the christmas dinner
Introduction
Before the Play begins, MOTHER GOOSE comes out in front of the curtain, and this is what she says:
Well, well, well, well, well, here we all are again. And whats more important, Christmas is here again, too. Arent you glad? Now I want to tell you children something. Do you know what I enjoy most at Christmas time? Its to come in here and see all you children sitting in rows and rows, all your faces looking up at me, and a smile on every one of them. Why, even some of those great big men and women back there are smiling, too. And I think I know why you are all smiling. There are two reasons for it, I believe. One is that you think old Mother Goose is a good friend of yours, and loves you all very much. And youre quite right about that, for I declare, I love every one of you as much as I loveplum pudding. And the second reason why you are all smiling, I guess, is because you think I am going to show you a Christmas Play. And youre right about that, too. I have a play all ready for you, there behind the curtain, and the name of it is The Christmas Dinner. Doesnt the very name of it make you hungry? Well, you just wait. Now when the curtain opens, youll see the warm cozy kitchen of a farm house, where six people live. Two of them are quite young, because they are just a boy and a girl, and their names are Walter and Gertrude. And two of them are older, and yet not so very old either: they are the father and mother of the two children. And the last two are the oldest of all, and they are really old, for they are the childrens grandfather and grandmother. It is late in the afternoon of the day before Christmas, the hour when it has begun to get dark. The father is out cutting some good big sticks of wood for the Christmas fire, and the two children are playing outside of the house. So youll not see them at first. But you will see the mother, who is just finishing the days work, and the old grandfather and grandmother, who are sitting by the fire. Are you ready, all of you? Be quiet, then, for now it is going to begin.
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