Lesson Thirteen  Christmas Day in the Morning
                                                                                                      Pearl S. Buck
1.      He woke suddenly and completely. It was four o'clock, the hour at which his father had always called him to get up and help with the milking. Strange how the habits of his youth clung to him still! His father had been dead for thirty years, and yet he still woke at four o'clock in the morning. But this morning, because it was Christmas, he did not try to sleep again.
2.      Yet what was the magic of Christmas now? His childhood and youth were long past, and his own children had grown up and gone.
3.      Yesterday his wife had said, "It isn't worthwhile, perhaps— "
4.      And he had said, "Yes, Alice, even if there are only the two of us, let's have a Christmas of our own."
5.      Then she had said, "Let's not trim the tree until tomorrow, Robert. I'm tired."
6.      He had agreed, and the tree was still out by the back door.
7.      He lay in his bed in his room.
8.      Why did he feel so awake tonight? For it was still night, a clear and starry night. No moon, of course, but the stars were extraordinary! Now that he thought of it, the stars seemed always large and clear before the dawn of Christmas Day.
9.      He slipped back in time, as he did so easily nowadays. He was fifteen years old and still on his father's farm. He loved his father. He had not known it until one day a few days before Christmas, when he had overheard what his father was saying to his mother.
10.    "Mary, I hate to call Rob in the mornings. He's growing so fast, and he needs his sleep. I wish I could manage alone."
11.    "Well, you can't, Adam." His mother's voice was brisk, "Besides, he isn't a child any more. It's time he took his turn."
12.    "Yes," his father said slowly, "But I sure do hate to wake him."
13.    When he heard these words, something in him woke: his father loved him! He had never thought of it before, taking for granted the tie of their blood. Now that he knew his father loved him, there would be no more loitering in the mornings and having to be called again. He got up, stumbling blind with sleep, and pulled on his clothes.
14.    And then on the night before Christmas, he lay thinking about the next day. They were poor, and most of the excitement was in the turkey they had raised themselves and in the mince pies his mother made. His sisters sewed presents, and his mother and father always bought something he needed, a warm jacket, maybe, or a book. And he always saved and bought them each something, too.
15.    He wished, that Christmas he was fifteen, he had a better present for his father instead of the usual tie from the ten-cent store. He lay on his side and looked out of his attic window.
16.    "Dad," he had once asked when he was a little boy, "What is a stable?"
17.    "It's just a barn," his father had replied, "like ours."
18.    Then Jesus had been born in a barn, and to a barn the shepherds and the Wise Men had come, bringing their Christmas gifts!
19.    A thought struck him like a silver dagger. Why should he not give his father a special gift, out there in the barn? He could get up earlier, creep into the barn and get all the milking done. And then when his father went in to start the milking, he'd see it all done.
20.    He laughed to himself as he gazed at the stars. It was what he would do, and he mustn't sleep too soundly.
21.    He must have waked twenty times, striking a match each time to look at his old watch.
22.    At a quarter to three, he got up and crept downstairs, careful of the creaky boards, and let himself out. A big star hung low over the roof, a reddish gold. The cows looked at him, sleepy and surprised. It was early for them, too.
23.    But they accepted him calmly and he brought some hay for each cow and then got th
e milking pail and the big milk cans.
24.    He had never milked all alone before, but it seemed almost easy. He smiled and milked steadily, two strong streams rushing into the pail, frothing and fragrant. The cows were behaving well, as though they knew it was Christmas.
25.    The task went more easily than he had ever known it to before. Milking for once was not a chore. It was a gift to his father. He finished, the two milk cans were full, and he covered them and closed the milk-house door carefully, making sure of the latch. He put the stool in its place by the door and hung up the clean milk pail. Then he went out of the barn and barred the door behind him. sort of house翻译

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