When Nora returned with her purchase, they went in search of a cheaper place and after a time they found what they wanted.For sixpence they bought a cardboard box that had come all the way from Japan and contained a whole family of dolls - father, mother and four children of different sizes.A box of paints, threepence: a sixpenny tea service, a threepenny drawing slate, and a rag doll, sixpence.
On their way home they called at a greengrocer's where Owen had ordered and paid for a small Christmas tree a few weeks before; and as they were turning the corner of the street where they lived they met Crass, half-drunk, with a fine fat goose slung over his shoulder by its neck.He greeted Owen jovially and held up the bird for their inspection.
`Not a bad tanner's-worth, eh?' he hiccoughed.`This makes two we've got.I won this and a box of cigars - fifty - for a tanner, and the other one I got out of the Club at our Church Mission 'all: threepence a week for twenty-eight weeks; that makes seven bob.But,' he added, confidentially,`'you couldn't buy 'em for that price in a shop, you know.They costs the committee a good bit more nor that - wholesale;but we've got some rich gents on our committee and they makes up the difference,' and with a nod and a cunning leer he lurched off.
Frankie was sleeping soundly when they reached home, and so was the kitten, which was curled up on the quilt on the foot of the bed.
After they had had some supper, although it was after eleven o'clock, Owen fixed the tree in a large flower-pot that had served a similar purpose before, and Nora brought out from the place where it had been stored away since last Christmas a cardboard box containing a lot of glittering tinsel ornaments - globes of silvered or gilded or painted glass, birds, butterflies and stars.Some of these things had done duty three Christmases ago and although they were in some instances slightly tarnished most of them were as good as new.In addition to these and the toys they had bought that evening they had a box of bon-bons and a box of small coloured wax candles, both of which had formed part of the things they got from the grocer's with the Christmas Club money; and there were also a lot of little coloured paper bags of sweets, and a number of sugar and chocolate toys and animals which had been bought two or three at a time for several weeks past and put away for this occasion.There was something suitable for each child that was coming, with the exception of Bert White; they had intended to include a sixpenny pocket knife for him in their purchases that evening, but as they had not been able to afford this Owen decided to give him an old set of steel paining combs which he knew the lad had often longed to possess.The tin case containing these tools was accordingly wrapped in some red tissue paper and hung on the tree with the other things.
They moved about as quietly as possible so as not to disturb those who were sleeping in the rooms beneath, because long before they were finished the people in the other parts of the house had all retired to rest, and silence had fallen on the deserted streets outside.As they were putting the final touches to their work the profound stillness of the night was suddenly broken by the voices of a band of carol-singers.
The sound overwhelmed them with memories of other and happier times, and Nora stretched out her hands impulsively to Owen, who drew her close to his side.
They had been married just over eight years, and although during all that time they had never been really free from anxiety for the future, yet on no previous Christmas had they been quite so poor as now.
During the last few years periods of unemployment had gradually become more frequent and protracted, and the attempt he had made in the early part of the year to get work elsewhere had only resulted in plunging them into even greater poverty than before.But all the same there was much to be thankful for: poor though they were, they were far better off than many thousands of others: they still had food and shelter, and they had each other and the boy.
Before they went to bed Owen carried the tree into Frankie's bedroom and placed it so that he would be able to see it in all its glittering glory as soon as he awoke on Christmas morning.
