Come, Josephine

Chapter 26

  1927
Christmas Day

   The first Christmas we spent in Wisconsin was a bitter one. The snow fell in thick, swirling flurries and the drifts banked up high around the house. It became increasingly difficult to walk to the barn, and Jack strung a line from the house to the barn to help guide us.
   Our festivities were uninterrupted. Jack brought in a Christmas tree that he felled himself and mamma and I decorated it with left over ribbon, lace and ornaments sewing from fabric scraps. Jack carved a star for the top of the tree and a few separate ornaments to hang about the branches. Strings of popcorn were wrapped around the branches in a loose spiral the dropped towards the floor in places.
   Despite our efforts with the tree and the wreath we hung on the front door, we did not spend wildly on gifts and presents. Jack insisted that we buy each other something, but nothing ostentatious enough to cause us financial ruin. "This Christmas might be lean," he said, "but next year I am certain we will be able to afford much more."
   Mamma agreed and reminded him that the most important thing is that we all had each other. He laughed and said that she had been listening to him too much.
   On Christmas Day, Jack came into my room and woke me up. The sun had not yet risen, yet he was surprisingly more eager than me to open presents.
   I later realised that it was because he hasn't had anyone to share Christmas with for a long time, and that he hadn't had a family Christmas since he was fifteen. Why wouldn't he be excited?
   Mamma waited for us on the sofa, her hands wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate. She turned to me and smiled brightly, "Jack, Josie, your hot chocolate is on the mantelpiece."
   We retrieved them and merrily drank them down until there was nothing but a sickly syrup at the bottom. It was then that the real festivities could begin.
   Mamma passed out the presents and Jack and I tore into them immediately.
   Mamma had sewn me a new dress for Sunday best, of a beautiful, shimmering fabric with Pearl buttons. The dress was so beautiful that I gasped and thanked mamma repeatedly. She only smiled and said she had not paid much for the fabric as it was surplus and the tailors she worked for in town, so it was no trouble.
   Jack had received a beautiful winter coat for Sundays and best wear than mamma had sewn with a fur collar. He was so proud of it that he kissed her in thanks and handed me the coat to admire.
   Jack repaid the favour by giving mamma a small box from within his pocket. It was covered in velvet at held shut with a small, gold clasp. I starred at it in awe as he handed it to mamma.
   "You haven't, have you?" Mamma gasped, "I told you not to!"
   She flicked it open to reveal a beautiful piece of jewellery. Set in silver was a single Pearl, attached to a chain.
   "Oh, you did!" She said, "but how did you afford this? Jack, this is too much."
   He reassured her it was no trouble, and I looked at them in confusion. Mamma turned to me and smiled, "a few weeks ago, Jack came and got me from work. On the way home he caught me admiring this in the mercantile window- but, Jack, I told you not to!"
   "How could I not?" He laughed, and mamma smiled.
   I handed Jack and mamma their presents next. I gave mamma a shawl I had been knitting in secret for several months. It was a deep royal blue with veins of lighter shades running through it. She thanked me over and over, and Jack was just as pleased with his present.
   I knitted Jack a scarf; I was hardly handy with anything else. It was a rich red and made of thicker and stronger wool than mamma's. He put it on immediately, grinning ear to ear.
   I had not heard a knock at the door, but Jack called out, "come in!"
   With a flurry of white, Nick appeared in the doorway. Covered with snow and his eyelashes thickened with white, he smiled at me.
   "I'd thought I'd say hello and give you this," he handed me a parcel wrapped in brown paper, and in return, I handed him a similarly wrapped package. We tore into them the way I had with the previous presents, revealing the gifts inside. He had given me a pair of skates.
   "You shouldn't have!" I laughed, jumping up and hugging him around the neck. He swung me around and nodded to the fire.
   "Mind if I sit down and admire my new jumper?"
I smiled and let him have my seat by the fire. I recalled the weeks previous; Nick had appeared in a similar fashion recently with a bouquet of winter flowers and shrubs. He had smiled sheepishly and mentioned that the money from his family's harvest could not spare enough to buy me a "proper present". I pondered over how he had afforded it; perhaps it was his job in town for the mill that had afforded such luxury.
I would pay him back.
"Nick?" Jack said suddenly, "can you come to the barn with me and help me get Josie's present out?"
I had not realised that Jack had neglected to give me a present. I had not thought he owed me a thing, let alone a present large enough to take two people to bring inside.
Mamma and I sat in silence until Jack and Nick reappeared. There, held between them, was a bookcase. A beautiful, wooden bookcase that someone had carved roses and vines into by hand.
I flew to Jack so fast that he rocked back with the effort of holding me off. He laughed and hugged me back, "alright, kid- you've earned it."
I thanked him for the rest of the day, as I did Nick. We went skating in afternoon, once the blizzard had drifted off, and he stayed for dinner. He took his share of the goose, and did not return to his house until the next morning.