We jested and laughed and drank cider and reviewed the year’s history and ate as only they may eat who have big bones and muscles and the vitality of oxen.  I never taste the flavor of sage and currant jelly or hear a hearty laugh without thinking of those holiday dinners in the old log house on Rattleroad.

Some of the men and two of the women filled their pipes and smoked while the dishes were being picked up and washed.  By and by the men and the big boys went with us down to the brook where we chopped holes in the ice to give the sheep and the cattle a chance to drink.  Then they looked at the horses.

“Peabody you mus’ be gittin’ rich,” said Hiram Bentley.

“No I ain’t.  I’ve had to give up here, but a little windfall come to us t’other day from an old uncle in Vermont.  It ain’t nothin’ to brag of, but it’ll give us a start an’ we thought that while we had the money we’d do somethin’ that we’ve been wantin’ to do for years an’ years—­give a Chris’mas—­an’ we’ve done it.  The money’ll go some way an’ we may never have another chance.  Bart is a good boy an’ we made up our minds he’d enjoy it better now than he ever would ag’in.”

That Christmas brought me nothing better than those words, the memory of which is one of the tallest towers in that long avenue of my past down which I have been looking these many days.  About all you can do for a boy, worth while, is to give him something good to remember.

The day had turned dark.  The temperature had risen and the air was dank and chilly.  The men began to hitch up their horses.

“Kind o’ thawin’ a little,” said Uncle Hiram as he got into his sleigh and drove up to the door.  “Come on, there.  Stop yer cacklin’ an’ git into this sleigh,” he shouted in great good humor to the women and children who stood on the porch.  “It’ll be snowin’ like sixty ’fore we git home.”

So, one by one, the sleighloads left us with cheery good-bys and a grinding of runners and a jingling of bells.  When the last had gone Uncle Peabody and I went into the house.  Aunt Deel sat by the stove, old Kate by the window looking out at the falling dusk.  How still the house seemed!

“There’s one thing I forgot,” I said as I proudly took out of my wallet the six one-dollar bills which I had earned by working Saturdays and handed three of them to my aunt and three to my uncle, saying: 

“That is my Christmas present to you.  I earned it myself.”

I remember so well their astonishment and the trembling of their hands and the look of their faces.

“It’s grand—­ayes!” Aunt Deel said in a low tone.

She rose in a moment and beckoned to me and my uncle.  We followed her through the open door to the other room.

“I’ll tell ye what I’d do,” she whispered.  “I’d give ’em to ol’ Kate—­ayes!  She’s goin’ to stay with us till to-morrow.”

“Good idee!” said Uncle Peabody.

So I took the money out of their hands and went in and gave it to the Silent Woman.