The Christmas House Story

   A little girl busily finished a snowman and stepped back to survey it. Satisfied, she walked from the yard to the door in the front of a house. The door was a tall, broad oaken door such as could be seen on many of the surrounding houses. A few cracks between its planks glowed with firelight, and the door’s hinges mildly creaked as the little girl pushed them and skipped into the house. The house was not as commonplace as the door; it was completely overgrown with thick vines that even curled up the chimney. Therefore, it was impossible for the passerby to mark any other distinctions about the house other than the vines, and the clear, centered door.

   That evening, Ruth (for that was the little girl’s name) skipped inside and to the kitchen. The inside of the uncommon house was a warm, inviting place with a large table, dozens of chairs, and a roaring fire. The use of the house was as unusual as its appearance. It was build and owned by Saul, who had adopted every member of his family who lived with him. 

   A tall, hardy man stood with his back to the fire. When the man saw Ruth, he moved to make room for her and set a chair before the fire for her to sit in.

   “Hello, Saul.” Ruth said cheerily, setting a stack of dishes she had intended to set the table with onto a nearby seat.

   Saul lowered to his knees and took Ruth’s cold, small hands. He covered them with his deeply tanned ones and rubbed them..

   “Are you cold, Ruth?” he asked simply. His eyebrows gathered as he gently worked her fingers.

   “Not anymore,” she replied with a laugh.

   Saul took up the dishes and set them on the table. Ruth followed him, helping to place them.

   Coming from the next room walked an elderly woman with a smile on her wrinkled face. She approached the table and softly helped with the dishes. Saul took her arm and helped her tenderly to a special rocking chair on one side of the fire. The woman eased herself into the chair with a sigh of comfort. Ruth joined them, watching Saul stir the stew with bright eyes and thinking how strange and quiet the house seemed. It was not quiet for long.

   A shouting boy and barking dog burst in upon them.

   “I got it! I got it!” the boy cried, holding out his cupped hands.

   Saul seemed excited.

   “Let’s see it, Colin.”

   “What is it?” asked Ruth.

   Colin concentrated on his hands as he slowly opened them.

   The dog whined.

   “It’s a little bitty thing,” said Saul.

   “Ain’t it tiny?” Colin boasted, rubbing the furry back of a chipmunk with his finger. “I got a box and everything to keep him in. Just wait ‘til Grover sees it, he’ll-”

   The dog broke into a frenzy of barking, and ran wildly in circles.

   “It’s him! He’s here!” Colin cried, clamping shut on his pet and running out the door.

   Saul straightened and watched, smiling.

   In a moment Colin returned, excitedly recounting his tale of trading corks and string for his new pet, and the dog barking at the heels of an interested young man. Grover was dressed warmly, his hair was unkempt, and he looked around with an air of confidence. He asked Colin many questions about the chipmunk as he casually moved toward Saul and shook his hand meaningfully. He then placed his hand on Ruth’s hat and gave it a spin, slowly stopping to lean above the old woman’s rocking chair.

   Saul stirred his stew, removed it from the fire, and set in on the table. Ruth took his hand and led him to the door. They looked up the street, and then down, but saw nothing to satisfy them.

   Turning back inside, Saul said, “I reckon we’ll be eating without Daniel today. Gather around, everybody.”

   Colin and Grover helped the old woman to the table and they all settled in around the stew. Saul bowed his head and closed his eyes. The others did the same. For a moment there was quiet.

   “We come to thank thee, Lord, for thy blessing of this food. Amen.”

   The others murmured amen sincerely and looked up.

   Sitting between Saul and Ruth was the last member of the house. Daniel lifted his serious blue eyes and smiled at their surprised expressions. He spooned Ruth some stew. She ate it slowly, alternately listening to Colin and Grover, and watching the happy, contented looks of the others.

   After supper, Ruth gathered the dishes with an air of importance; she always felt important being in charge of them. Ruth washed and Daniel dried as Saul talked.

