Astra (24 page)

But Astra just then had hold of Harold’s arm with a firm, masterful grip, her eyes were sorry and troubled, and her lips shut firmly together. She was not hearing Camilla.

“Harold, you have been a very naughty boy to speak that way to your mother’s friend, and I want you to go over there and sit on that chair by the door and think about what you have said and how wrong it was. Your mother and father would have been ashamed of you; I am ashamed of you; and I am sure God must be ashamed of you. Just go and think about it and see what you think God feels about it. And when this lady goes out, I want you to apologize to her. You said very naughty things to her.”

“Well, they were all
true
!” said Harold, lifting honest eyes, still angry.

“Look here, little boy,” said Astra, putting her arm around the angry young shoulder, “don’t you know that you are not that lady’s judge? God is the only One who has a right to say what she is, not you. Even if she were very wrong, it would not be your business to judge her.”

The boy hung his head and would not lift his eyes to the contemptuous eyes of the lady in the mink coat. But he finally lifted them to Astra.

“Okay,” he faltered dejectedly. “I’m willing to let God judge her, but I’ll bet if He does, He’ll be harder on her than I was! On Christmas Day, too, and we are only children without our mother!”

With a motion like a tender caress Astra led the little boy over to the appointed chair and sat him down gently.

“Try to think how you made God feel about this, Harold,” said Astra in a low tone. And then she turned toward the angry woman who had made all this disturbance.

“I beg your pardon,” she said quietly, “you asked me a question, I think, and I wasn’t quite sure what you said.”

Camilla flashed back importantly to her question.

“Yes,” she snapped. “I asked you whose servant you are! I shall certainly report you to whomever you work for!”

Astra stood utterly still and looked at the woman for an instant and then she said with a sweet humility, and yet with a proud note in her voice, “I am a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you report me to Him, I am sure He will help you to understand.”

“You are blasphemous!” said Camilla. “If you didn’t need reporting before, you certainly do now. And those children deserve a thorough spanking! I would be glad to administer it to them right now!”

She made a notion as if to take off the mink coat for a time, and suddenly Mary Lou gave forth a great sob like a shout of terror, “Not me!” and rushed over to Astra, flinging herself in her arms to be taken up. And Brenda slid over to Astra’s side and hid herself in Astra’s skirt.

Astra took little Mary Lou up in her arms, cuddled her close, and put one hand on Brenda’s dark curls comfortingly, facing the interloper with a steady gaze. She was very white, otherwise she was entirely calm, and she stood her ground almost as if she were protected by an unseen army.

And then the little boy got up from his chair and walked over to stand before Camilla, his proud little head raised defiantly, his young lips atremble, his fine eyes flashing.

“I’m sorry I made God feel bad,” he said, every syllable clear and distinct. “I thought maybe He wanted me to tell you what you were, but I guess I oughtta let Him do it! I hope you’ll excuse what I said, but God is going to be your judge after this, and I’m just sure
you’ll get yours
! And it won’t be just a little old spanking, either. I’ll tell the word! It’ll be real! I’m just tellin’ ya for your own good.”

Then with a low bow, which Harold had probably learned at dancing school, he backed away and sat down in his chair of punishment, with a satisfied look, as if he had done his best to set himself right with God.

Astra, standing there with the warm arms of the little girl about her neck, the hot baby tears splashing on her face, and the small girl Brenda cowering against her, felt a sudden desire to sit down and laugh. The whole situation was so ridiculously tragic, and on Christmas Day! What was wrong? Was it her fault? And what ought she to do now? Of course, she wasn’t the lady of the house, and perhaps her responsibility was ended. And yet it seemed outlandish to let the occurrence end like this.

But suddenly Camilla settled the matter for her. She turned to the children collectively, as much of them as she could see, and addressed them.

“You have been very naughty children! Every one of you! And I shall take care to see that your mother and your father hear all about it. I’m quite sure they know how to give you all the right kind of spanking, or even something worse. And now I’m going home before any more insults are heaped upon me. And
you”
—here she turned to Astra with her imperious chin in the air—“when Mr. Cameron comes, you will tell him that I couldn’t possibly wait for him any longer. I have duties at home, and I am utterly exhausted with the reception I have had here. Tell Mr. Cameron I wish he would call me at once as soon as he comes in. And as for
you
, I shall certainly see that you get your just due. I consider this all your fault, and I shall not lose any time in telling a lot of other people so.”

