Christmas by Injunction

by O. Henry
(1862-1910)

Cherokee was the civic father of Yellowhammer. Yellowhammer was a new
mining town constructed mainly of canvas and undressed pine. Cherokee
was a prospector. One day while his burro was eating quartz and pine
burrs Cherokee turned up with his pick a nugget, weighing thirty ounces.
He staked his claim and then, being a man of breadth and hospitality,
sent out invitations to his friends in three States to drop in and share
his luck.

Not one of the invited guests sent regrets. They rolled in from the Gila
country, from Salt River, from the Pecos, from Albuquerque and Phoenix
and Santa Fe, and from the camps intervening.

When a thousand citizens had arrived and taken up claims they named the
town Yellowhammer, appointed a vigilance committee, and presented
Cherokee with a watch-chain made of nuggets.

Three hours after the presentation ceremonies Cherokee's claim played
out. He had located a pocket instead of a vein. He abandoned it and
staked others one by one. Luck had kissed her hand to him. Never
afterward did he turn up enough dust in Yellowhammer to pay his bar
bill. But his thousand invited guests were mostly prospering, and
Cherokee smiled and congratulated them.

Yellowhammer was made up of men who took off their hats to a smiling
loser; so they invited Cherokee to say what he wanted.

"Me?" said Cherokee, "oh, grubstakes will be about the thing. I reckon
I'll prospect along up in the Mariposas. If I strike it up there I will
most certainly let you all know about the facts. I never was any hand to
hold out cards on my friends."

In May Cherokee packed his burro and turned its thoughtful, mouse-
coloured forehead to the north. Many citizens escorted him to the
undefined limits of Yellowhammer and bestowed upon him shouts of
commendation and farewells. Five pocket flasks without an air bubble
between contents and cork were forced upon him; and he was bidden to
consider Yellowhammer in perpetual commission for his bed, bacon and
eggs, and hot water for shaving in the event that luck did not see fit
to warm her hands by his campfire in the Mariposas.

The name of the father of Yellowhammer was given him by the gold hunters
in accordance with their popular system of nomenclature. It was not
necessary for a citizen to exhibit his baptismal certificate in order to
acquire a cognomen. A man's name was his personal property. For
convenience in calling him up to the bar and in designating him among
other blue-shirted bipeds, a temporary appellation, title, or epithet
was conferred upon him by the public. Personal peculiarities formed the
source of the majority of such informal baptisms. Many were easily
dubbed geographically from the regions from which they confessed to have
hailed. Some announced themselves to be "Thompsons," and "Adamses," and
the like, with a brazenness and loudness that cast a cloud upon their
titles. A few vaingloriously and shamelessly uncovered their proper and
indisputable names. This was held to be unduly arrogant, and did not win
popularity. One man who said he was Chesterton L. C. Belmont, and proved
it by lett ers, was given till sundown to leave the town. Such names as
"Shorty," "Bow-legs," "Texas," "Lazy Bill," "Thirsty Rogers," "Limping
Riley," "The Judge," and "California Ed" were in favour. Cherokee
derived his title from the fact that he claimed to have lived for a time
with that tribe in the Indian Nation.

On the twentieth day of December Baldy, the mail rider, brought
Yellowhammer a piece of news.

"What do I see in Albuquerque," said Baldy, to the patrons of the bar,
"but Cherokee all embellished and festooned up like the Czar of Turkey,
and lavishin' money in bulk. Him and me seen the elephant and the owl,
and we had specimens of this seidlitz powder wine; and Cherokee he
audits all the bills, C.O.D. His pockets looked like a pool table's
after a fifteen-ball run.

"Cherokee must have struck pay ore," remarked California Ed. "Well, he's
white. I'm much obliged to him for his success."

"Seems like Cherokee would ramble down to Yellowhammer and see his
friends," said another, slightly aggrieved. "But that's the way.
Prosperity is the finest cure there is for lost forgetfulness."

"You wait," said Baldy; "I'm comin' to that. Cherokee strikes a three-
foot vein up in the Mariposas that assays a trip to Europe to the ton,
and he closes it out to a syndicate outfit for a hundred thousand hasty
dollars in cash. Then he buys himself a baby sealskin overcoat and a red
sleigh, and what do you think he takes it in his head to do next?"

"Chuck-a-luck," said Texas, whose ideas of recreation were the
gamester's.

