Christmas Tales and Christmas Verse | Page 3

Norss said: "What symbol have
you, Faia, that I may know how truly you have spoken?"
"No symbol have I but this," said Faia, holding out the symbol that was
attached to the golden chain about her neck. Norss looked upon it, and
lo! it was the symbol of his dreams,--a tiny wooden cross.
Then Norss clasped Faia in his arms and kissed her, and entering into
the boat they sailed away into the North. In all their voyage neither care
nor danger beset them; for as it had been told to them in their dreams,
so it came to pass. By day the dolphins and the other creatures of the
sea gambolled about them; by night the winds and the waves sang them
to sleep; and, strangely enough, the Star which before had led Norss
into the East, now shone bright and beautiful in the Northern sky!

When Norss and his bride reached their home, Jans, the forge-master,
and the other neighbors made great joy, and all said that Faia was more
beautiful than any other maiden in the land. So merry was Jans that he
built a huge fire in his forge, and the flames thereof filled the whole
Northern sky with rays of light that danced up, up, up to the Star,
singing glad songs the while. So Norss and Faia were wed, and they
went to live in the cabin in the fir grove.
To these two was born in good 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