Chapter II: Part 2

But nothing did any good. Not talking nor scolding, for the Little Brown Boy didn’t listen. Not shutting in the closet nor even going to bed in the middle of the day, for no sooner was he out at play again than the Little Brown Boy had forgotten all about it. Nothing was of any use. He simply would not put away his toys!

Now, as the Little Brown Boy lay snug in his bed, something very strange indeed happened to him. In at the open window came the gay West Wind with a laugh and a loud, loud puff!!! In a twinkling he whirled the Little Brown Boy out of bed, twirled him out of the window, and then blew him along through the air at such a pace that for a moment the Little Brown Boy scarcely knew just who or where he was.

When at last he could look about him he found he was sitting on an Autumn leaf, holding tight with both hands, and riding along through the air so fast that the Wind whistled past his ears.

‘Where am I going?’ called the Little Brown Boy to the Wind. ‘Where am I going? Tell me, do!’

But the Wind only shouted ‘Whoo-oo-oo!’ and blew the little boy along faster than ever before.

The big round Moon laughed down at the Little Brown Boy. The Stars twinkled and gleamed as if they were laughing too.

On and on went the Autumn leaf, whirling and twirling and dancing along until the Little Brown Boy spied a great snow-white Palace just ahead. Straight to this Palace the Wind blew the Autumn leaf. Down, down, down whirled the leaf until it rested on the Palace front steps. And then, of course, there was nothing for the Little Brown Boy to do but to jump off the leaf and look about him.

The ground was covered all roundabout with snow, smooth, hard, shining snow, but, strangely enough, in spite of his bare toes, the Little Brown Boy didn’t feel cold at all. Perhaps he was too excited. I don’t know. He stared with wide-open eyes at the great snow-white Palace, glittering in the moonlight. Then over to a half-open window, from which streamed a rosy light, crept the Little Brown Boy, and, clinging to the window-sill, he peeped into the room.

What the Little Brown Boy saw inside the room almost made him tumble backward into the snow.

For, before his very eyes sat Santa Claus, the Santa Claus whose picture the Little Brown Boy had seen many, many times, and who, for as many years as the Little Brown Boy could remember, had crept down his chimney on Christmas Eve and left him toys of all sorts and kinds. Roundabout Santa Claus sat his Brownies, his gay little helpers and toy-makers, and they were listening carefully to every word that Santa Claus had to say. On a table, in front of the fire, there lay a great open Book, and from that Book, so it seemed to the Little Brown Boy, Santa Claus was reading children’s names.

‘Caroline Jones,’ read Santa Claus aloud.

‘A very good girl,’ he added. ‘She minds her mother and goes to bed every night without crying.’

When they heard this the Brownies shouted, ‘Hurrah! Hurrah!’ and clapped their hands. They seemed as pleased as pleased could be to hear this news of Caroline Jones.

Santa Claus bent over the Book again.

‘Tom Robinson,’ read Santa Claus aloud.

‘A better boy than he was a month ago,’ said he, looking round with a smile. ‘He is polite to his grandmother, and runs errands without grumbling, and cleans his finger nails, sometimes, without being told.’

‘Good! Good!’ shouted the Brownies. And again they clapped their tiny hands.

At the next name Santa Claus looked sober and not a single Brownie smiled.

‘Johnny Smith,’ read Santa Claus, and, with a shake of the head, he dipped his pen into a bottle of black, black ink.

‘He still worries the cat in spite of all that has been said to him, and I hear he has been poking his mother’s canary bird with a stick.’ Santa Claus’s merry face was now very sober indeed. ‘His name must be crossed out, though I don’t like to do it.’

And with his long pen Santa Claus slowly drew a heavy black line through the name ‘Johnny Smith.’

‘Oh! Oh!’ sighed the Brownies, shaking their heads. ‘Too bad! Too bad!’

‘He will have nothing in his stocking next Christmas but a lump of coal,’ said one Brownie in a low voice to his neighbor.

‘And an apple with a bite in it,’ added another Brownie, looking sad.

‘But if he is a good boy between now and Christmas, you will put his name back in the Book of Good Children, won’t you, Santa Claus?’ asked several Brownies, eager to be as hopeful as they could.

The Little Brown Boy did not hear Santa Claus’s answer. The Book of Good Children! So that is what it was all about! The Little Brown Boy held tightly to the window-sill and almost put his head into the room.

Of course he knew what the Book of Good Children was. We all do. The Book in which Santa Claus keeps the names of all the Children whom he is to visit on Christmas Eve. What surprised the Little Brown Boy was that Santa Claus had actually crossed out a little boy’s name from his Book. Though his mother had often warned him just before Christmas that this might happen to him, he had never believed that Santa Claus would do such a thing.

