Christmas Tales and Christmas Verse | Page 7

powerful sleepy all at once, and I couldn't keep my eyes
open. The next thing I knew Otis was nudgin' me in the ribs. 'Git up,
Joel,' says he; 'it's Chris'mas an' Santa Claus has been here.' 'Merry
Chris'mas! Merry Chris'mas!' we cried as we tumbled out o' bed. Then
Elvira an' Thankful came in, not more 'n half dressed, and Susan came
in, too, an' we just made Rome howl with 'Merry Chris'mas! Merry
Chris'mas!' to each other. 'Ef you children don't make less noise in
there,' cried father, 'I'll hev to send you all back to bed.' The idea of
askin' boys an' girls to keep quiet on Chris'mas mornin' when they've
got new sleds an' 'Garlands of Frien'ship'!"
Santa Claus chuckled; his rosy cheeks fairly beamed joy.
"Otis an' I didn't want any breakfast," said Joel. "We made up our
minds that a stockin'ful of candy and pop-corn and raisins would stay
us for a while. I do believe there wasn't buckwheat cakes enough in the
township to keep us indoors that mornin'; buckwheat cakes don't size

up much 'longside of a red sled with 'Yankee Doodle' painted onto it
and a black sled named 'Snow Queen.' We didn't care how cold it
was--so much the better for slidin' downhill! All the boys had new
sleds--Lafe Dawson, Bill Holbrook, Gum Adams, Rube Playford,
Leander Merrick, Ezra Purple--all on 'em had new sleds excep' Martin
Peavey, and he said he calculated Santa Claus had skipped him this
year 'cause his father had broke his leg haulin' logs from the Pelham
woods and had been kep' indoors six weeks. But Martin had his ol' sled,
and he didn't hev to ask any odds of any of us, neither."
"I brought Martin a sled the next Christmas," said Santa Claus.
"Like as not--but did you ever slide downhill, Santa Claus? I don't
mean such hills as they hev out here in this new country, but one of
them old-fashioned New England hills that was made 'specially for
boys to slide down, full of bumpers an' thank-ye-marms, and about ten
times longer comin' up than it is goin' down! The wind blew in our
faces and almos' took our breath away. 'Merry Chris'mas to ye, little
boys!' it seemed to say, and it untied our mufflers an' whirled the snow
in our faces, jist as if it was a boy, too, an' wanted to play with us. An
ol' crow came flappin' over us from the cornfield beyond the meadow.
He said: 'Caw, caw,' when he saw my new sled--I s'pose he'd never
seen a red one before. Otis had a hard time with his sled--the black
one--an' he wondered why it wouldn't go as fast as mine would. 'Hev
you scraped the paint off'n the runners?' asked Wralsey Goodnow.
'Course I hev,' said Otis; 'broke my own knife an' Lute Ingraham's
a-doin' it, but it don't seem to make no dif'rence--the darned ol' thing
won't go!' Then, what did Simon Buzzell say but that, like's not, it was
because Otis's sled's name was 'Snow Queen.' 'Never did see a girl sled
that was worth a cent, anyway,' sez Simon. Well, now, that jest about
broke Otis up in business. 'It ain't a girl sled,' sez he, 'and its name ain't
"Snow Queen"! I'm a-goin' to call it "Dan'l Webster," or "Ol'ver Optic,"
or "Sheriff Robbins," or after some other big man!' An' the boys
plagued him so much about that pesky girl sled that he scratched off the
name, an', as I remember, it did go better after that!
"About the only thing," continued Joel, "that marred the harmony of the

occasion, as the editor of the Hampshire County Phoenix used to say,
was the ashes that Deacon Morris Frisbie sprinkled out in front of his
house. He said he wasn't going to have folks breakin' their necks jest on
account of a lot of frivolous boys that was goin' to the gallows as fas' as
they could! Oh, how we hated him! and we'd have snowballed him, too,
if we hadn't been afraid of the constable that lived next door. But the
ashes didn't bother us much, and every time we slid side-saddle we'd
give the ashes a kick, and that sort of scattered 'em."
The bare thought of this made Santa Claus laugh.
"Goin' on about nine o'clock," said Joel, "the girls come
along--Sister
Elvira an' Thankful, Prudence Tucker, Belle Yocum, Sophrone
Holbrook, Sis Hubbard, an' Marthy Sawyer. Marthy's brother Increase
wanted her to ride on his sled, but Marthy allowed that a red sled was
her choice every time. 'I don't see how I'm goin' to hold on,' said
Marthy. 'Seems as if I would hev my hands full keepin' my things from
blowin' away.' 'Don't worry about yourself, Marthy,'