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Page 38
Claus now seated himself in the sledge, drew a warm robe over his
knees and his fur cap over his ears, and cracked his long whip as a
signal to start.
Instantly the ten leaped forward and were away like the wind, while
jolly Claus laughed gleefully to see them run and shouted a song in
his big, hearty voice:
"With a ho, ho, ho!
And a ha, ha, ha!
And a ho, ho, ha, ha, hee!
Now away we go
O'er the frozen snow,
As merry as we can be!
There are many joys
In our load of toys,
As many a child will know;
We'll scatter them wide
On our wild night ride
O'er the crisp and sparkling snow!"
Now it was on this same Christmas Eve that little Margot and her
brother Dick and her cousins Ned and Sara, who were visiting at
Margot's house, came in from making a snow man, with their clothes
damp, their mittens dripping and their shoes and stockings wet through
and through. They were not scolded, for Margot's mother knew the snow
was melting, but they were sent early to bed that their clothes might
be hung over chairs to dry. The shoes were placed on the red tiles of
the hearth, where the heat from the hot embers would strike them, and
the stockings were carefully hung in a row by the chimney, directly
over the fireplace. That was the reason Santa Claus noticed them when
he came down the chimney that night and all the household were fast
asleep. He was in a tremendous hurry and seeing the stockings all
belonged to children he quickly stuffed his toys into them and dashed
up the chimney again, appearing on the roof so suddenly that the
reindeer were astonished at his agility.
"I wish they would all hang up their stockings," he thought, as he
drove to the next chimney. "It would save me a lot of time and I
could then visit more children before daybreak."
When Margot and Dick and Ned and Sara jumped out of bed next morning
and ran downstairs to get their stockings from the fireplace they were
filled with delight to find the toys from Santa Claus inside them. In
face, I think they found more presents in their stockings than any
other children of that city had received, for Santa Claus was in a
hurry and did not stop to count the toys.
Of course they told all their little friends about it, and of course
every one of them decided to hang his own stockings by the fireplace
the next Christmas Eve. Even Bessie Blithesome, who made a visit to
that city with her father, the great Lord of Lerd, heard the story
from the children and hung her own pretty stockings by the chimney
when she returned home at Christmas time.
On his next trip Santa Claus found so many stockings hung up in
anticipation of his visit that he could fill them in a jiffy and be
away again in half the time required to hunt the children up and place
the toys by their bedsides.
The custom grew year after year, and has always been a great help to
Santa Claus. And, with so many children to visit, he surely needs all
the help we are able to give him.
12. The First Christmas Tree
Claus had always kept his promise to the Knooks by returning to the
Laughing Valley by daybreak, but only the swiftness of his reindeer
has enabled him to do this, for he travels over all the world.
He loved his work and he loved the brisk night ride on his sledge and
the gay tinkle of the sleigh-bells. On that first trip with the ten
reindeer only Glossie and Flossie wore bells; but each year thereafter
for eight years Claus carried presents to the children of the Gnome
King, and that good-natured monarch gave him in return a string of
bells at each visit, so that finally every one of the ten deer was
supplied, and you may imagine what a merry tune the bells played as
the sledge sped over the snow.
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