Just William's New Year's Day Read Free

pay more than twopence,’ said his customer severely, taking a bar of chocolate and laying down twopence on the counter. ‘And I shall report this shop to
the Profiteering Committee. It’s scandalous. And a pack of wicked lies!’
    William scowled at her.
    ‘They’re a shillin’ ,’ he said. ‘I don’t want your nasty ole tuppences. I said they was a shillin’ .’
    He followed her to the door. She was crossing the street to her house. ‘You – you ole thief !’ he yelled after her, though, true to his Resolution, he added softly with
dogged determination, ‘if you don’t mind me sayin’ so.’
    ‘I’ll set the police on you,’ his late customer shouted angrily back across the street. ‘You wicked, blasphemous boy!’
    William put out his tongue at her, then returned to the shop and closed the door.
    Here he discovered that the door, when opened, rang a bell, and, after filling his mouth with Liquorice Allsorts, he spent the next five minutes vigorously opening and shutting the door till
something went wrong with the mechanism of the bell. At this he fortified himself with a course of Nutty Footballs and, standing on a chair, began ruthlessly to dismember the bell. He was disturbed
by the entry of another customer. Swallowing a Nutty Football whole, he hastened to his post behind the counter.
    The newcomer was a little girl of about nine – a very dainty little girl, dressed in a white fur coat and cap and long white gaiters. Her hair fell in golden curls over her white fur
shoulders. Her eyes were blue. Her cheeks were velvety and rosy. Her mouth was like a baby’s. William had seen this vision on various occasions in the town, but had never yet addressed it.
Whenever he had seen it, his heart in the midst of his body had been even as melting wax. He smiled – a self-conscious, sheepish smile. His freckled face blushed to the roots of his short
stubby hair. She seemed to find nothing odd in the fact of a small boy being in charge of a sweet shop. She came up to the counter.
    ‘Please, I want two twopenny bars of chocolate.’
    Her voice was very clear and silvery.
    Ecstasy rendered William speechless. His smile grew wider and more foolish. Seeing his two half-sucked Pineapple Crisps exposed upon the scales, he hastily put them into his mouth.
    She laid four pennies on the counter.
    William found his voice.
    ‘You can have lots for that,’ he said huskily. ‘They’ve gone cheap. They’ve gone ever so cheap. You can take all the boxful for that,’ he went on recklessly.
He pressed the box into her reluctant hands. ‘An’ – what else would you like? You jus’ tell me that. Tell me what else you’d like?’
    ‘Please, I haven’t any more money,’ gasped a small, bewildered voice.
    ‘ Money don’t matter,’ said William. ‘Things is cheap today. Things is awful cheap today. Awful cheap! You can have – anythin’ you like for that
fourpence. Anythin’ you like.’
    ‘’Cause it’s New Year’s Day?’ said the vision, with a gleam of understanding.
    ‘Yes,’ said William, ‘’cause it’s that.’
    ‘Is it your shop?’
    ‘Yes,’ said William with an air of importance. ‘It’s all my shop.’
    She gazed at him in admiration and envy.
    ‘I’d love to have a sweet shop,’ she said wistfully.
    ‘Well, you take anythin’ you like,’ said William generously.
    She collected as much as she could carry and started towards the door. ‘ Sank you! Sank you ever so!’ she said gratefully.
    William stood leaning against the door in the easy attitude of the good-natured, all-providing male.
    ‘It’s all right,’ he said with an indulgent smile. ‘Quite all right. Quite all right.’ Then, with an inspiration born of memories of his father earlier in the day,
‘Not at all. Don’t menshun it. Not at all. Quite all right.’
    ‘ MONEY DON’T MATTER,’ SAID WILLIAM. ‘THINGS IS CHEAP TODAY. AWFUL CHEAP!’
    He stopped, simply for lack of further expressions, and