   “Our neighbors across the street are needing a warmer barn to put their livestock in since they have started their dairy.” he was saying. “I suppose that we’ll be helping them tomorrow.”

   Ruth listened attentively.

   A hasty knock sounded at the door and a neighbor’s burly head darted inside.

   “Jack Land fell down his old well,” he cried. “We need a rope.”

   Everyone stopped.

   Without a word, Saul strode across the room and took a thick coil of rough rope from one of the beams. Daniel dried his hands, and Grover snatched his jacket. The three men left the house immediately and Colin followed with his dog. Ruth watched them leave and grew worried for Jack Land and his wife. She closed the door and finished the dishes neatly. Then she arranged the chairs into rows and swept the floor, stirred the coals and prepared a straw bed on the floor. Taking down an oil lamp from a shelf, she trimmed the wick and lit it, setting in on a chair before a front window.

   The sky quickly grew dark and moonlight reflected on sparkling snow. Men, women, horses, and oxen with carts and carriages passed Saul’s overgrown house, busily going their separate ways. The house looked uncanny in the dark. A few rumors had circulated that it was a mental asylum, or some sort of orphanage. Everyone knew that it was an odd place inhabited by strange, unrelated folk. The windows glowed behind the leafed vines with an eerie yellow.

   Ruth waited long by the fire until she nodded asleep in her chair. As if in a dream, she saw Saul return, gather her in his arms, and lay her gently on her bed. When she woke, she found it was early daylight. The fire was reduced to smoldering embers, and Colin was snoring heavily beside his dog.

Snow had fallen during the night and was being shoveled away from a few doors. Slowly, the household began to awake. Ruth busies herself with preparing breakfast. Daniel was first to the kitchen.

   “Jack Land broke his leg.” he told her. He never talked much. Ruth knew that by his simple sentence he meant that Jack had been found in a bad place, someone was lowered to help him be pulled up, Saul paid the doctor to set his leg, and they boarded over the empty, old well. After they had done all they could to help, Saul, Daniel, Grover, and Colin came home very late.

   Ruth nodded and started toward the old woman’s room. Before she had half reached it, Grover came up behind her and swung her in the air. Ruth gasped, and screamed until he set her back on the floor. He began to tickle her. She laughed and squirmed out of his grasp, running to Daniel. She clung to his arm and looked triumphantly back at Grover. Daniel was her refuge against Grover's funny tricks.

   The front door opened, and a gust of snowy wind whistled into the room as Saul stepped inside. Ruth ran past the barking dog to Saul, shut the door, and led him to the fire. She laid his stiff, cold coat over a chair and rubbed his large hands.

   “Are you cold, Saul?” she asked.

   “It’s a chilling day, Ruth.” he replied. “It’s a frozen Christmas Day.”

   Ruth started. Today was Christmas Day?

   “And there’s a young widow who’s living across town with her children in a place that ain’t fit for living in.” he continued lowly, staring at the fire.

   Rust’s heart warmed. She knew he had helped the widow somehow that morning.

   Everyone gathered around the table for breakfast.

   “I suppose to help build that barn today would be best,” Saul said.

   Daniel nodded.

   “How many cows do they have?” asked Grover.

   “Some dozen or so, I believe.” Saul answered.

   Ruth felt her feet suddenly clamped upon by a pair of legs under the table. She tried to kick, and looked at Grover with shining and protesting eyes.

   “I reckon that’ll be one barn, Sir?” continued Grover politely.

   The dog barked, and Colin put his head under the table, laughing.

   Ruth’s small feet wiggled free from between his legs and she scooted her chair closer to Daniel. Daniel patted her shoulder.

   Before he left, Saul kissed Miss Eva tenderly on her hair. Daniel and Grover did the same, and Colin followed them out with his dog licking at his heels. Ruth hummed a little tune as she cleaned the table and sat quietly before the fire, watching it with a thoughtful expression.

