Christmas Tales and Christmas Verse | Page 5

the cross is known; loiter unseen in the corners, and watch
and hear the children through the day. Keep a strict account of good
and bad, and every night bring back to me the names of good and bad
that I may know them."

The kobolds and the brownies laughed gleefully, and sped away on
noiseless wings; and so, too, did the other fairies and elves.
There came also to Claus the beasts of the forest and the birds of the air,
and bade him be their master. And up danced the Four Winds, and they
said: "May we not serve you, too?"
The Snow King came stealing along in his feathery chariot. "Oho!" he
cried, "I shall speed over all the world and tell them you are coming. In
town and country, on the mountain-tops and in the
valleys,--wheresoever the cross is raised,--there will I herald your
approach, and thither will I strew you a pathway of feathery white. Oho!
oho!" So, singing softly, the Snow King stole upon his way.
But of all the beasts that begged to do him service, Claus liked the
reindeer best. "You shall go with me in my travels; for henceforth I
shall bear my treasures not only to the children of the North, but to the
children in every land whither the Star points me and where the cross is
lifted up!" So said Claus to the reindeer, and the reindeer neighed
joyously and stamped their hoofs impatiently, as though they longed to
start immediately.
Oh, many, many times has Claus whirled away from his far Northern
home in his sledge drawn by the reindeer, and thousands upon
thousands of beautiful gifts--all of his own making--has he borne to the
children of every land; for he loves them all alike, and they all alike
love him, I trow. So truly do they love him that they call him Santa
Claus, and I am sure that he must be a saint; for he has lived these
many hundred years, and we, who know that he was born of Faith and
Love, believe that he will live forever.
[Illustration: Oh, hush thee, little Dear-my-Soul, And close thine eyes
in dreaming.]
CHRISTMAS EVE
Oh, hush thee, little Dear-my-Soul,
The evening shades are falling,--

Hush thee, my dear, dost thou not hear
The voice of the Master

calling?
Deep lies the snow upon the earth,
But all the sky is ringing
With
joyous song, and all night long
The stars shall dance, with singing.
Oh, hush thee, little Dear-my-Soul,
And close thine eyes in dreaming,

And angels fair shall lead thee where
The singing stars are
beaming.
A shepherd calls his little lambs,
And he longeth to caress them;
He
bids them rest upon his breast,
That his tender love may bless them.
So, hush thee, little Dear-my-Soul,
Whilst evening shades are falling,

And above the song of the heavenly throng
Thou shalt hear the
Master calling.
JOEL'S TALK WITH SANTA CLAUS
One Christmas eve Joel Baker was in a most unhappy mood. He was
lonesome and miserable; the chimes making merry Christmas music
outside disturbed rather than soothed him, the jingle of the sleigh-bells
fretted him, and the shrill whistling of the wind around the corners of
the house and up and down the chimney seemed to grate harshly on his
ears.
"Humph," said Joel, wearily, "Christmas is nothin' to me; there was a
time when it meant a great deal, but that was long ago--fifty years is a
long stretch to look back over. There is nothin' in Christmas now,
nothin' for me at least; it is so long since Santa Claus remembered me
that I venture to say he has forgotten that there ever was such a person
as Joel Baker in all the world. It used to be different; Santa Claus used
to think a great deal of me when I was a boy. Ah! Christmas nowadays
ain't what it was in the good old time--no, not what it used to be."
As Joel was absorbed in his distressing thoughts he became aware very
suddenly that somebody was entering or trying to enter the room. First
came a draught of cold air, then a scraping, grating sound, then a

strange shuffling, and then,--yes, then, all at once, Joel saw a pair of fat
legs and a still fatter body dangle down the chimney, followed
presently by a long white beard, above which appeared a jolly red nose
and two bright twinkling eyes, while over the head and forehead was
drawn a fur cap, white with snowflakes.
"Ha, ha," chuckled the fat, jolly stranger, emerging from the chimney
and standing well to one side of the hearth-stone; "ha, ha, they don't
have the big, wide chimneys they used to build, but they can't keep
Santa Claus out--no, they can't keep Santa Claus out! Ha, ha, ha.
Though the chimney were no