"Come and Kiss Me, Ma Honey," sang Shorty, who carried tintypes in his
pocket and wore a red necktie while working on his claim.

"Bought a saloon?" suggested Thirsty Rogers.

"Cherokee took me to a room," continued Baldy, "and showed me. He's got
that room full of drums and dolls and skates and bags of candy and
jumping-jacks and toy lambs and whistles and such infantile truck. And
what do you think he's goin' to do with them inefficacious knick-
knacks? Don't surmise none--Cherokee told me. He's goin' to lead 'em up
in his red sleigh and--wait a minute, don't order no drinks yet-- he's
goin' to drive down here to Yellowhammer and give the kids--the kids of
this here town--the biggest Christmas tree and the biggest cryin' doll
and Little Giant Boys' Tool Chest blowout that was ever seen west of the
Cape Hatteras."

Two minutes of absolute silence ticked away in the wake of Baldy's
words. It was broken by the House, who, happily conceiving the moment to
be ripe for extending hospitality, sent a dozen whisky glasses spinning
down the bar, with the slower travelling bottle bringing up the rear.

"Didn't you tell him?" asked the miner called Trinidad.

"Well, no," answered Baldy, pensively; "I never exactly seen my way to.

"You see, Cherokee had this Christmas mess already bought and paid for;
and he was all flattered up with self-esteem over his idea; and we had
in a way flew the flume with that fizzy wine I speak of; so I never let
on."

"I cannot refrain from a certain amount of surprise," said the Judge, as
he hung his ivory-handled cane on the bar, "that our friend Cherokee
should possess such an erroneous conception of--ah--his, as it were, own
town."

"Oh, it ain't the eighth wonder of the terrestrial world," said Baldy.
"Cherokee's been gone from Yellowhammer over seven months. Lots of
things could happen in that time. How's he to know that there ain't a
single kid in this town, and so far as emigration is concerned, none
expected?"

"Come to think of it," remarked California Ed, "it's funny some ain't
drifted in. Town ain't settled enough yet for to bring in the rubber-
ring brigade, I reckon."

"To top off this Christmas-tree splurge of Cherokee's," went on Baldy,
"he's goin' to give an imitation of Santa Claus. He's got a white wig
and whiskers that disfigure him up exactly like the pictures of this
William Cullen Longfellow in the books, and a red suit of fur-trimmed
outside underwear, and eight-ounce gloves, and a stand-up, lay-down
croshayed red cap. Ain't it a shame that a outfit like that can't get a
chance to connect with a Annie and Willie's prayer layout?"

"When does Cherokee allow to come over with his truck?" inquired
Trinidad.

"Mornin' before Christmas," said Baldy. "And he wants you folks to have
a room fixed up and a tree hauled and ready. And such ladies to assist
as can stop breathin' long enough to let it be a surprise for the kids."

The unblessed condition of Yellowhammer had been truly described. The
voice of childhood had never gladdened its flimsy structures; the patter
of restless little feet had never consecrated the one rugged highway
between the two rows of tents and rough buildings. Later they would
come. But now Yellowhammer was but a mountain camp, and nowhere in it
were the roguish, expectant eyes, opening wide at dawn of the enchanting
day; the eager, small hands to reach for Santa's bewildering hoard; the
elated, childish voicings of the season's joy, such as the coming good
things of the warm-hearted Cherokee deserved.

Of women there were five in Yellowhammer. The assayer's wife, the
proprietress of the Lucky Strike Hotel, and a laundress whose washtub
panned out an ounce of dust a day. These were the permanent feminines;
the remaining two were the Spangler Sisters, Misses Fanchon and Erma, of
the Transcontinental Comedy Company, then playing in repertoire at the
(improvised) Empire Theatre. But of children there were none. Sometimes
Miss Fanchon enacted with spirit and address the part of robustious
childhood; but between her delineation and the visions of adolescence
that the fancy offered as eligible recipients of Cherokee's holiday
stores there seemed to be fixed a gulf.

Christmas would come on Thursday. On Tuesday morning Trinidad, instead
of going to work, sought the Judge at the Lucky Strike Hotel.

"It'll be a disgrace to Yellowhammer," said Trinidad, "if it throws
Cherokee down on his Christmas tree blowout. You might say that that man
made this town. For one, I'm goin' to see what can be done to give Santa
Claus a square deal."