But Astra’s head was bent down to the baby in her arms, and her lips were touching Mary Lou’s cheeks with soft kisses, patting the little heaving back that was still quivering with sobs. With the other hand she smoothed the tumbled black curls of Brenda, who was still sobbing.

And staunch and true in front of them stood the little boy, his fists clenched, his chest heaving, and big boy tears rolling down his furious young face.

And then he suddenly gasped out in a high, sweet voice, “My Uncle Charlie told me ta take care of you, and I’m gonta do it, no matter how many bad old women come around!”

Camilla went out quickly with slammed door, and a minute later they heard the elevator go down.

Then suddenly the door from the kitchen swung open, letting in the sound of loud guttural snoring from the back of the kitchen, and there in the doorway stood Uncle Charlie!

He had a great bunch of white chrysanthemums in a tall glass vase in his hands, and his face was stern with astonishment and anxiety.

“What in the world is the meaning of all this?” he demanded of nobody in particular. “Has something happened?”

W
hat Charles Cameron saw at first as he stood there in the doorway with his great sheaf of gorgeous chrysanthemums, was Astra with the baby in her arms, nestling so comfortably in her neck as if she might be the child’s own mother, and her other arm around little Brenda. It was a sweet, tender picture, and it stirred his heart deeply. Astra! How lovely she was! Her cheeks were scarlet now, like the ribbon on her hair, and it was plain to be seen that she and the children were in entire accord and had all been through a hard experience. There was something basically masculine and protective about Harold. And it was he who answered his uncle, as if he, being the man, must account for all that had happened while he was the head of the house. “There certainly
has
, Uncle Charlie,” he gasped, with almost a manly sob at the end of his phrase. “We’ve had a bad lady here, and she got us all haywire! We were having a swell time, building Bethlehem, and she just barged in and tried to run us all. She called our Astra a
servant
! Imagine that! An’ asked who she worked for! And told her she was stuffing lies ur something down our froats, and she oughta gone ta college, an’ a lotta of rotten stuff. An then she squared off an’ offered to spank us! Imagine that! An’ I hadta tell her where ta get off! Only Astra said I wasn’t her judge, an’ I hadta ’polagize. But I guess God’ll have His time with her ’fore He gets her ta do anything. But anyhow, I ’polagized, an’ that’s the first time I ever did, too! But I’m
glad
I said what I did, anyhow, and I guess God is, too! She needed it, she really
did
, Uncle Charlie, an’ I don’t mean
maybe
!” Cameron’s eyes met Astra’s, and in spite of themselves they grinned covertly, ducking down their faces to hide their mirth.

“Well, who was this lady, Harold?”

“You oughtta know. She said she came here ta meet
you
!”

“To meet
me
!” exclaimed Cameron, frowning. “Who in the world is she?”

“Yeh, she said you expected her ta meetcha here!”

“That’s absurd!” said Cameron, much annoyed. He gave a quick glance at Astra, but she was occupied in mopping up Mary Lou’s tears and meditating on whether he had been in the kitchen during the last two or three minutes while Camilla was there discoursing. Then she spoke.

“She said she had something very important to tell you, and she had some things to do and must hurry back. She asked that you would call her up at once when you came, but I doubt if she has reached there yet, unless she lives close by.”

“In a pig’s eye you will, Uncle Charlie, will ya? You wouldn’t call up a thing like that,
wouldya
?”

“Well, from your description it doesn’t sound as if she is the kind of person I would care to call up. Did she leave her phone number?”

“She thought you’d know what it was,” said Brenda, suddenly barging into the conversation.

Her uncle put out his arms.

“Come here, little girl,” he said, setting down the great vase of flowers and taking her on his lap. “You look all stirred up. Did they get
you
into the fight, too?”

Brenda nodded and snuggled into her uncle’s arms.

