Bedtime Story: Ted's Double: A Christmas Folly

A fun and whimsical winter tale from Lucy Maud Montgomery. First published in 1903. Cousins Morris and Ted were so alike they could almost be taken for twins. Ted had an invitation to visit wealthy Great Aunt Deborah, but he was keen to go to a hockey game instead. He persuaded Morris to pretend he was Ted and go to Great Aunt Deborah's instead.

Transcript

Ted's Double,

A Christmas Folly Story by Lucy Maud Montgomery When Maurice Stanley came east and Ted Stanley met him at the gate,

Both boys looked at each other for a moment in a somewhat bewildered way.

''If you are not me myself,

You must be my cousin Maurice from the wild and wool west,

'' said Ted with a hearty handshake.

''Welcome to Chestnut Hill,

Old fellow.

When I first got a glimpse of you,

'' said Maurice with a smile,

''I thought I had come on ahead of myself and got here first.

In fact,

The resemblance between the two boys was wonderful.

They were the same in age,

Height,

And general build.

Their features were similar and both had curly,

Reddish hair,

Blue-gray eyes,

And a healthy coloring,

To be sure.

When they were together,

A close observer could easily have detected some difference.

Maurice had a braver,

More thoughtful expression than that of Rollykin Ted,

And was quieter in his manner,

Although as fond of fun and jokes as a boy could be.

This was his first visit east and the first occasion of his meeting with a host of uncles and aunts,

Cousins and second cousins.

Maurice had never spent so delightful a vacation.

The prairie farm where he had lived all his life,

And surrounded by so many still bigger ones,

That neighbors were few and far away,

Saw Maurice reveled in his host of eastern cousins and the comradeship he had always craved.

One day when he had been at Chestnut Hill,

About six weeks,

He found Ted rummaging over a huge pile of books in his den.

Said den being a corner of the Big Garret,

Where Ted kept all his household goods,

And spent time on rainy days.

Both boys were very fond of the den.

It was such a jolly old place,

As untidy as they pleased,

Where nobody ever disturbed them or their traps,

Up under the eaves,

With one small window looking out over the uplands of Chestnut Hill.

But this particular day was a sunny one,

And the sight of unstidious Ted up to his ears in books in the middle of vacation was one of which Maurice was unprepared.

Has anything serious happened?

He inquired solemnly.

You would think so to look at me,

Wouldn't you,

Grint-Dead?

Well something serious has happened,

To be sure,

But it has nothing to do with my present uncanny fit of bookishness.

It simply occurred to me that the space taken up in this corner by all these books,

You,

Aunty Dusty,

Shade of Mary Jane,

Would be much better filled by my collection of bird's eggs.

So I am patiently reading them out.

All that I shall need for college in the fall must be left,

And the rest I shall dump into the rag-room.

You are lucky,

Chap,

Ted,

Said Maurice with a sigh.

Because I am going to college,

Inquired Ted,

Blowing the dust from a venerable Julius Caesar.

Well,

It is jolly.

Wish you would come,

Too.

Think there's no chance of it.

Maurice shook his head.

Not a shadow of it.

No use in talking about it,

Ted.

It only makes me grum.

In the brief silence that followed,

Ted sorted out some ill-used English classics.

Ted Maurice ruminated gloomily.

To go to college was his greatest desire,

But he knew it would not be granted.

The crops had failed for three years on the prairie farm.

Maurice knew that.

When he went home in the fall,

He was to take a position as a clerk in one of the big department stores in the nearest city,

And he headed the prospect sturdily.

Even one he congratulated himself on being able to get it,

And so lightened his father's burden somewhat.

What is the serious thing that has happened,

He asked at last,

Recalling that part of Ted's speech.

I've had a letter from Great Aunt Deborah,

Inviting me to tea with her at her residence in Rexford on Christmas Day.

I don't see anything dreadful in that.

Enviable blindness,

You don't know Great Aunt Deborah.

I'd rather be invited to sup with the king of the Cannibal Islands.

Besides,

Christmas morning is the day of the ice hockey game at Moorland,

And I've been looking forward to it for weeks.

Well,

Don't go to your Great Aunt Deborah's,

Then,

Suggested Maurice.

My son,

You do not appear to realize that Great Aunt Deborah's invitations are like unto royalties.

They are commands and must be obeyed under penalty of her eternal displeasure.

But don't say your Great Aunt Deborah,

In a tone which implies that I have a monopoly in great aunts.

She is your great aunt as well as mine,

Mistress Deborah Stanley is.

