Christmas at Cedar Hill

by Lucy Ellen Guernsey

"Fanny did not often go to Sunday-school. Her parents were 'Church people,' and there was no Episcopal church nearer than that at Rockville, twelve miles away. On the first Sunday of every month, Mr. and Mrs. Bolt drove over to Rockville to church, and these were Fanny's great holidays. Then she met her special friends, the rector's two little daughters. Then she went to Sunday-school, and in consideration of her living so far away, the teacher allowed her to take home two or three books at a time. One day, one of the other little girls in the class objected to this indulgence."

"'We can only have one book at a time, and she has three. I don't think it is fair.'"

"'Fanny can only come once in a month,' replied the teacher; 'and when she comes she has learned the lessons for the whole month. She never misses a lesson, and it is only fair that she should have the same privileges as you who are more favored.'"

"Fanny had not always been an only child. She had once had two brothers. The elder had gone to sea before Fanny was born. He had come home two or three times since she could remember, and had always brought her and her mother beautiful presents; but he had not been home now for five years. The ship in which he sailed had been lost, and though some of the sailors were saved, David Bolt was not among them. Every one but Fanny believed that he was drowned; but Fanny could not think so. She never talked about David now, because it seemed to grieve her mother, but she thought of him a great deal, and always prayed for him when she said her prayers."

"The other brother, John, had been injured by the fall of a tree he was cutting down, and after lingering some months, he too died, and was buried near the little church in Rockville. Fanny always went to see his grave when she went to church. She loved to think of John, too, and remember the talks she used to have with him as he lay on his bed in the little room opening out of the kitchen. But she felt very differently about John from what she did about David. John was safe in heaven, never to suffer any more. Fanny was sure of that."

"But poor David might be cast ashore on some desert island, or a slave among the savage Arabs, like the Captain Riley whose narrative was among the books in the corner cupboard; and most earnestly did the little girl pray that God would care for him and bring him safely home again."

"One November—the one in which our story begins—the winter had set in early, and very cold and stormy. There had been snowstorms already, and the sleighing was good, though the road between Bolt's Hill and Rockville was somewhat drifted. Fanny did not go to school now. She learned her lessons at home, and recited them to her father in the evening. She could not run about the fields any more, but she did not want either for work or amusement. She had her lessons to learn and her daily task of spinning to do, for Fanny had already learned to spin both on the great and little wheel. Then for amusement, she had the footstool she was working in worsted for a present to Mr. Henderson, the rector of the church at Rockville: she had her swing in the garret, her dolls and playhouse, and her books, which she loved the more the oftener she read them over."

"The day before Thanksgiving—that is to say, on the twenty-seventh day of November, Mrs. Bolt said to Fanny at the breakfast table:"

"'Now, Fanny, you are to be housekeeper to-day. Your father and myself are going to Rockville to do some business, and we want you to stay at home, keep up the fire, and have a comfortable house and a good supper for us when we come home.'"

"Fanny looked a little grave and disappointed when she heard that her parents were going to Rockville without her, but her face soon cleared up again. And she began to please herself with thinking of all the work she should do, and the nice supper she would have for her mother at night; for Fanny was already quite a good cook."