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Speaker 1: Christmas every day. The little girl came into her papa's

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study as she always did Saturday morning before breakfast, and

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asked for a story. He tried to beg off that morning,

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for he was very busy, but she would not let him,

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so he began, Well, once there was a little pig.

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She put her hand over his mouth and stopped him

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at the word. She said she had heard little pigs

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stories till she was perfectly sick of them. Well, what

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kind of story shall I tell then about Christmas? It's

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getting to be the season. It's past Thanksgiving already, it

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seems to me. Her papa argued that I've told as

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often about Christmas as I have about little pigs. No difference.

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Christmas is more interesting. Well, her papa roused himself from

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his writing by a great effort. Well, then I'll tell

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you about the little girl that wanted it Christmas every

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day in the year. How would you like that? First rate,

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said the little girl, and she nestled into comfortable shape

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in his lap, ready for listening. Very well, then, this

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little pig, Oh, what are you pounding me for? Because

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you said little pig instead of little girl. I should

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like to know what's the difference between a little pig

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and a little girl that wanted it Christmas every day.

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Papa said the little girl, warningly, if you don't go on,

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I'll give it to you, And at this her Papa

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darted off like lightning and began to tell the story

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as fast as he could. Once there was a little

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girl who liked Christmas so much that she wanted it

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to be Christmas every day in the year, and as

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soon as Thanksgiving was over, she began to send postal

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cards to the old Christmas Fairy to ask if she

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mightn't have it, But the old fairy never entered any

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of the postals, and after a while the little girl

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found out that the fairy was pretty particular and wouldn't

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notice anything but letters, not even correspondence cards and envelopes,

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but real letters on sheets of paper and sealed outside

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with a monogram or your initial anyway. So then she

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began to send her letters, and in about three weeks,

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or just the day before Christmas it was, she got

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a letter from the fairy saying she might have it

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Christmas every day for a year and then they would

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see about having it longer. The little girl was a

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good deal excited, already preparing for the old fashioned once

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a year Christmas that was coming the next day, and

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perhaps the fairy's promise didn't make such an impression on

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her as it would have made at some other time.

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She just resolved to keep it to herself and surprise

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everybody with it as it kept coming true, and then

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it slipped out of her mind. Altogether she had a

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splendid Christmas. She went to bed early so as to

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let Santa Claus have a chance at the stockings, and

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in the morning she was up the first of anybody,

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and went and felt them, and found hers all lumpy

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with packages of candy and oranges and grapes and pocket

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books and rubber balls and all kinds of small presents,

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and her big brothers with nothing but tongs in them,

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and her young lady sisters with a new silk umbrella,

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and her papas and mamas with potatoes and pieces of

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coal wrapped up in tissue paper, just as they always

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had every Christmas. Then she waited around till the rest

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of the family were up, and she was the first

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to burst into the library when the doors were opened,

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and look at the large presents laid out on the

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library table books and portfolios, and boxes of stationery and

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breastpins and dolls and little stoves, and dozens of handkerchiefs

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and inkstands and skates and snowshovels and photograph frames and

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little easels, and boxes of watercolors and Turkish paste and

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nougat and candy, cherries and dolls, houses and waterproofs, and

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the big chrisp tree lighted and standing in a waste

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basket in the middle. She had a splendid Christmas. All day.

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She ate so much candy that she did not want

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any breakfast, and the whole forenoon the presents kept pouring

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in that the expressman had not had time to deliver

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the night before, and she went round giving the presents

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she had got for other people, and came home and

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ate turkey and cranberry for dinner, and plum pudding and

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nuts and raisins and oranges and more candy, and then

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went out and coasted and came in with a stomach ache, crying,

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and her papa said he would see if his house

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was turning into that sort of fool's paradise another year.

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And then they had a light supper, and pretty early

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everybody went to bed Cross. Here, the little girl pounded

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her papa on the back again. Well, what now, did

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I say, pigs? You made them act like pigs? Well

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didn't they? No matter, you oughtn't put it into a story.

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Very well, then I'll take it all out. Her father

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went on. The little girl slept very heavily, and she

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slept very late. But she was awakened at last by

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the other children dancing round her bed with their stockings

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full of presents in their hands. What is it, said

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the little girl, and she rubbed her eyes and tried

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to rise up in bed. Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. They all

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shouted and waved their stockings. Nonsense, It was Christmas yesterday.

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Her brothers and sisters just laughed. We don't know about that.

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It's Christmas today. Anyway. You come into the library and see. Then,

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all at once it flashed on the little girl that

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the fairy was keeping her promise, and her year of

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Christmases was beginning. She was dreadfully sleepy, but she sprang

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up like a lark, a lark that had overeaten itself,

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and gone to bed Cross and darted into the library.

