| She gently arranged the holly around his bed
then ran out into the snow and with tears running down
her face called loudly for the villagers. They gathered in little groups to listen to her story. The women murmured in broken tones between sobs, "He’s dead!" and clasped their wondering little children closer, as if to comfort them for the loss of their dearest friend. The men looked everywhere except into each other’s eyes, for no man wanted to see the tears that were there. "Yes he’s dead," they all sighed deeply. "Who’s dead mother? Is it Nicholas?" asked the children. "Won’t he come to visit us any more on Christmas Eve?" And the parents had to turn away from the wide childish eyes because they didn’t want to say that awful sentence, "Yes, Nicholas is dead." The bells tolled and the village was in darkness that Christmas night. Vixen and his family whimpered in their stalls and holly glowed red over the still, loving heart in a red suit.
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Chapter Two The First Christmas Toys. Who would take care of little Nicholas now that he was all alone in the world? The fishermen and their wives had a meeting to discuss his plight. "We would take care of him of course," said one, "but it’s not easy with five mouths to feed already, and he’s a growing boy.." "It’s now the middle of winter and good fishing days are few and far between, "said another. "With luck we'll just scrape through until spring." Then kind, plump Mrs. Bavran spoke. "We have a reserve of food for this winter and there’s an old bed in our store room, so we could take in the poor little mite. But mind you, a fisherman’s life is never easy," she added. "Who knows what might happen between this year and next? I think that we should all share Nicholas. There are ten of us here now, so if we each agree to have him for one year, that will take care of him until he’s fifteen, and without a doubt he’ll run away to sea long before that." Everyone agreed, and so Nicholas went to live with the Bavran family, moving in on Christmas Eve, the day before the Christmas feast. The children’s excitement only made him feel more miserable and he curled himself up in a corner of the storeroom, and with heartbroken sobs for his lost mother, page 3 |