Christ in the Cupboard
By T.F. Powys
MR JOHN PIE, a sober and a worthy man, was now in a good way of business. Mr Pie possessed a large face, heavy hands, and a keen look—and he had once been poor.
When Mr Pie was poor and worked as a day-labourer for Farmer Told, he, with the help of Betty, his wife, spent generously what they earned. When any one begged of them —and old Mrs Crapper was always begging—they would bid her, or any others, share their meat, and Mrs Crapper would say, after hoping first that she wasn't taking away the bread from the children, that 'John Pie didn't put Christ into the cupboard like some folk, but always had Him to sit at table.'
'And thee daren't refuse no beggar a crust with 'e here,' old Mrs Crapper would shout out with her usual boisterous laugh that made the plates upon the dresser rattle and shake.
It is well understood that wealth is not increased by large acts of charity, and, though a man may believe that whoso giveth lendeth unto the Lord, it is easy for him also to wonder how soon the Lord will repay.
Mr Pie began to change his manners as soon as his master gave him a young sow as a gift, because John had worked so industriously. This sow, as is the habit of lowly creatures, increased and multiplied, and within a year Mr Pie held twenty pounds in his hand through selling his young pigs, with which money he purchased a horse and trap and commenced trade as a dealer.
One gain leads to another when a man is industrious and busy, and it wasn't long before Mr Pie became a dairyman and then again a farmer.
At Grange Farm Mrs Betty Pie churned the butter, and in the evening she would darn the socks for her children, Tommy and Winnie, who were six and eight years old, As one might expect, while the riches were being acquired the beggars were forgotten, for Mrs Crapper couldn't walk into a large farmhouse as she used to do into a little cottage, because now that the family had got on so well she felt that it wouldn't be proper to eat bread at their table, but would only go to the back door and ask for it. Mrs Crapper didn't have a kind welcome when she came, for Mr Pie would be bringing in the milk with a great clatter and banging of cans, and the old woman's whispered request for a bite of food would pass unheeded. . . .
Although Mr Pie never gave anything away now that he was rich, he still liked to think that he was a religious man, who would give a very warm welcome to Christ if He ever came to visit him.
Upon the first Sunday in Advent after the evening service held in
In the parlour at Grange Farm there was a large, empty cupboard that had no use except for Tommy and Winnie to be frightened about, for they would take turns to lift the latch and peep in, and then run away to hide behind their parents' chairs.
It chanced that this evening the winds of heaven were very boisterous and gusts of rain lashed the windows so that the old house shook. No one would wish to be out upon such a night, and certainly no knock was expected at the rich farmer's door. But as soon as the blue cheese and the old ale were ready, there came a soft knocking at the door, that made the children run and hide, for they remembered what their mother had said about the Devil being expected because an extra plate had been laid.
Mr John Pie opened the door.
The Man who presented himself, and who came in as soon as He was invited, was easy to recognize, for His face all the family had seen either in a church window or else in a picture.
He wore a crown of thorns, the usual robe, and His feet were bare.
He sat down at once in the vacant place, and, looking at the table. He blessed the food. While He ate He gazed lovingly upon the children and even stroked the cat that had jumped upon His knee. But the Visitor hadn't been sitting there for more than a few minutes before another knock came, but this time it was at the back door.
This knocker was Mrs Crapper, who had come to beg a little food, for she had nothing to eat in her cottage that was away in a wide and distant field.
'Oh, she's always begging!' said Betty Pie. 'She's always asking for things, and we should be certainly ruined if we gave to everyone.'
Mr Pie looked nervously at the Visitor, who, in a quiet tone, commanded Mrs Pie to give the best she had to the beggar.
As soon as Mrs Pie returned from doing so, she looked ruefully at her husband, who remarked angrily that, however pleasant it was to have Christ amongst them, yet if He always commanded them to give to every old woman who came, they might as well go back to the cottage again and work for Farmer Told, as they used to do before he gave them the pig.
'But we want to keep Christ in the house,' replied Betty Pie, 'for if either Winnie or Tommy happen to die of measles He would bring them to life again as He did the daughter of the Roman centurion.'
'Yes, that's very true,' answered John Pie, 'but if He sits with us at table He will be soon telling us not only to give away our food but also to sell all we have and give the proceeds to the poor.'
'Then we will put Christ into the cupboard,' said Betty Pie.
The Visitor didn't wait to be asked twice to go there, for, as soon as ever Betty Pie had made her request. He rose of his own accord, and stepping to the cupboard, He went in.
