yours, and loves you all very much.  And you’re quite right about that, for I declare, I love every one of you as much as I love—­plum pudding.  And the second reason why you are all smiling, I guess, is because you think I am going to show you a Christmas Play.  And you’re right about that, too.  I have a play all ready for you, there behind the curtain, and the name of it is “The Christmas Dinner.”  Doesn’t the very name of it make you hungry?  Well, you just wait.  Now when the curtain opens, you’ll see the warm cozy kitchen of a farm house, where six people live.  Two of them are quite young, because they are just a boy and a girl, and their names are Walter and Gertrude.  And two of them are older, and yet not so very old either:  they are the father and mother of the two children.  And the last two are the oldest of all, and they are really old, for they are the children’s grandfather and grandmother.  It is late in the afternoon of the day before Christmas, the hour when it has begun to get dark.  The father is out cutting some good big sticks of wood for the Christmas fire, and the two children are playing outside of the house.  So you’ll not see them at first.  But you will see the mother, who is just finishing the day’s work, and the old grandfather and grandmother, who are sitting by the fire.  Are you ready, all of you?  Be quiet, then, for now it is going to begin.

The Christmas Dinner

The First Scene

Now the Curtain opens, and you see a farmhouse kitchen, just as Mother Goose promised.  At the back, opposite to you, is a fire-place, with a mantel shelf over it.  A bright fire is burning.  On the mantel is a lamp, lighted, and an unlighted candle; also some other things that you’ll hear about later.  There is a cupboard against the back wall.  At one side of the room is the door leading out of doors; beside it is a large wood box, where the fire-wood is kept; and nearby are a broom, leaning against the wall, and a dustpan.  On the other side of the room is another door, which leads to the rest of the house; beside that is a big clothes basket, where the soiled clothes are kept.  Close to the fire, one on each side, the Grandfather and the Grandmother are sitting in comfortable chairs.  Near the front and a little at one side are a table and a chair.  On the table is a dishpan and a number of dishes, which the Mother is washing when the curtain opens.

The first one to speak is the grandmother, and this is what she says:  Haven’t you nearly finished, Mary?

Yes, almost, answers mother:  only a few more things to be washed, and then I can sit down and rest.

Grandmother asks, Is everything ready for the Christmas dinner tomorrow?

Every single thing, mother answers.  The goose is ready to go on the fire; the apple sauce is made; the bread and the pies are baked; and the plum pudding—­well, you saw the pudding yourself, so that I don’t need to tell you about that.  It’s a beauty, if I do say so.