Christmas Tales and Christmas Verse | Page 6

bigger than a gas pipe, Santa Claus would
slide down it!"
It didn't require a second glance to assure Joel that the new-comer was
indeed Santa Claus. Joel knew the good old saint--oh, yes--and he had
seen him once before, and, although that was when Joel was a little boy,
he had never forgotten how Santa Claus looked.
Nor had Santa Claus forgotten Joel, although Joel thought he had; for
now Santa Claus looked kindly at Joel and smiled and said: "Merry
Christmas to you, Joel!"
"Thank you, old Santa Claus," replied Joel, "but I don't believe it's
going to be a very merry Christmas. It's been so long since I've had a
merry Christmas that I don't believe I'd know how to act if I had one."
"Let's see," said Santa Claus, "it must be going on fifty years since I
saw you last--yes, you were eight years old the last time I slipped down
the chimney of the old homestead and filled your stocking. Do you
remember it?"
"I remember it well," answered Joel. "I had made up my mind to lie
awake and see Santa Claus; I had heard tell of you, but I'd never seen
you, and Brother Otis and I concluded we'd lie awake and watch for
you to come."
Santa Claus shook his head reproachfully.

"That was very wrong," said he, "for I'm so scarey that if I'd known you
boys were awake I'd never have come down the chimney at all, and
then you'd have had no presents."
"But Otis couldn't keep awake," explained Joel. "We talked about
everythin' we could think of, till father called out to us that if we didn't
stop talking he'd have to send one of us up into the attic to sleep with
the hired man. So in less than five minutes Otis was sound asleep and
no pinching could wake him up. But _I_ was bound to see Santa Claus
and I don't believe anything would've put me to sleep. I heard the big
clock in the sitting-room strike eleven, and I had begun wonderin' if
you never were going to come, when all of a sudden I heard the tinkle
of the bells around your reindeers' necks. Then I heard the reindeers
prancin' on the roof and the sound of your sleigh-runners cuttin'
through the crust and slippin' over the shingles. I was kind o' scared and
I covered my head up with the sheet and quilts--only I left a little hole
so I could peek out and see what was goin' on. As soon as I saw you I
got over bein' scared--for you were jolly and smilin' like, and you
chuckled as you went around to each stockin' and filled it up."
"Yes, I can remember the night," said Santa Claus. "I brought you a
sled, didn't I?"
"Yes, and you brought Otis one, too," replied Joel. "Mine was red and
had 'Yankee Doodle' painted in black letters on the side; Otis's was
black and had 'Snow Queen' in gilt letters."
"I remember those sleds distinctly," said Santa Claus, "for I made them
specially for you boys."
"You set the sleds up against the wall," continued Joel, "and then you
filled the stockin's."
"There were six of 'em, as I recollect?" said Santa Claus.
"Let me see," queried Joel. "There was mine, and Otis's, and Elvira's,
and Thankful's, and Susan Prickett's--Susan was our help, you know.
No, there were only five, and, as I remember, they were the biggest we

could beg or borrer of Aunt Dorcas, who weighed nigh unto two
hundred pounds. Otis and I didn't like Susan Prickett, and we were
hopin' you'd put a cold potato in her stockin'."
"But Susan was a good girl," remonstrated Santa Claus. "You know I
put cold potatoes only in the stockin's of boys and girls who are bad
and don't believe in Santa Claus."
"At any rate," said Joel, "you filled all the stockin's with candy and
pop-corn and nuts and raisins, and I can remember you said you were
afraid you'd run out of pop-corn balls before you got around. Then you
left each of us a book. Elvira got the best one, which was 'The Garland
of Frien'ship,' and had poems in it about the bleeding of hearts, and so
forth. Father wasn't expectin' anything, but you left him a new pair of
mittens, and mother got a new fur boa to wear to meetin'."
"Of course," said Santa Claus, "I never forgot father and mother."
"Well, it was as much as I could do to lay still," continued Joel, "for I'd
been longin' for a sled, an' the sight of that red sled with 'Yankee
Doodle' painted on it jest made me wild. But, somehow or other, I
began to get