ACT II
[Early morning. Enter Harry and Nell.]
Harry. There’s my sled. [Darts across room toward the sled. Nell runs after, snatches his arm, and pulls him back a little, pointing to the Mother Goose book with her other hand.]
Nell. Oh, Harry, wait a minute! Look!
Harry. Look what?
Nell. It’s red!
Harry. What’s red?
Nell. The cap. Don’t you see? Mother Goose’s cap.
Harry. That’s soo! Let’s see about the others!
[They sit down side by side with the book before them. As they talk they turn the pages.]
Nell. Look! Boy Blue has a new horn! It used to be tin.
Harry. And Miss Muffet’s tuffet hasn’t any holes in it!
Nell. And, sure as I live, her spider is yellow! It used to be black. And see! Jack and Jill have a new pail—there’s only one dent in it!
Harry. And just look at Bo-Peep, will you! She has a pink ribbon instead of a blue one!
Nell. And Jack Horner’s pie hasn’t any thumb-holes in it! And Simple Simon has a pie, too! Santa Claus must have heard what we said about their needing things!
Harry. I wonder if he heard me say you needed a new pair of eyes.
Nell. [Looking at him, eyes very wide and excited.] Do they look new?
Harry. Yes, awfully shiny. I might pinch you, and see if they cry.
Nell. Don’t you dare! Anyway, maybe your hands are new, and if they are, they won’t pinch people, of course.
Harry. [Looking at them.] They don’t feel a bit like pinching now, really.
Nell. Let’s tell Mother, and show her the book. [They run out with book. Return without it, run over to fireplace and take down their stockings. Holding these, they take hands, and coming toward the front, sing, to same music as before. As they sing, the Mother Goose children steal in behind them and join softly in the song:]
Oh, it’s Christmas Day, and we’re made over new,
Nell, and Hal, and Mother Goose’s children, too.
We won’t slap, we won’t snap,
And we’ll never, never scrap.
It sounds as if we’re dreaming, but it’s true.
Old Santa Claus must certainly be wise,
For he knew we needed brand-new hands and eyes.
While we slept, in he stepped,
To our bedsides softly crept,
And he made us over just for a surprise.
Oh, we wish that we could tell him our delight,
Over all the things that happened in the night—
Tokens new for me and you,
Mother Goose’s children, too!
He’s remembered everybody most polite.
Oh, Santa Claus has been a perfect dear,
And we’d like to tell him so right in his ear.
Jack,—and you,—and Boy Blue,—
And the rest,—all know it’s true,
And we’d hug him if we had him with us here.
[When the song is over the Mother Goose children run out quickly. Nell looks around, as though listening or looking for something. Looks puzzled.]
Nell. I thought I heard somebody.
Harry. No, you didn’t. Let’s look at our stockings!
Nell. All right. Only let’s get Bobby and Dot first. Maybe they’re made new, too!
Harry. You couldn’t tell if they were. They’re almost new just as they are, you see.
Harry and Nell. [Go to door, call.] Oh, Bobby! Oh, Dot! Come along! Come and see your stockings!
[They go out and lead in Bobby and Dot. Grand scramble for stockings. Exit with stockings, or Curtain.]
GENERAL REMARKS ABOUT PRACTICAL DETAILS
The play may be given without a curtain, but if one is available, it may be used at the beginning and end. In the middle, it is better not to use it, as the quiet, empty room is much more impressive than any curtain could be.
The two littlest “real children” may be two or three years old, as they can be piloted through their parts by Harry and Nell. The part of Miss Muffet can be taken by a child of five or six years. Harry and Nell and the other children may range from nine to fourteen years. Santa Claus and Mother Goose may be taken by a big boy and girl, or by “grown-ups.”
COSTUMES
For the two smallest children, long nightgowns; Harry, striped pajamas; Nell, a long white nightgown and over it a gaily colored wrapper. The Mother Goose children to be dressed as nearly like their pictures as possible. In general, the Kate Greenaway style should be followed. The boys wear tunics of cheese cloth, over their own loose knickerbockers, the tunics loosely belted in. Broad white Puritan collars and cuffs may be cut out of stiff white muslin. Their edges need not be finished, as they hold very well.
Miss Muffet, pink and white, exactly like the pictures; Bo-Peep, a shepherdess costume of figured blue-and-pink cretonne over a blue skirt, and big white hat. Jill, a real Kate Greenaway girl, in blue and white; Mistress Mary, also Kate Greenaway, in yellow and white. Mother Goose, a black waist, with big white fichu, black overskirt over red underskirt, high-peaked hat, made by rolling stiff brown paper into a cone, cutting it even around the bottom, and fastening it to an old hat crown which has a narrow rim of black velvet. The joining is covered by a narrow band of gilt paper pasted on.
The Mother Goose book should be made for the occasion, out of Bristol-board or corrugated packing board, with pages made of brown wrapping-paper, and the cover picture of Mother Goose pasted upon the outside. The change in the color of the hat is easily effected in this way: the hat in the cover picture is painted red in the first place. Then a bit of brown paper cut the same shape as the peak is lightly pasted on over it. After the book is taken off the stage by the children, this bit of paper is pulled off, so that when Santa Claus brings the book in again, the hat is red. The inside pages of the book, of course, are never seen at all by the audience.
Real toys are put into the stockings, so that the joy of the “real children” in pulling the things out, especially of the two-and three-year-olds, is entirely genuine and spontaneous.
If it were desired to use fewer characters, one or two of the Mother Goose children can easily be cut out. If more characters are wanted, they can be added, such as Old King Cole, needing a new bowl; Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son, needing a new pipe; the Queen of Hearts, needing a new batch of tarts, etc.
HOW CHRISTMAS WAS SAVED OR
THE SORROWS OF SANTA CLAUS
(A Christmas Play)
By Catharine Markham
PLACE
The home of Santa Claus near the North Pole.
TIME
The week before Christmas.
CHARACTERS
| Santa Claus. | Robinson Crusoe. |
| Mother Goose. | Friday. |
| Jennie Wren, sewing girl. | Captain Kidd. |
| Jack Frost, man of all work. | Robin Hood. |
| Dame Rumor. | Man in the Moon. |
| Mother Shipton. | The Clerk of the Weather. |
| William Tell. | Dick Whittington. |
| Lo, the Poor Indian. | Pocahontas. |