"My co-operation," said the Judge, "would be gladly forthcoming. I am
indebted to Cherokee for past favours. But, I do not see--I have
heretofore regarded the absence of children rather as a luxury--but in
this instance--still, I do not see--"

"Look at me," said Trinidad, "and you'll see old Ways and Means with the
fur on. I'm goin' to hitch up a team and rustle a load of kids for
Cherokee's Santa Claus act, if I have to rob an orphan asylum."

"Eureka!" cried the Judge, enthusiastically.

"No, you didn't," said Trinidad, decidedly. "I found it myself. I
learned about that Latin word at school."

"I will accompany you," declared the Judge, waving his cane. "Perhaps
such eloquence and gift of language as I possess will be of benefit in
persuading our young friends to lend themselves to our project."

Within an hour Yellowhammer was acquainted with the scheme of Trinidad
and the Judge, and approved it. Citizens who knew of families with
offspring within a forty-mile radius of Yellowhammer came forward and
contributed their information. Trinidad made careful notes of all such,
and then hastened to secure a vehicle and team.

The first stop scheduled was at a double log-house fifteen miles out
from Yellowhammer. A man opened the door at Trinidad's hail, and then
came down and leaned upon the rickety gate. The doorway was filled with
a close mass of youngsters, some ragged, all full of curiosity and
health.

"It's this way," explained Trinidad. "We're from Yellowhammer, and we
come kidnappin' in a gentle kind of a way. One of our leading citizens
is stung with the Santa Claus affliction, and he's due in town to-morrow
with half the folderols that's painted red and made in Germany. The
youngest kid we got in Yellowhammer packs a forty-five and a safety
razor. Consequently we're mighty shy on anybody to say 'Oh' and 'Ah'
when we light the candles on the Christmas tree. Now, partner, if you'll
loan us a few kids we guarantee to return 'em safe and sound on
Christmas Day. And they'll come back loaded down with a good time and
Swiss Family Robinsons and cornucopias and red drums and similar
testimonials. What do you say?"

"In other words," said the Judge, "we have discovered for the first time
in our embryonic but progressive little city the inconveniences of the
absence of adolescence. The season of the year having approximately
arrived during which it is a custom to bestow frivolous but often
appreciated gifts upon the young and tender--"

"I understand," said the parent, packing his pipe with a forefinger. "I
guess I needn't detain you gentlemen. Me and the old woman have got
seven kids, so to speak; and, runnin' my mind over the bunch, I don't
appear to hit upon none that we could spare for you to take over to your
doin's. The old woman has got some popcorn candy and rag dolls hid in
the clothes chest, and we allow to give Christmas a little whirl of our
own in a insignificant sort of style. No, I couldn't, with any degree of
avidity, seem to fall in with the idea of lettin' none of 'em go. Thank
you kindly, gentlemen."

Down the slope they drove and up another foothill to the ranch-house of
Wiley Wilson. Trinidad recited his appeal and the Judge boomed out his
ponderous antiphony. Mrs. Wiley gathered her two rosy-cheeked youngsters
close to her skirts and did not smile until she had seen Wiley laugh and
shake his head. Again a refusal.

Trinidad and the Judge vainly exhausted more than half their list before
twilight set in among the hills. They spent the night at a stage road
hostelry, and set out again early the next morning. The wagon had not
acquired a single passenger.

"It's creepin' upon my faculties," remarked Trinidad, "that borrowin'
kids at Christmas is somethin' like tryin' to steal butter from a man
that's got hot pancakes a-comin'."

"It is undoubtedly an indisputable fact," said the Judge, "that the--
ah--family ties seem to be more coherent and assertive at that period of
the year."

On the day before Christmas they drove thirty miles, making four
fruitless halts and appeals. Everywhere they found "kids" at a premium.

The sun was low when the wife of a section boss on a lonely railroad
huddled her unavailable progeny behind her and said:

"There's a woman that's just took charge of the railroad eatin' house
down at Granite Junction. I hear she's got a little boy. Maybe she might
let him go."

Trinidad pulled up his mules at Granite Junction at five o'clock in the
afternoon. The train had just departed with its load of fed and appeased
passengers.

On the steps of the eating house they found a thin and glowering boy of
ten smoking a cigarette. The dining-room had been left in chaos by the
peripatetic appetites. A youngish woman reclined, exhausted, in a chair.
Her face wore sharp lines of worry. She had once possessed a certain
style of beauty that would never wholly leave her and would never wholly
return. Trinidad set forth his mission.