   Today was Christmas Day. She had often dreamed of how nice it would be to do something special at Christmas. Ruth did no think of gifts: few gifts were given in that house other than the most important ones of love and virtue. Rather, she thought of what she had seen Saul give.

   After kindly attending to Miss Eva and kissing her, Ruth hastily gathered some warm clothes and hurried outside. Instead of staying inside the low fence around the front yard as she usually did, Ruth stepped boldly onto the snowy cobblestone street as she pulled on an overlarge coat and hat.

   No one noticed the small, odd figure hurry through the streets alone, but Ruth noticed almost every person she passed. That man looked cold, or this woman seemed worried. She often stopped to steady a child slipping on the ice, or help an elderly person to rise from their seat.

   Once, she stooped to pick up a lady’s coin that fell from her purse as she paid for a hired carriage.      When she straightened with it, the lady gave a small, sharp cry.

   “Why, You are Saul’s little girl,” she exclaimed.

   Ruth was very surprised; she did not know the lady.

   “I’m sorry, ma’am,” she said. “I don’t know you.”

   “You were very young when I met you. I was quite a girl, myself.”

   “How did you know me today, then?” asked Ruth.

   The lady hesitated and glanced at the snow, saying, “I never will forget your sweet face, dear.” She looked back up and smiled. “Keep the coin; I am glad to have seen you.”

   Ruth watched the carriage drive away and continued her walk thoughtfully.

   Presently, a wagon stopped beside her and the driver called down.

   “Yer one of Saul’s young ’uns, ain’t ya?” he asked.

   “Yes,” Ruth answered slowly.

   The driver nodded to her.

   “Come up!” he said, giving her his hand.

   Ruth climbed beside him and sat down.

   The man started the horses.

   “I knew ya right off,” he told her. “Though it was some time ago when I saw ya. Saul helped with my farm when my wife was pretty ill. She got better, though. It was a blessin’ for his watching the weather and bringin’ in my crops. ‘Twas a good crop, too, I remember. He wouldn’t take no payment; he said it was the Lord’s blessin’ that he could help. If ever I could do anything for him, I would. That’s why, when I saw ya, I thought I’d give ya a ride.”

   Ruth listened to his every word with deep interest. When she saw that his direction was changing, she thanked him and stepped back onto the icy road. Her face was red, and her toes numb with cold, but she pulled the coat tighter around herself and kept walking.

   This part of town was unfamiliar by sight, since she rarely went from home, but Saul had spoken of it so much, Ruth knew where to go.

   As Ruth passed shops and houses, people and animals, wagons, carts and carriages, she noticed only a few people smiling. She wondered why.

   Out of a door before her, an Italian-looking man poked his head and drew a deep breath.

   “Ah, Christmas,” he said to the air with a chuckle. “Bring me customers for my Christmas pies!”

He saw Ruth. “Come in, you are cold! My bakery is very warm. Come in!”

   Ruth followed him inside and smiled in the hot room. Lining the walls were shelves of fresh pies and cakes and rolls.

   The man looked at her and spread his arms out. “These,” he said impressively. “Are my Christmas foods. They are very good. I know,” he whispered confidentially, leaning down. “I know because a man I trust told me that my baking is good. So I started my bakery.” He raised his voice as if to an audience. “That was months ago when I did not know what I would do for my living. I am doing well now, and will soon return to the man I trust and say, ‘Saul, you are the reason of my career! If you had not told me I baked so well, I would not have started my bakery. Furthermore, you gave me the money to start my business and here it is back, for I can now repay you!” He started on a roll of thanks.

   “Saul,” Ruth cried, wide-eyed. “Do you know Saul?”

   “Do you?” the man returned, amazed.

   “I live with him; I love him! Did he really help you with your bakery?”

   “This is Providence!” the baker cried. “I owe him all that I own! Please, take a roll; take a pie!”

   He stuffed Ruth’s pockets.

