Winter’s Eve: The Second Gift

Below is an installment of Winter’s Eve–a six part holiday story.
If you have missed the first piece:
 The First Gift

The story of Mrs. Mittens and that first gift blew around our tiny village like the big white flakes that continued to fall. Yet we were warmed to think someone was watching over even the poorest of us in Winter.

The second package appeared the day Mr. Crumb brought some of his coal to share with Mrs. Mittens. Soon after he’d arrived, Miss Rose, our florist, came bearing her own donation.

“It’s from last year, but when I heard… I wish it were festive, but it’s just plain green,” Miss Rose shrugged with apology. She presented several balls of yarn.

“Mrs. Mittens cried,” Mr. Crumb told me later that day when he came to my grocery to buy sugar. “All she whispered was ‘gratefulness doesn’t see color.’”

But I know Miss Rose sees color everywhere, and a season of only white snow and evergreens saddens her. So each year I order colorful ribbon for her and the townsfolk. But the snow came early this year, and the ribbon did not.

Well, after visiting Mrs. Mittens that night, as Miss Rose left her flower shop, she nearly stepped on a small package.

Happy Holidays.
Wish granted.

“Two rolls of ribbon. Crimson and gold,” I told my granddaughter. I tucked her in and wondered who had given it. Perhaps the baker?

But I know he cannot fulfill the wish of this little girl. He can’t bake a family.

Besides, when the third gift appeared, everyone in Winter knew it wasn’t the baker…

. . . . .

Come back next Friday for The Third Gift