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There it was again, books and poor folios and boxes

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of stationery and breastpins. You needn't go over it all, Papa.

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I guess I can remember just what was there, said

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the little girl. Well, and there was the Christmas tree

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blazing away in the family, picking out their presence but

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looking pretty sleepy, and her father perfectly puzzled, and her

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mother ready to cry. I'm sure I don't see how

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I'm to dispose of all these things, said her mother,

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And her father said it seemed to him they had

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had something just like it the day before, but he

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supposed he must have dreamt it. This struck the little

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girl as the best kind of a joke, so she

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ate so much candy she didn't want any breakfast, and

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went round carrying presents, and had turkey and cranberry for dinner,

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and then went out and coasted and came in with

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a hapah wow, what now, what did you promise you

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forget the thing? Oh? Oh? Yes, Well the next day

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it was just the same thing over again, but everybody

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getting cross. And at the end of a week's time,

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so many people had lost their tempers that you could

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pick up lost tempers anywhere. They perfectly strewed the ground.

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Even when people tried to recover their tempers, they usually

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got somebody else's, and it made the most dreadful mix.

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The little girl began to get frightened, keeping the secret

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all to herself. She wanted to tell her mother, but

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she didn't dare to, and she was ashamed to ask

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the fairy to take back her gift. It seemed ungrateful

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and ill bred, and she thought she would try to

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stand it, but she hardly knew how she could. For

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a whole year. So it went on and on, and

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it was Christmas on Saint Valentine's Day and Washington's Birthday,

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just the same as any day, and it didn't skip

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even the first of April, though. Everything was counterfeit that day,

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and that was some little relief. After a while, coal

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and potatoes began to be awfully scarce, so many had

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been wrapped up in tissue paper to fool papas and

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mamas with turkeys got to be about one thousand dollars apiece, Papa, Well,

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what you're beginning to fib well two thousand then, and

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they got to passing off almost everything for turkeys, half

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grown hummingbirds, and even rocks out of the Arabian nights.

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The real turkeys were so scarce, and cranberries well, they

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asked a diamond a piece for cranberries. All the woods

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and orchards were cut down for Christmas trees, and where

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the woods and orchards used to be it looked just

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like a stubble field with the stumps. After a while

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they had to make Christmas trees out of rags and

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stuff them with bran, like old fashioned dolls. But there

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were plenty of rags because people got so poor buying

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presents for one another that they couldn't get any new clothes,

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and they just wore their old ones to tatters. They

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got so poor that everybody had to go to the poorhouse,

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except the confectioners and the fancy storekeepers, and the picture

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booksellers and the expressmen. And they all got so rich

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and proud they would hardly wait upon a person when

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he came to buy. It was perfectly shameful. Well after

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it had gone on about three or four months, the

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little girl, whenever she came into the room in the

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morning and saw those great, ugly, lumpy stockings dangling at

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the fireplace and the disgusting presents around everywhere, used to

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just sit down and burst out crying. In six months,

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he was perfectly exhausted. She couldn't even cry any more.

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She just lay on the lounge and rolled her eyes

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and panted. About the beginning of October, she took to

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sitting down on dolls whenever she found them. French dolls

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are any kind. She hated the sight of them so

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and by Thanksgiving she was crazy and just slammed her

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presence across the room. By that time, people didn't carry

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presents around nicely anymore. They flung them over the fence

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or through the window or anything. And instead of running

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their tongues out and taking great pains to write for

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dear Papa or Mama or brother or sister or Susie

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or Sammy or Billy or Bobby or Jimmy or Jenny

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or whoever it was, and troubling to get the spelling right,

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and then signing their names and ex miss eighteen whatever

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they used to write in the gift books, Take it,

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you horrid old thing, and then go and bang it

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against the front door. Nearly everybody had built barns to

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hold their presents, but pretty soon the barns overflowed, and

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then they used to let them lie out in the

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rain or anywhere. Sometimes the police used to come and

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tell them to shovel their presence off the sidewalk or

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they would arrest them. I thought you said everybody had

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gone to the poorhouse, interrupted the little girl. They did

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go at first, said her papa. But after a while

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the poor house got so full that they had to

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send the people back to their own houses. They tried

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to cry when they got back, but they couldn't make

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the least sound. Why couldn't they because they had lost

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their voices saying Merry Christmas so much? Did I tell

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you how it was on the fourth of July? No,

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how was it? And the little girl nestled closer in

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expectation of something uncommon. Well, the night before, the boys

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stayed up to celebrate as they always do, and fell

