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Read Ebook: Why the Chimes Rang: A Play in One Act by Alden Raymond MacDonald McFadden Elizabeth A Elizabeth Apthorp
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Ebook has 259 lines and 13859 words, and 6 pages
STEEN. The old woman!
HOLGER. No,--Uncle Bertel!
BERTEL. Hullo, there,--open, Holger!
STEEN. Oh, Uncle, Uncle, Uncle Bertel!
HOLGER. Uncle Bertel, welcome!
BERTEL. Help, help!--Robbers!--I'm beset!--Gently, youngsters!-- Brrrrr! It's cold in the forest to-night!--Well, why am I come?--Tell me that!
STEEN. To take us to the Christmas Service?
HOLGER. Uncle! How didst thou know we were not going?
BERTEL. I met a fox--who said--
HOLGER. Oh-h!--Thou hast seen mother and father!
HOLGER. Dear Uncle Bertel!
STEEN. Come, let's go quick!
BERTEL. Patience, patience, young colt, plenty of time, mother said something else.
STEEN. What?
BERTEL. That I should find some warm porridge for my pains.
STEEN. Nice kind good supper, umh!
HOLGER. Listen!
BERTEL. To what?
HOLGER. Someone--sobbing--at the door! Nothing there!
BERTEL. The wind!--Thy old tricks, Holger,--always dreaming some strange thing.
HOLGER. Didst thou pass an old woman on the road--near here?
HOLGER. Oh, Uncle Bertel,--I'm too glad to eat!
BERTEL. Thou art right, lad,--fasting were better than feasting this day in Tralsund!--they say,--do you know what they say in the town?
HOLGER. What?
HOLGER. What?
BERTEL. Who can say? All day the folk have been pouring into the town as never before. The market place is crowded, every inn is full. No church but the cathedral could hold such a multitude. Never have I seen such excitement, such fervor!
HOLGER. There will be many gifts!
BERTEL. --the rich are bringing their treasure, gold and jewels, king's ransoms, aye and the King comes.
HOLGER. The King?
BERTEL. The King Himself!
STEEN. Oh, and shall we see Him, Uncle, and the fine gifts and everything?
BERTEL. Why not?--Even the poorest may go up and give--what hast thou to offer?
STEEN. I?--Nothing!
HOLGER. Oh, I have, see, Uncle? See!--Last week I was gathering sticks in the forest and a fine gentleman rode past and asked the way of me. I showed him the path and he gave me these!
BERTEL. Faith, real money in the family.
STEEN. Oh, I thought we were going to buy cakes with those, Holger.
HOLGER. But it's better to give it to the Christ Child. You see He is a little child, smaller than even you,--and I think He would like a little gift,--a little bright gift that would buy cakes for Him.
BERTEL. Aye, to-night we must think of Him,--there in His Holy Church.
HOLGER. And when the organ plays that's like a storm gathering in the mountains.
BERTEL. A storm?--Aye!--"The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm and the clouds are the dust of His feet!"--Why should He not do a wonder as of old? Perhaps the great miracle will come again!
HOLGER. Oh, which, Uncle?--There are so many in the Bible!
STEEN. Yes, which?--Would there be a whale now to swallow a priest?
HOLGER. I've heard folks speak of it,--but I never knew just what happened.
STEEN. Oh, tell us, Uncle Bertel.
BERTEL. Aye, listen then!--You see the great tower there?-- It goes so high into the clouds that no one can see it's top!--No one even knows how high it is for the men who built it have been dead for hundreds of years.
STEEN. But what has that to do with the chimes?
HOLGER. Hush, Steen, let uncle speak!
BERTEL. The chimes are up at the top of the tower--and they are holy bells,--miraculous bells, placed there by sainted hands,--and when they rang 'twas said that angels' voices echoed through them.
BERTEL. Ah, that is not so easy!--They are said to ring on Christmas Eve when the gifts are laid on the altar for the Christ-child,--but not every offering will ring them, it must be a perfect gift. And for all these years not one thing has been laid upon the altar good enough to make the chimes ring out.
HOLGER. Oh, that's what the priest was talking about to mother, then. He said it mustn't be just a fine gift for show but something full of love for the Christ-child.
STEEN. Oh, I want to hear them!
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