How is it that I had never seen her,

Then,

Asked Maurice.

I thought I had met all my relatives to deterred and afford generations of late.

There's a bit of family history involved in the answer to that.

Great Aunt Deborah knows you are here.

She doesn't like you because you are the son of your father.

Did you ever hear Uncle Chester speak of his Aunt Deborah?

Not that I remember.

Well,

When your father and mine were boys,

Your father was Great Aunt Deborah's favorite nephew.

She was always very eccentric,

Father says.

But Uncle Chester got along with her beautifully.

She intended to make him her heir.

She's worth a pot of money,

You know.

Well,

When your father married,

It made her very angry.

She wanted him to marry someone else.

The daughter of a man she had once expected to marry herself,

I believe.

They had a bitter quarrel,

And it ended in Great Aunt Deborah forbidding your father ever to speak to her or cross her threshold again.

He took her at her word.

Father says that is really what she has never forgiven him for,

And went out west.

She had never allowed his name to be spoken in her hearing since.

Very vindictive lady,

Our Great Aunt Deborah.

She's always been rather fond of me,

Father says.

It is because I'm so like what your father was.

When we met,

She used to pat me on the head and give me peppermints.

I haven't seen her for two years.

She'll think I've grown a bit.

Christmas happens to be her birthday,

Too.

I shall have to go,

Of course,

Father insists on it,

And I shall miss the hockey game.

Dead fire to harm is virtue.

I crossed the den and scowled.

At the same moment he saw himself and Morris reflected in the long,

Crackled mirror which hung at the other end of the garret.

Christopher Columbus,

He said.

Morris Stanley,

Hug him unto me and lend me your ears.

If you have a proper cousin regard for me,

I shall be able to eat my cake and have it too.

I shall go to the game at Moorland,

And you shall go to tea with Great Aunt Deborah at Rexford.

But she hasn't invited me,

And doesn't want me,

Objected Morris.

Morris,

My friend,

You are singularly lacking in quickness of comprehension.

You will go,

Not as Morris Stanley,

But as Theodore Stanley,

To eat myself.

Great Aunt Deborah will never know the difference.

No more will anybody else.

I always knew we didn't look so much alike,

Or nothing.

Morris stared,

And then went off,

In a shout of laughter.

But Ted,

Oh,

I really cannot do that.

I'd be discovered and besides.

No,

You wouldn't.

No,

Don't refuse to help a fellow out.

Morris,

I'd do as much for you.

You don't care about the game.

And I do.

And no harm can be done.

At first Morris protested,

But Ted eagerly overruled all his objections,

And in the end he consented.

The spies of Midsheaf,

In the plan,

Commended it to him.

Besides,

He was conscious of a curiosity to see Great Aunt Deborah.

I'll go,

He said,

But if Great Aunt Deborah discovers that I am a rank imposter,

And takes some fearful and simmery vengeance,

I trust you to break the news gently to my parents.

On Saturday afternoon Morris and Ted both set off.

At the crossroads they parted and Ted trudged down,

The heels to mourn,

While Morris steadily footed his way to Rexford.

He did not feel altogether comfortable,

But it was too late to back out.

Miss Deborah Stanley lived in an old-fashioned but picturesque house on the outskirts of Rexford.

Morris admired the beautiful grounds as he walked up the serpentine drive under the chestnuts.

He felt rather nervous,

But his love of Midsheaf bubbled up within him,

And primed him for the ordeal.

It also lent an added sparkle to his eyes as he went up the steps.

Great Aunt Deborah met him at the door.

I am glad to see you,

Theodore,

She said with a kindly handshake.

And I am glad to see you too,

Aunt Deborah,

Said Morris sincerely enough,

And to wish you many happy returns of the day.

The appearance of his great aunt was a surprise to Morris,

Who had somehow imbibed from Ted an impression very different from the reality.

True,

She had,

As Ted had warned him,

Eyes like a hawk,

So keen and piercing that Morris trembled for the success of his ruse.

But they were dark,

Handsome eyes as well.

She was richly dressed,

And had a great deal of snow-white hair,

Arranged in puffs,

So carefully as to betoken that Great Aunt Deborah had met Vanity yet.

Altogether,

Morris liked her looks,

As he would have said.

He was taken into a big gloomy room full of quaint old furniture,

And here they talked for an hour.

Morris talked well,

Even under the handicap of talking as if he were dead.

He was not free from an unpleasant threat that he might inadvertently say something that would give him away,

And several of Great Aunt Deborah's questions were rather hard to answer,

As he told Ted afterwards.

