A Little Book of Profitable Tales | Page 5

time a son, whom they named Claus.
On the night that he was born wondrous things came to pass. To the
cabin in the fir-grove came all the quaint, weird spirits,--the fairies, the
elves, the trolls, the pixies, the fadas, the crions, the goblins, the
kobolds, the moss-people, the gnomes, the dwarfs, the water-sprites,
the courils, the bogles, the brownies, the nixies, the trows, the
stille-volk,--all came to the cabin in the fir-grove, and capered about

and sang the strange, beautiful songs of the Mist-Land. And the flames
of old Jans's forge leaped up higher than ever into the Northern sky,
carrying the joyous tidings to the Star, and full of music was that happy
night.
Even in infancy Claus did marvellous things. With his baby hands he
wrought into pretty figures the willows that were given him to play
with. As he grew older, he fashioned, with the knife old Jans had made
for him, many curious toys,--carts, horses, dogs, lambs, houses, trees,
cats, and birds, all of wood and very like to nature. His mother taught
him how to make dolls too,--dolls of every kind, condition, temper, and
color; proud dolls, homely dolls, boy dolls, lady dolls, wax dolls,
rubber dolls, paper dolls, worsted dolls, rag dolls,--dolls of every
description and without end. So Claus became at once quite as popular
with the little girls as with the little boys of his native village; for he
was so generous that he gave away all these pretty things as fast as he
made them.
Claus seemed to know by instinct every language. As he grew older he
would ramble off into the woods and talk with the trees, the rocks, and
the beasts of the greenwood; or he would sit on the cliffs overlooking
the fiord, and listen to the stories that the waves of the sea loved to tell
him; then, too, he knew the haunts of the elves and the stille-volk, and
many a pretty tale he learned from these little people. When night came,
old Jans told him the quaint legends of the North, and his mother sang
to him the lullabies she had heard when a little child herself in the
far-distant East. And every night his mother held out to him the symbol
in the similitude of the cross, and bade him kiss it ere he went to sleep.
So Claus grew to manhood, increasing each day in knowledge and in
wisdom. His works increased too; and his liberality dispensed
everywhere the beauteous things which his fancy conceived and his
skill executed. Jans, being now a very old man, and having no son of
his own, gave to Claus his forge and workshop, and taught him those
secret arts which he in youth had learned from cunning masters. Right
joyous now was Claus; and many, many times the Northern sky glowed
with the flames that danced singing from the forge while Claus
moulded his pretty toys. Every color of the rainbow were these flames;
for they reflected the bright colors of the beauteous things strewn round
that wonderful workshop. Just as of old he had dispensed to all children

alike the homelier toys of his youth, so now he gave to all children
alike these more beautiful and more curious gifts. So little children
everywhere loved Claus, because he gave them pretty toys, and their
parents loved him because he made their little ones so happy.
But now Norss and Faia were come to old age. After long years of love
and happiness, they knew that death could not be far distant. And one
day Faia said to Norss: "Neither you nor I, dear love, fear death; but if
we could choose, would we not choose to live always in this our son
Claus, who has been so sweet a joy to us?"
"Ay, ay," said Norss; "but how is that possible?"
"We shall see," said Faia.
That night Norss dreamed that a spirit came to him, and that the spirit
said to him: "Norss, thou shalt surely live forever in thy son Claus, if
thou wilt but acknowledge the symbol."
Then when the morning was come Norss told his dream to Faia, his
wife; and Faia said,--
"The same dream had I,--an angel appearing to me and speaking these
very words."
"But what of the symbol?" cried Norss.
"I have it here, about my neck," said Faia.
So saying, Faia drew from her bosom the symbol of wood,--a tiny cross
suspended about her neck by the golden chain. And as she stood there
holding the symbol out to Norss, he--he thought of the time when first
he saw her on the far-distant Orient shore, standing beneath the Star in
all her maidenly glory, shading her beauteous eyes with one hand, and
with the other clasping