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Page 36
The deer liked the sound of his deep bass voice and kept time to the
song with their hoofbeats on the hard snow; but soon they stopped at
another chimney and Santa Claus, with sparkling eyes and face brushed
red by the wind, climbed down its smoky sides and left a present for
every child the house contained.
It was a merry, happy night. Swiftly the deer ran, and busily their
driver worked to scatter his gifts among the sleeping children.
But the sack was empty at last, and the sledge headed homeward; and
now again the race with daybreak began. Glossie and Flossie had no
mind to be rebuked a second time for tardiness, so they fled with a
swiftness that enabled them to pass the gale on which the Frost King
rode, and soon brought them to the Laughing Valley.
It is true when Claus released his steeds from their harness the
eastern sky was streaked with gray, but Glossie and Flossie were deep
in the Forest before day fairly broke.
Claus was so wearied with his night's work that he threw himself upon
his bed and fell into a deep slumber, and while he slept the Christmas
sun appeared in the sky and shone upon hundreds of happy homes where
the sound of childish laughter proclaimed that Santa Claus had made
them a visit.
God bless him! It was his first Christmas Eve, and for hundreds of
years since then he has nobly fulfilled his mission to bring happiness
to the hearts of little children.
11. How the First Stockings Were Hung by the Chimneys
When you remember that no child, until Santa Claus began his travels,
had ever known the pleasure of possessing a toy, you will understand
how joy crept into the homes of those who had been favored with a
visit from the good man, and how they talked of him day by day in
loving tones and were honestly grateful for his kindly deeds. It is
true that great warriors and mighty kings and clever scholars of that
day were often spoken of by the people; but no one of them was so
greatly beloved as Santa Claus, because none other was so unselfish as
to devote himself to making others happy. For a generous deed lives
longer than a great battle or a king's decree of a scholar's essay,
because it spreads and leaves its mark on all nature and endures
through many generations.
The bargain made with the Knook Prince changed the plans of Claus for
all future time; for, being able to use the reindeer on but one night
of each year, he decided to devote all the other days to the
manufacture of playthings, and on Christmas Eve to carry them to the
children of the world.
But a year's work would, he knew, result in a vast accumulation of
toys, so he resolved to build a new sledge that would be larger and
stronger and better-fitted for swift travel than the old and clumsy one.
His first act was to visit the Gnome King, with whom he made a bargain
to exchange three drums, a trumpet and two dolls for a pair of fine
steel runners, curled beautifully at the ends. For the Gnome King had
children of his own, who, living in the hollows under the earth, in
mines and caverns, needed something to amuse them.
In three days the steel runners were ready, and when Claus brought the
playthings to the Gnome King, his Majesty was so greatly pleased with
them that he presented Claus with a string of sweet-toned
sleigh-bells, in addition to the runners.
"These will please Glossie and Flossie," said Claus, as he jingled the
bells and listened to their merry sound. "But I should have two
strings of bells, one for each deer."
"Bring me another trumpet and a toy cat," replied the King, "and you
shall have a second string of bells like the first."
"It is a bargain!" cried Claus, and he went home again for the toys.
The new sledge was carefully built, the Knooks bringing plenty of
strong but thin boards to use in its construction. Claus made a high,
rounding dash-board to keep off the snow cast behind by the fleet
hoofs of the deer; and he made high sides to the platform so that many
toys could be carried, and finally he mounted the sledge upon the
slender steel runners made by the Gnome King.
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