"I'd count it a mercy if you'd take Bobby for a while," she said,
wearily. "I'm on the go from morning till night, and I don't have time
to 'tend to him. He's learning bad habits from the men. It'll be the
only chance he'll have to get any Christmas."

The men went outside and conferred with Bobby. Trinidad pictured the
glories of the Christmas tree and presents in lively colours.

"And, moreover, my young friend," added the Judge, "Santa Claus himself
will personally distribute the offerings that will typify the gifts
conveyed by the shepherds of Bethlehem to--"

"Aw, come off," said the boy, squinting his small eyes. "I ain't no kid.
There ain't any Santa Claus. It's your folks that buys toys and sneaks
'em in when you're asleep. And they make marks in the soot in the
chimney with the tongs to look like Santa's sleigh tracks."

"That might be so," argued Trinidad, "but Christmas trees ain't no fairy
tale. This one's goin' to look like the ten-cent store in Albuquerque,
all strung up in a redwood. There's tops and drums and Noah's arks
and--"

"Oh, rats!" said Bobby, wearily. "I cut them out long ago. I'd like to
have a rifle--not a target one--a real one, to shoot wildcats with; but
I guess you won't have any of them on your old tree."

"Well, I can't say for sure," said Trinidad diplomatically; "it might
be. You go along with us and see."

The hope thus held out, though faint, won the boy's hesitating consent
to go. With this solitary beneficiary for Cherokee's holiday bounty, the
canvassers spun along the homeward road.

In Yellowhammer the empty storeroom had been transformed into what might
have passed as the bower of an Arizona fairy. The ladies had done their
work well. A tall Christmas tree, covered to the topmost branch with
candles, spangles, and toys sufficient for more than a score of
children, stood in the centre of the floor. Near sunset anxious eyes had
begun to scan the street for the returning team of the child-providers.
At noon that day Cherokee had dashed into town with his new sleigh piled
high with bundles and boxes and bales of all sizes and shapes. So intent
was he upon the arrangements for his altruistic plans that the dearth of
children did not receive his notice. No one gave away the humiliating
state of Yellowhammer, for the efforts of Trinidad and the Judge were
expected to supply the deficiency.

When the sun went down Cherokee, with many wings and arch grins on his
seasoned face, went into retirement with the bundle containing the Santa
Claus raiment and a pack containing special and undisclosed gifts.

"When the kids are rounded up," he instructed the volunteer arrangement
committee, "light up the candles on the tree and set 'em to playin'
'Pussy Wants a Corner' and 'King William.' When they get good and at it,
why--old Santa'll slide in the door. I reckon there'll be plenty of
gifts to go 'round."

The ladies were flitting about the tree, giving it final touches that
were never final. The Spangled Sisters were there in costume as Lady
Violet de Vere and Marie, the maid, in their new drama, "The Miner's
Bride." The theatre did not open until nine, and they were welcome
assistants of the Christmas tree committee. Every minute heads would pop
out the door to look and listen for the approach of Trinidad's team. And
now this became an anxious function, for night had fallen and it would
soon be necessary to light the candles on the tree, and Cherokee was apt
to make an irruption at any time in his Kriss Kringle garb.

At length the wagon of the child "rustlers" rattled down the street to
the door. The ladies, with little screams of excitement, flew to the
lighting of the candles. The men of Yellowhammer passed in and out
restlessly or stood about the room in embarrassed groups.

Trinidad and the Judge, bearing the marks of protracted travel, entered,
conducting between them a single impish boy, who stared with sullen,
pessimistic eyes at the gaudy tree.

"Where are the other children?" asked the assayer's wife, the
acknowledged leader of all social functions.

"Ma'am," said Trinidad with a sigh, "prospectin' for kids at Christmas
time is like huntin' in a limestone for silver. This parental business
is one that I haven't no chance to comprehend. It seems that fathers and
mothers are willin' for their offsprings to be drownded, stole, fed on
poison oak, and et by catamounts 364 days in the year; but on Christmas
Day they insists on enjoyin' the exclusive mortification of their
company. This here young biped, ma'am, is all that washes out of our two
days' manoeuvres."

"Oh, the sweet little boy!" cooed Miss Erma, trailing her De Vere robes
to centre of stage.

"Aw, shut up," said Bobby, with a scowl. "Who's a kid? You ain't, you
bet."

