Nancy and Plum Read Free

locked up everything but the prunes and the oatmeal. Oh, look down the road there, Plum. Two little lights and they’re moving. It must be a sleigh. Someone going to the Christmas entertainment.”
    Plum said, “Quick, help me open the window so we can hear the bells.”
    They pushed open the window and leaned out into the still, cold night air. Far off down the road, through the lazily drifting snowflakes, they could hear the merry sound of sleigh bells. Their gay little tinkling flying ahead of the sleigh and lighting up the night with sparks. “Oh, what a Christmasy sound!” Nancy said, her red braids bobbing excitedly.
    Plum said, “Let’s run out to the gate and watch the sleigh pass.”
    “Oh, yes,” Nancy said. “Here, I’ll shut the window. Come on, hurry!”
    Like little ghosts, they ran from their room, down the long, cold, dark corridor, down the long, dark winding stairway, across the drafty hall, out the front door and down the walk to the great iron gates.
    Breathless and laughing, they grabbed the bars of the gates and turned their faces in the direction of the sleigh bells. Snowflakes lit on their eyelashes and made them blink. Snowflakes lit on their hair and turned them into white-haired old ladies. Snowflakes lit on their tongues when they stuck them out; and they swallowed the drop of icy water they left.
    Nancy said, “Snowflakes are like tiny pieces of clouds. Maybe a cloud exploded and caused this snowstorm.”
    Plum said, “Everything is so soft tonight. The darkness, the air, the snow, everything. I’d like to throw myself down and make an angel.” Above their heads the snow hit thelanterns on the gateposts and dissolved with a gentle hissing sound. The gate groaned sadly as they leaned against it.
    Then, from down the road, came the shrill trilling of the sleigh bells, the thud of hooves, the
shshsh
of runners on snow, peals of laughter. Then suddenly as though they had leapt through a black curtain, the horses burst out of the snowy darkness, manes and forelocks crested with snow, heads high, eyes glowing like hot coals. For a moment they were so close the children could see their white breath and could smell their warm, horsy smell.
    “Merry Christmas!” Plum called out excitedly.
    “Merry Christmas!” Nancy echoed her, and voices in the sleigh answered, “Merry Christmas!” Then they were gone into the blackness again and nothing was left but the tinkling of the bells and the hiss of the snowflakes as they hit the lanterns.
    “Oh, Plum,” Nancy said, “imagine going to the Christmas Eve entertainment in a sleigh!”
    Plum said, “Someday we’ll go in a sleigh and I’ll drive.”
    Nancy said, shivering, “Not tonight though, and I’m cold. Let’s go back in the house.”
    So they ran up to the front door but when they turned the handle they found it locked. Locked tight.
    “The night latch must have been on,” Plum said, “and the rest of the house is locked up like a safe.”
    “What will we do?” Nancy asked through chattering teeth.
    Plum said, “We’ll sleep in the barn.”
    Nancy said, “But what about Old Tom?”
    Plum said, “He’s gone to the MacGregors’ for supper. Hetold me he was going yesterday when I was helping him feed the chickens. He’s not coming back till milking time tomorrow morning. Come on, let’s run. I’ve got snow down my neck and my feet are like ice.”
    They ran around the house, unlatched the lattice gate that shut off the kitchen gardens and stables from the front lawns, ran across the barnyard to the big red-brick barn, rolled back the door and slipped inside. The barn was very dark but not as cold as the house. They closed the door quickly and began to grope around for matches and a lantern. As they carefully felt along the shelves, they could hear Buttercup and Clover, the milk cows, chewing their cuds, the plow horses shifting their weight on their big feet, the pigs grunting in the box stall and mice scuttling around in