One can easily imagine that, with Christ in the cupboard, all things would go well with Mr Pie's worldly affairs. His cows yielded quantities of milk, and his large flock of Sheep that, at this season of Advent, were lambing, had all of them twins.
But such a place of prosperity was no suitable begging- ground for Mrs Crapper. She, indeed, had been very much surprised when Mrs Pie carried to her, the first evening of Christ's visit, all the best of the food. As one may well suppose, she came the very next evening, hoping that the old times were come again when John Pie never refused any poor woman a place at his table.
Mrs Pie was skimming the cream when Mrs Crapper called, but she never looked round when the old woman begged, and Mr Pie, who was bringing in two great cans of milk, told her rudely to go. . . .
As Christmas drew near, the family that thrived so well could talk merrily, and even the children joined in, about their guest whom they were so glad to have safe in the cupboard.
Every evening they would pile the fire high, and Mr Pie, after tending the cows in the yards and giving them large quantities of sweet meadow hay, would sit amongst his family and, heating the poker red-hot, would plunge it into the large jug of ale to warm it, and Mrs Pie would even give the children a little sip out of her own glass.
Of course they would often speak of the pleasure of having so grand a guest in the house, though He was but in the cupboard, and Tommy, warmed by the ale, thought one evening that he might take a peep to see if He was still there. Mrs Crapper had just been to the back door, but the dog roaming in the yard had torn her clothes that were but rags, and she had gone away, Mr Pie was smiling into the fire and telling of all the fine lambs that were born in the turnip field, when little Tommy crept to the cupboard and peeped in.
As soon as he returned to the fire his father asked him whether Christ was still there.
'Oh yes, He's there,' said Tommy, taking another sip of ale from his mother's glass. 'His face is as kind and loving as ever and the marks of the nails are in His hands, but His feet look a little different.'
Mr Pie laughed. He was so well off now that he could afford a bottle of brandy, which he mixed with the old ale.
'Ah!' he said, emptying his glass and smacking his lips, 'it's pleasant to know that He's there, for, if any of us were to fall ill, it's a comfort to think that we have only to open the cupboard door to have Him by our bedside.'
About Christmas-time it is usual for those who are poor to expect gifts from those whom God has blessed with greater plenty, and more than one poor person besides Mrs Crapper, as .the holy day drew nigh, came to Grange Farm to ask for a little. But each of them was driven from the door.
The cold came with severe frost, and snow covered the fields, and Mrs Crapper, trying to find her way to the farm to ask for a little skim milk, found herself too ill to reach the gate and lay down in a snowdrift to die.
When the cold froze her and she breathed her last, yielding up her soul to the still comfort of the frozen air, Winnie Pie, in the warm farmhouse parlour, after taking a sip at her mother's glass, thought that she, too, would like to have a little peep at the Christ who, she remembered very well, had looked so lovingly at her when He sat at their table.
Winnie opened the cupboard and looked, but she quickly shut it again, and retired to the fire and told her mother that she had seen no marks of the nails, and that His face, though He still had those mild eyes, looked rather queer.
Tommy peeped the next, but he came back quick enough and said that Christ had a tail and that His feet were like a cow's.
Mr Pie laughed heartily.
'That's from standing so long in the cupboard,' he said.
'He hasn't been wanted yet, but the day may come when we shall be glad of Him'
Mrs Pie laughed too. It seemed so pleasant to her to have Christ in the cupboard, while they could drink warm ale and brandy and count the gains that had come to them while Christ was there.
On Christmas Eve, when the path to Mr Pie's front gate was so slippery that one might easily fall, a knock came at the back door that was so like Mrs Crapper's that Mrs Pie was startled and upset her glass.
'Oh, I'm not one to be afraid of a ghost, with Christ in the cupboard,' said Mr Pie, and with an oath, he rushed out to drive the spectre away.
A figure moved along the path in the moonlight, and Mr Pie followed, but he had not gone far before he slipped and fell heavily upon the frozen ground. He was carried in and laid upon the bed, where it was soon evident that a fractured rib had pierced his lung and that he must die.
The family gathered round, and Mr Pie whispered faintly that the time had come to let the Divine Guest out of the cupboard to save His host's life.
Tommy ran down to open the cupboard door. The dying man grew weaker, while the family waited in hopeful expectation for Christ to save.
Although the dead of winter had come there was a sudden flash of lightning outside and the thunder rolled. The children cowered and Betty Pie screamed.
A hot breath of sulphurous air filled the room. Presently an ugly thing appeared in the doorway, with flashing, fiery eyes, horrid horns, a tail, and a beast's feet.
'You hid Christ in the cupboard,' exclaimed the Devil, 'but your mean deeds have changed Him.'
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