   Ruth waved back when she left the bakery. Delighted, she ran down a few streets, and then slowed, looking around. She had heard Saul give directions to this place before, and now she searched for the red door.

   A tall, haggard woman came to the door and raised her eyebrows when she saw Ruth.

   “Please, ma’am,” Ruth began. “I am Saul’s little girl, and I have brought you a Christmas gift.”

She pulled from her pockets all the baked goods she had been given, and handed also the lady’s coin.

   The woman’s face brightened. “Saul brought firewood to me and my children this morning,” she said. “And you have brought some things also. Thank you!”

   Ruth smiled and turned away, perfectly contented. Christmas Day had been made a special day. Before she reached the end of the street, Ruth saw some children playing near her. They were kicking snow at one another and playing roughly. When they saw Ruth, they began to laugh at her.

   Ruth was puzzled.

   “Hello,” she said.

   “Hello back!” one answered, pointing at her face and laughing.

   “What’s on your face? Mud?” laughed another.

   Ruth touched her face.

   They led her to a window.

   Looking in the glass, Ruth saw a reflection clearly of herself: a large hat almost covered her bright eyes, and her face looked small under it. But on her face there was something she had seen before, but had not thought about- a large dark place. Her cold hands felt it. Her throat tightened. The happy face she saw now blushed and seemed ugly.

   “Go wash your face!” the children cried, laughing.

   Ruth pushed past them and ran down the street. She knew her face was not dirty. Saul had told her the dark spot was a handprint from an angel who touched her in her mama's womb. It was a reminder of heaven where her mother now lived. Now the mark repelled her.

   The snow beneath her feet blurred as her eyes filled with tears. For a long while she ran, until she dropped, breathless and hot, in the snow at a hidden corner. She cried bitterly and hid her face. She also saw that it was growing dark, and she would soon lose her way.

   Forcing herself to trudge on, though now she ached with cold, Ruth suddenly had some terrible thoughts. Was Saul ashamed of her face? Did Daniel wish she would not be near him? Had Grover and Colin wanted to laugh at her? Did Miss Eva think she was ugly?

   When Ruth neared her home, it was quite dark. No one noticed her walking wearily on the empty road. The moon glistened on the snow, and a frozen wind whistled through bare branches. Ruth stopped and looked up from her feet, shivering. Behind the snow-buried fence stood Saul’s house. The leaves on the vines trembled in the wind, the overgrown windows glowed yellow, and the broad door was clear and dark. A path wound through snowdrifts, and Ruth followed it to the door. Slowly and softly, she pushed the door slightly open. Ruth caught her breath.

   The room was full of warmth, light, and laughter. It was crowded with stranger who were eating, talking, and smiling, and laughing. With his back to the fire, stood Saul, his face beaming.

   A weight lifted from Ruth when she saw him. She ran forward with a cry, unmindful that people would see her face, but wanting only to return Saul’s joyous smile.

   Saul exclaimed when she threw her arms around him.

   “Ruth,” he said gently. “I missed you.”

   Ruth looked at him with shining eyes.

   “I wanted to do something special today.” She told him what she had done for the poor woman across town, about the people she met, and the children who laughed at her.

   “Ruth, you are beautiful.” he said. “And your heart showed a beautiful thing today.”

   Ruth smiled through some tears and felt her fear melt before the wonderful warmth of Saul's love.

When she looked around the room, Ruth saw Daniel coming toward her, and Grover and Collin wave from Miss Eva’s chair. She also saw Jack Land and his wife, the lady in the carriage, the wagon driver and his family, and many other people she did not know.

   Everyone sang carols and told stores. Ruth played with Colin, and watched for Grover’s tricks, (except when she ran to Daniel.) Christmas Day was filled with love and generosity. The stars shone above the house as they had above Bethlehem, and in Heaven above sang the angels as they had to shepherds, saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests!’

By Anna Sampley 2012