“An’ on Chris’mus Day, too!” said Harold indignantly.

“Yes, it was a shame!” said Cameron. “I shouldn’t have gone and left you. But since I had to go, I’m glad I had such a good substitute.”

“Yes,” spoke up Astra. “He was fine. He really told the lady where to get off most effectively, though I’m not so sure his mother will be pleased when the lady gives her account of it. However, it’s over, and he really did his best as far as his frame of mind would let him, to apologize, so I guess we won’t spoil Christmas Day any further. Now, I wonder if we shall finish Bethlehem, or would you rather play something else?”

“Oh, finish Bethlehem!” begged the children. “Uncle Charlie, you come play Bethlehem, too!”

“Sure,” said the smiling uncle, divesting himself of his overcoat and sitting down. “How do you play it?”

“Oh, you just watch and wait till she tells you.”

“Don’t you think it would be a good thing for you to call this lady Miss Everson?” said Cameron.

“No,” said Brenda firmly, “it makes her too far-offy, and she said we might call her Astra.”

“Very well,” said Cameron. “What the lady says goes. But when you call her that, remember her name means a star, and you must be very polite to her, and respectful, just as you would be if one of the silver stars in the sky should come down and play with you a little while.”

The little girl giggled, but Harold looked at his new divinity solemnly, and after a while he smiled.

“I see what you mean, Uncle Charlie. She’s like that! That’s why I told the other lady to get out.”

“It appears to me, Harold, that more and more you are revealing that your language to the other lady must have been rather reprehensible! But let’s forget it now and go to Bethlehem.”

“That bad lady got the sheeps an’ the shepherds all mixed up,” said Brenda, who had been looking over the work so far done.

“We’ll soon set that right. While we are doing it, Harold, you can tell your uncle the beginning of the story.”

Willingly the boy began.

“Well, Astra told us how we were all sinners c’ndemned to death, and the bad lady didn’t like that, because that meant her, too. But God so loved everybody He had made—Say, Uncle Charlie, ya don’t suppose He loves her, too, do ya? Because I don’t see how He can.”

“‘For God so loved the world,’” said Astra in a low tone.

“Oh yeh, we had that in Sunday school. That’s John three sixteen. We learned that in the beginner’s room. But how He could love her? And why did He make her, anyway, horrid-acting like that?”

“Well, it seems He did,” said Cameron thoughtfully, “although He didn’t make her act that way. She did that herself. But I guess we’ve got to be polite to her at least.”

“Even if she’s rude to us?”

“How about that, Astra?” asked Cameron, their eyes meeting in that glance that seemed to bring them so near together.

“‘Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again,’” said Astra smiling.

“Well, that sort of sounds as if that was what people should do, if we want to do the right thing. It seems as if Astra knows nearly all the Bible, doesn’t it? You and I will have to do a lot of memorizing if we want to keep up with this lady, Harold.”

The child gave Astra a slow, sweet smile that showed he adored her, even on such short notice.

“Now come on,” she said, “and let’s finish our story. Will it bore you to listen, Uncle Charlie?” She gave Cameron a charming smile.

“I should say not,” said Cameron, his eyes resting on the girl’s lovely face. “Go on. I’m all eagerness!” So the little audience gathered around the table while Astra straightened out the sheep and began.

And then the old story lived there before them. The walls of the quite modern living room faded away, and blue heavens, star-pricked, came in their place. A great light grew, and angels came winging their way down. It was as real to those children, and to the young man, as if they had been looking through a window and actually seen it all. They saw the great angel step forward with his message and thrilled with the wonder of it as it came home to each that the story was meant for them, too, as well as the shepherds. They watched with reluctance as the other angels went back up into heaven and the night grew quiet again. Then they went to Bethlehem to “see the thing which had come to pass,” and saw in a word picture the baby who was born for them that Christmas Day.

“Well,” said Harold at the end, “I’m glad you told us about that. I always wondered how Christmas Day happened, and it’s a lot nicer than I thought it was.”

“But I’m awful
hongery
!” suddenly wailed little Mary Lou. “Don’t we have any Chrissum dinnee?”