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asleep before twelve o'clock as usual, expecting to be wakened

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by the bells and cannon. But it was nearly eight

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o'clock when the first boy in the United States woke up,

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and then he found out what the trouble was. As

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soon as he could get his clothes on, he ran

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out of the house and smashed a big cannon torpedo

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down on the pavement, but it didn't make any more

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noise than a damp wad of paper. And after he

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tried about twenty or thirty more, he began to pick

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them up and look at them. Every single torpedo was

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a big raisin. Then he just streaked it upstairs and

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examined his firecrackers and toy pistol and two dollars collection

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of fireworks and found that they were nothing but sugar

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and candy painted up to look like fireworks. Before ten o'clock,

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every boy in the United States found out that his

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Fourth of July things had turned into Christmas things. And

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then they just sat down and cried. They were so mad.

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There are about twenty million boys in the United States,

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and so you can imagine what a noise they made.

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Some men got together before night with a little powder

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that hadn't turned into purple sugar yet, and they said

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they would fire off one cannon anyway. But the cannon

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burst into a thousand pieces, for it was nothing but

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rock candy, and some of the men nearly got killed.

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The Fourth of July orations all turned into Christmas carols.

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And when anybody tried to read the declaration instead of

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saying when in the course of human events, it becomes necessary.

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He was sure to sing, God rest you Mary, gentlemen.

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It was perfectly awful. The little girl drew a deep

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sigh of satisfaction. And how was it a Thanksgiving? Her

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papa hesitated. Well, I'm almost afraid to tell you. I'm

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afraid you'll think it's wicked. Well tell anyway, said the

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little girl. Well, before it came Thanksgiving, it had leaked

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out who had caused all these Christmases. The little girl

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had suffered so much that she had talked about it

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in her sleep, and after that, hardly anybody would play

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with her. People just perfectly despised her, because if it

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had not been for her greediness, it wouldn't have happened.

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And now when it came to Thanksgiving and she wanted

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them to go to church and have squash pie in

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turkey and show their gratitude, they said that all the

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turkeys had been eaten up for her old Christmas dinners,

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and if she would stop the Christmases, they would see

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about the gratitude. Wasn't it dreadful? And the very next

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day the little girl began to send letters to the

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Christmas Fairy, and then telegrams to stop it, but it

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didn't do any good. And then she got to calling

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at the fairy's house, but the girl that came to

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the door always said not at home, or engaged, or

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at dinner, or something like that. And so it went

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on till it came to the old once a year

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Christmas eve. The little girl fell asleep, and when she

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woke up in the morning, she found it was all

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nothing but a dream, suggested the little girl. No, indeed,

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said her papa, it was all every bit true. Well

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what did she find out then, Why that it wasn't

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Christmas at last, and wasn't ever going to be anymore.

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Now it's time for breakfast. The little girl held her

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papa fast around the neck. You shan't go if you're

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going to leave it, So why do you want it left? Christmas?

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Once a year? All right, said her papa, and he

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went on again. Well, there was the greatest rejoicing all

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over the country, and it extended clear up into Canada.

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The people met together everywhere and kissed and cried for joy.

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The city carts went around and gathered up all the

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candy and raisins and nuts and dumped them into the river.

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And it made the fish perfectly sick, and the whole

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United States, as far out as Alaska, was one blaze

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of bonfires, where children were burning up their gift books

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and presents of all kinds. They had the greatest time.

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The little girl went to thank the old fairy because

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she had stopped its being Christmas, and she said she

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hoped she would keep her promise and see that Christmas

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never never came again. Then the fairy frowned and asked

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her if she was sure she knew what she meant,

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And the little girl asked her why not, And the

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old fairy said that now she was behaving just as

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greedily as ever, and she'd better look out. This made

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the little girl think it all over carefully again, and

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she said she would be willing to have it Christmas

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about once in a thousand years, And then she said

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a hundred, and then she said ten, and at last

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she got down to one. Then the fairy said that

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was the good old way that had pleased people ever

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since Christmas began, and she was agreed. Then the little

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girl said, what are your shoes made of? And the

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fairy said leather, and the little girl said, bargain's done

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forever and skipped off and hippity hopped the whole way home.

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She was so glad. How will that do? Asked the

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pop up. First rate, said the little girl, But she

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hated to have the story stop and was rather sober. However,

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her mama put her head in at the door and

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asked her, Papa, are you never coming to breakfast? What

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have you been telling that child? Oh, just a moral tale.

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The little girl caught him around the neck again. We know,

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don't you tell what, Papa? Don't you tell what? And

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of Christmas every day by W. D. Howells