Well, my dears, I hope you are enjoying my little Play. And what do you suppose comes next? Wouldn't you like to see who lives down inside that house, where the chimney was; and what they were doing while Jack Frost and the others were up on the roof, and whether they heard the Wind Fairies; and whether they knew that the Snow Fairies had come; and how they came to make that mistake, lighting a fire in the fireplace where Santa Claus had come down? Well, that is just what the next scene is to be about. Last time we were up on the roof; this time we shall be down in the Room, in front of the fire-place. So be still and listen carefully, for now it is going to begin.
The Second Scene
When the curtain opens this time, you can see into the Room of the House, just as Mother Goose promised. Notice that on one side of the fire-place is a window with curtains drawn, on the other, a washstand with howl and pitcher. In front, on right and left, are two large beds. In the middle of the room, with her hack to the fire-place, the Grandmother is seated on a low chair, and about her in a half-circle on stools, sit the eight grandchildren, four girls and four boys, all in their night-clothes and wrappers.
ISABEL begins by asking: Grandmother, how old are you?
GRANDMOTHER replies: How old do you think, my dear?
ISABEL guesses: A hundred?
Almost, says GRANDMOTHER: Why, I can remember when all your mothers and fathers were little boys and girls like you. Your mother, Margaret and Sally, and your father, Jack and Tom and Helen, and your father, Isabel, and your mother, Ned and Frank, were my little boys and girls, you know; and on Christmas Eve I used to sit with them in the nursery, just as I am sitting with you now. That is why I told them to go downstairs and leave me alone with you for a little while tonight—for the sake of old times. Yes, they used to sit around me just like this, and then I used to tell them a story.
A story! A story! cry ALL THE CHILDREN.
And GRANDMOTHER says: Shall I tell you one? The children all nod. Let me think, says she.