I had to take some liberties with your imagination.

But on the whole he got on very cleverly,

Although he felt the reverse of comfortable.

If only Great Aunt Deborah were not so kind!

If she had been cranky and courtesy,

As he had expected,

The joke would have had a much better flavor.

A bad quarter of an hour came after tea,

And Great Aunt Deborah said abruptly,

You have a cousin staying with you,

I hear.

Chester Stanley's son.

What sort of boy is he?

Morris blushed so hotly that he fell thankful to the gloom.

He is a rather jolly chap,

He answered confused.

A good deal like me,

They say.

You are very like what his father was at your age,

Said Great Aunt Deborah,

Half sharply,

Half tenderly.

He was my favorite nephew until he disobeyed me.

Well,

Theodore,

I am glad to have seen you this afternoon.

You have improved a great deal.

As for this cousin of yours,

What does he intend to make of himself?

Is he clever?

Does he intend to go to college?

I can hardly say,

Tempered Morris.

No,

I don't think he is going to college.

He would like it to,

But,

Well,

I don't think he is going.

Can't afford it,

I suppose,

Chester Stanley is poor,

Said Great Aunt Deborah,

With a certain jarring note of satisfaction in her voice.

But this is not my purpose.

Is it of yourself I wish to speak?

Theodore,

I have something to give you.

She went to an old desk in the corner and took out two cases,

One brand new,

The other somewhat old-fashioned,

Sitting down by Morris,

She said.

I am going to give this in remembrance of your visit and my birthday.

It is very good of you to give up your other plans and spend the afternoon with me.

After this you must come oftener.

Here is your present,

Theodore.

It was a beautiful gold watch with Ted's monogram on the back.

Morris took it foolishly.

If Lors ever did open the swallow up boys,

He wished the one he was on would do so then.

Thank you,

Aunt Deborah,

He stammered.

But Great Aunt Deborah did not notice his embarrassment.

She was fumbling with the stiff catch of the other case.

It shone being old that revealed another watch,

Elaborate,

Although old-fashioned,

Design and ornamentation.

This watch,

She said,

I had made twenty years ago for your Uncle Chester when he disregarded my wishes.

I did not give it to him.

It is as good as ever for all practical purposes.

Take it to your cousin,

Morris Stanley,

With his great Aunt Deborah's love.

She hold it out to Morris,

But instead of taking it,

He stood up suddenly with a very grave determined face.

I cannot take that watch,

Aunt Deborah,

He said quietly.

I am not Ted.

I am Morris.

Ted wanted to go to the game at Moorland today,

So I agreed to come here in his place.

I thought it a good joke at the time.

I see now that it was dishonorable trick.

I am very sorry for it,

Aunt Deborah.

So you ought to be,

Aunt Deborah spoke sharply.

At first she had looked amazed,

Then angry,

But now her keeled eyes were twinkling.

I suppose you thought it was smart to play a trick on an old woman.

Oh no,

Said Morris quickly.

I never thought of it in that way,

Although I did think it a joke.

Please forgive me and don't blame Ted.

It was mostly my fault.

You and Ted are a pair of graceless scabs,

Said Aunt Deborah severely.

I ought to be very angry with you both.

I feel sure Ted put you up to this,

But I shall have to forgive you both,

I suppose.

And you are Chester Stanley's son.

You look like him.

Well,

Go home,

Take your watches and be off.

Tell Ted he is to come here next Saturday afternoon and get his scolding.

As for you,

Well,

If you care to come back any time I will be glad to see you,

Morris.

I am not crank,

But even cranks can be amiable at times.

Now go.

' Morris went.

He felt rather bewildered.

When he got home he told Ted the whole story.

Jerusalem,

Said the latter,

Won't great Aunt Deborah give me a calming down when she sees me.

I suppose I deserve it.

She treated you pretty right,

Anyhow.

And those watches are dandies.

It is the most astonishing thing that she wasn't furious at you when you blurted out that confession.

Are you going to see her again?

' Of course I am.

I like great Aunt Deborah,

Said Morris.

He did go.

Not once only,

But often.

There was no denying that somehow or other Morris had found his way to great Aunt Deborah's heart.

And when he went back west the departmental clerkship had vanished forever from his horizon.

He was to go to college in the fall.

Great Aunt Deborah had said so,

And her will was law.

Great Aunt Deborah is a brick,

Said Ted when they parted.

I repent in stackcloth and ashes of anything I ever said to the contrary.

Goodbye till next month,

Old chap.

What reawakened the old university up,

Though?

The end.

Thank you for listening.