Johnny’s Christmas Present
Frank Ripley was going to school one morning, feeling very happy indeed.
One reason was that he knew all his lessons, but the greatest reason of all was that in two days it would be Christmas. He always had a very happy time on that day, because, in the first place, he had plenty of kind friends to make him presents, and then he always went with all his cousins—and he had a great many—to his grandfather’s, to dinner, where they had a grand time.
As he went whistling along, thinking of all these things, he passed a house where a poor woman lived, who sometimes worked for his mother. She was a widow, with only one child, a little boy, who was lame. He was about Frank’s age, but he was much smaller, and looked so pale and delicate, that he seemed two or three years younger.
On this morning, as Frank passed the house, the little lame boy was at the window, looking so sad and lonely—for his mother was out at work—that Frank was almost tempted to stop and talk to him a little while. But it was almost school-time, and he had a long walk still before him; so he had to be satisfied with giving him a smile and a nod, as he hurried past.
“Poor Johnny!” said he to himself as he walked along, “he must have a very tiresome time, alone all day with no one to speak to him. I wonder if he is glad Christmas is coming? No, I suppose not, for he has no one to give him presents, and no grandfather’s house to go to.”
And then what his teacher had said in Sunday school the day before came into his mind: that Jesus came into the world to make everybody happy, and those who wanted to be like Jesus would try to make everybody happy too. And then his teacher said that little children had so many things given them on Christmas day, and so much done to make them happy, that they very often forgot that they ought to make somebody else happy, too. He wanted each of his scholars to try if they could not add to someone else’s happiness on the next Christmas day.
Frank thought of all this as he walked along, and he tried to think of something that he could do for Johnny. But he had not made up his mind what it should be when he reached the schoolhouse, and then there was so much for him to think about, that he forgot Johnny until he passed the house again on his way home; then he remembered his morning’s thought.
“I wonder what I can give him?” he thought again. “I might buy him a sled with that gold piece Uncle Charles gave me, but he couldn’t use it, nor skates either, nor marbles, nor a kite. He might like a book. I’ll ask Mother; she’ll know.”
But his mother was out when he reached home, so he had to leave the question unsettled, and after putting away his books, he went out to feed his rabbits.
Frank loved his rabbits very much, and he used to spend a great deal of time with them, as he had no brothers or sisters to play with. They were very tame, and would run to him when he came near their pen, as if they were very glad to see him.
As he was feeding them, the thought came into his mind, perhaps Johnny would like some rabbits to play with. He could have a pen for them at the side of his mother’s house, and when he was alone, he could bring them into the house for company. Then Frank began to look among his rabbits—for he had several—to see which he could spare the best. But he loved them all, and he could not make any choice. In fact, it would cost him more self-denial to give Johnny two of his rabbits than any thing else. But he could not think of any thing that it seemed to him Johnny would like as well. So when his mother came home he told her his plan. She was very much pleased to have her boy so thoughtful for another’s happiness, and she was sure Johnny would be delighted.
After Frank decided to give the rabbits, nothing gave him so much pleasure as the thought of making Johnny the present. Early on Christmas morning he went to his rabbit-pen, and chose two pretty little white fellows, and putting them in a basket, with something for them to eat, started for Johnny’s house. He found him seated at the window, waiting for his breakfast, which his mother was preparing.
His eyes had never sparkled so before as they did when Frank showed him the rabbits, and told him they were for him.
“Did you ever see any thing so pretty, Mother?” said he. “Now you won’t feel so sorry to leave me every day, for I shall have these dear little rabbits to keep me company.”
“Indeed, Frank,” said Johnny’s mother, “I cannot tell you how much I thank you. I was just telling Johnny how sorry I was that I had no present for him; I had to buy coal last week, and I had no money left. But I could not have bought him any thing so pretty as these little rabbits.”
Frank went home with a light heart, and though he received many presents, none of them gave him as much pleasure as his gift to Johnny.
The next day he persuaded some of the schoolboys to help him make a pen for Johnny’s rabbits, out of some boards his father gave him. When school commenced again, and he passed Johnny’s house every day, Johnny almost always brought the rabbits to the window, to let him see that he was not alone now, and he looked very happy.
This was the way that Frank on that Christmas day joined in the angels’ song: “Peace on earth, good will toward men.”
