

This miserable, grown poor birdie, as they strolled into the schoolroom, just think if we were

on our way home now, how different.

Just think if I had been left here by myself, said Tom.

Yes, said birdie, but you know when one wants to go home, he never thinks of the boys

that have no home to go to.

The evening passed, and the two boys went to bed.

They told stories to each other for a long time before they could go to sleep.

That night they dreamed of their homes and felt very lonely.

But each tried to be brave, and so another day began.

This was a day before Christmas.

Quite early in the morning came the great box of which birdie's mother had spoken in

her letter.

Then, just as dinner had come to an end, there was a pill at the bell, and a voice was heard

asking for Tom Eagerton.

Tom sprang to his feet and flew to greet a tall handsome lady, crying,

and Laura, and Laura.

And Laura explained that she and her husband had arrived in London only the day before.

I was so afraid, Tom, she said, that we should not get here until Christmas day was over,

and that you would be disappointed.

So I would not let your mother write you that we were on our way home.

You must get your things packed up at once, and go back with me to London.

Then uncle and I will give you a splendid time.

For a minute or two, Tom's face shone with delight, then he cut sight of birdie and turned

to his aunt.

"'Dear Aunt Laura,' he said, "'I am very sorry, but I can't go, can't go, and why not?'

Because I can't go and leave birdie here all alone,' he said stoutly.

When I was going to be alone, he wrote and asked his mother to let me go home with him.

She could not have either of us, because birdie's sister has scarlet fever.

She has to stay here, and he has never been away from home at Christmas time before, and

I can't go and leave him by myself, Aunt Laura.

For a minute, Aunt Laura looked at the boy as if she could not believe him.

Then she caught him in her arms and kissed him.

"'You dear little boy, you shall not leave him.

You shall bring him along, and we shall all enjoy ourselves together.'

Birdie, my boy, you are not very old yet, but I'm going to teach you a lesson as well

as I can.

It is that kindness is never wasted in this world, and so birdie and Tom found that there

was such a thing as a fairy, after all, end of a Christmas fairy by John Strange Winter.