Chapter V: Robbie's Christmas Eve

"WHY, Mother, it is almost as light as day!" said Robin, as the two came out from the shade of the trees close to the village church. "I was never out so late before. Look at the church clock, it's just upon a quarter past eleven."

"Yes," said his mother, trying to quicken her tired footsteps; "and we'll soon be home now, Robbie."

"I don't care," said Robin, a little sadly. "I was never so old as this before, and I thought Christmas was always a happy day to everybody, and I'm sure it won't be to us to-morrow, Mammie! We've got nothing to keep it with, and then there's father so ill, too."

"Yes, Robbie, I know that—" she assented, settling her great bundle of sticks more firmly in her arms, "but the Lord has been speaking to me while I've been picking up the sticks in the moonlight, and I feel less tired."

"Has He?" asked Robin in a voice of awe. He had been a very wretched little boy all that bright, crisp, Christmas Eve; like Christian and Hopeful, he had got into Doubting Castle, and Giant Despair had been beating him about cruelly! He had looked round on his circumstances, and had decided they were too hard to bear. There was mother with that tired face working for them all, and tidying up "for Christmas," as she said, waiting on their sick father, and washing and mending their threadbare clothes once again. He had looked in the cupboard and not a bit of fresh food for Christmas fare appeared to be there. He had peeped in the corners of the kitchen and shed, but no surprises lay anywhere that he could see.

"I did try to be a little Christian," he had murmured, "but what's the good? Other people have a good Christmas, but we haven't. God has forgotten all about father being ill, and mother and us not having enough to eat!"

So when his mother had called him softly to come out with her and gather sticks for a Christmas fire, he had come with sorrowful steps, being still fast held in Doubting Castle.

And now his mother was telling him that the Lord had been talking to her! and Robin felt almost afraid, for he had been turning his back on the Lord in his heart all that long Christmas Eve!

"Yes," his mother went on, squeezing his hand, "and what do you guess He said to me, Robbie? He said, 'Don't you think, little mother, that I love you, and know how tired you are? Don't you think that I know how father's groaning goes to your heart? Don't you think that I have looked into the cupboard in the kitchen and know there is only one loaf there to go round for all the children? Don't you think I see that there's but a bit of tea and a mite of sugar, and no meat nor pudding nor anything?'"

"And I said, 'Yes, dear Jesus, I know you have seen it all.'"

"And He said, 'Haven't I told you that I will make a way of escape that you shall be able to bear it?'"

"And I said, 'Yes, dear Jesus, you have.'"

"Then, Robbie, I began to think about the shepherds watching their flocks and the heavenly Host singing so long ago because Christ the Lord was born, and I raised my head and wiped away my tears, and I said to myself, 'I've got my Saviour still,' and He has said to you and to me, 'I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.'"

Robbie's little heart gave a thrill of happiness, and straight away, he got out of Doubting Castle. The key of God's promise had opened the gate!

When they got to the cottage door, a great hamper lay in the moonlight on the white step.

Warm clothes, apples, oranges, beef and groceries, crackers and nuts for the children, and a great pudding.

And on slip of paper was written:

"Unto you is born a Saviour which is Christ the Lord."