"Fresh brat!" breathed Miss Erma, beneath her enamelled smile.

"We done the best we could," said Trinidad. "It's tough on Cherokee, but
it can't be helped."

Then the door opened and Cherokee entered in the conventional dress of
Saint Nick. A white rippling beard and flowing hair covered his face
almost to his dark and shining eyes. Over his shoulder he carried a
pack.

No one stirred as he came in. Even the Spangler Sisters ceased their
coquettish poses and stared curiously at the tall figure. Bobby stood
with his hands in his pockets gazing gloomily at the effeminate and
childish tree. Cherokee put down his pack and looked wonderingly about
the room. Perhaps he fancied that a bevy of eager children were being
herded somewhere, to be loosed upon his entrance. He went up to Bobby
and extended his red-mittened hand.

"Merry Christmas, little boy," said Cherokee. "Anything on the tree you
want they'll get it down for you. Won't you shake hands with Santa
Claus?"

"There ain't any Santa Claus," whined the boy. "You've got old false
billy goat's whiskers on your face. I ain't no kid. What do I want with
dolls and tin horses? The driver said you'd have a rifle, and you
haven't. I want to go home."

Trinidad stepped into the breach. He shook Cherokee's hand in warm
greeting.

"I'm sorry, Cherokee," he explained. "There never was a kid in
Yellowhammer. We tried to rustle a bunch of 'em for your swaree, but
this sardine was all we could catch. He's a atheist, and he don't
believe in Santa Claus. It's a shame for you to be out all this truck.
But me and the Judge was sure we could round up a wagonful of candidates
for your gimcracks."

"That's all right," said Cherokee gravely. "The expense don't amount to
nothin' worth mentionin'. We can dump the stuff down a shaft or throw it
away. I don't know what I was thinkin' about; but it never occurred to
my cogitations that there wasn't any kids in Yellowhammer."

Meanwhile the company had relaxed into a hollow but praiseworthy
imitation of a pleasure gathering.

Bobby had retreated to a distant chair, and was coldly regarding the
scene with ennui plastered thick upon him. Cherokee, lingering with his
original idea, went over and sat beside him.

"Where do you live, little boy?" he asked respectfully.

"Granite Junction," said Bobby without emphasis.

The room was warm. Cherokee took off his cap, and then removed his beard
and wig.

"Say!" exclaimed Bobby, with a show of interest, "I know your mug, all
right."

"Did you ever see me before?" asked Cherokee.

"I don't know; but I've seen your picture lots of times."

"Where?"

The boy hesitated. "On the bureau at home," he answered.

"Let's have your name, if you please, buddy."

"Robert Lumsden. The picture belongs to my mother. She puts it under her
pillow of nights. And once I saw her kiss it. I wouldn't. But women are
that way."

Cherokee rose and beckoned to Trinidad.

"Keep this boy by you till I come back," he said. "I'm goin' to shed
these Christmas duds, and hitch up my sleigh. I'm goin' to take this kid
home."

"Well, infidel," said Trinidad, taking Cherokee's vacant chair, "and so
you are too superannuated and effete to yearn for such mockeries as
candy and toys, it seems."

"I don't like you," said Bobby, with acrimony. "You said there would be
a rifle. A fellow can't even smoke. I wish I was at home."

Cherokee drove his sleigh to the door, and they lifted Bobby in beside
him. The team of fine horses sprang away prancingly over the hard snow.
Cherokee had on his $500 overcoat of baby sealskin. The laprobe that he
drew about them was as warm as velvet.

Bobby slipped a cigarette from his pocket and was trying to snap a
match.

"Throw that cigarette away," said Cherokee, in a quiet but new voice.

Bobby hesitated, and then dropped the cylinder overboard.

"Throw the box, too," commanded the new voice.

More reluctantly the boy obeyed.

"Say," said Bobby, presently, "I like you. I don't know why. Nobody
never made me do anything I didn't want to do before."

"Tell me, kid," said Cherokee, not using his new voice, "are you sure
your mother kissed that picture that looks like me?"

"Dead sure. I seen her do it."

"Didn't you remark somethin' a while ago about wanting a rifle?"

"You bet I did. Will you get me one?"

"To-morrow--silver-mounted."

Cherokee took out his watch.

"Half-past nine. We'll hit the Junction plumb on time with Christmas
Day. Are you cold? Sit closer, son."

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