But now Santa Claus was reading again from his great thick Book. And at what he heard the Little Brown Boy could scarcely believe his ears.

‘Dear! Dear!’ Santa Claus was saying. ‘Here is another name that must be crossed out.’

And slowly and sadly Santa Claus read the name aloud.

‘The Little Brown Boy!’ read he.

‘Oh, no, Santa Claus!’ called out all the Brownies, their kind little faces quite wrinkled with distress. ‘Don’t cross out his name to-night. Give him another chance. Perhaps he will learn to pick up his toys. Don’t cross off his name to-night.’

Before Santa Claus could answer or even lay down his pen, there was a noise from the window that made Santa Claus and the Brownies jump to their feet. Over the window-sill rose the head of a little boy. His eyes were round as buttons with fright, his mouth was open to call, ‘No! No! No!’ and every single hair stood straight on end with excitement, which, as you may imagine, gave him a very strange look indeed.

The next moment the little boy, who was dressed in his night-clothes, came scrambling through the half-open window into the room. Straight to Santa Claus he ran and clasped him round his great high boots.

‘No! No! No!’ called out the little boy again, squeezing Santa Claus’s boots close in his arms. ‘Don’t cross out my name! I will be good! I will put away my toys every night! Don’t leave a coal in my stocking at Christmas! Don’t give me an apple with a bite! Oh! Oh! Oh!’

Here the little boy could say no more, for he hadn’t a speck of breath left.

‘Well, well, well,’ said Santa Claus, sitting down and lifting the little boy to his knee, ‘it is the Little Brown Boy himself, I do declare.’

‘Yes,’ nodded the Little Brown Boy with a sniff, ‘and I am going to put away my toys every night after this. I promise you, Santa Claus. I promise I will.’

‘Good!’ answered Santa Claus heartily. ‘Good! Your name is still in the Book. It isn’t crossed off yet. See for yourself.’

And there, in Santa Claus’s own Book of Good Children, the Little Brown Boy, leaning from Santa Claus’s knee, saw his name written as plain as plain could be.

‘Why don’t you take him up to see the toys?’ suggested Santa Claus to his Brownies, who were now smiling and nodding at one another and hopping about.

So upstairs they went to a great room filled to every corner with toys very much like those the Little Brown Boy had at home.

At their first glimpse of the Little Brown Boy, the toys became excited, so excited that the Little Brown Boy held fast to the Brownies’ hands. For the toys began to call out and all talk at once and tell the Little Brown Boy just how toys felt when they were left lying on the floor at night.

‘We want to rest in our own stable and not lie out in the cold,’ whinnied the horses, stamping their feet and tossing their heads as they spoke.

‘We like to be packed neatly in our box,’ said the tin soldiers, giving the Little Brown Boy a fine salute. ‘It is so untidy and unlike a soldier to lie about on the floor.’

‘We can’t drive straight and with speed to a fire,’ spoke out the firemen, growing red in the face, ‘unless our fire-engines are placed in a row on the shelf. You must understand how that is yourself.’

The Little Brown Boy nodded. He did begin to understand.

‘My legs grow stiff when I lie on the floor,’ complained the Jumping Jack, with an injured look. ‘I can’t jump so well. Could you?’

‘No,’ murmured the Little Brown Boy, hanging his head and almost putting his finger in his mouth, but not quite.

‘Oh, what a crick I have in my neck!’ said the Jack-in-the-Box, making a comical face, ‘unless I am put in my box with the cover fastened down tight.’

And the Jack-in-the-Box crouched down and then gave a mighty spring into the air as if to show that he had no crick in his neck at the present time.

As for Mother Goose on the picture-book, she shook her finger at the Little Brown Boy, but she forgave him with a smile, as did all the toys, when he promised them solemnly, just as he had promised Santa Claus, that he would put his toys neatly away every night.

‘I won’t forget,’ said the Little Brown Boy. ‘I promise.’

The Brownies were so happy when they heard this that they said, ‘Let’s have a feast.’

So sitting round the fire, with Santa Claus looking on, they all roasted chestnuts and popped corn, the Little Brown Boy too. And they ate and they ate and they ate until they couldn’t eat any more.

Never before, so he thought, had the Little Brown Boy had such a good time. But at last it was the Brownies’ bed-time, and the Little Brown Boy on his leaf was whirled swiftly and safely home.

When he woke in the morning the first thing he did was to pick up all his toys and put them neatly away. And once in their proper places, the toys all gave a sigh of relief and fell fast asleep, they were so worn out from lying on the floor.

Then the Little Brown Boy crept into his mother’s bed and told her all that had happened to him the night before.

‘What do you think of that?’ asked the Little Brown Boy when he had finished.

He was much surprised to have his mother answer, ‘I think it was all a dream.’

‘A dream?’ exclaimed the Little Brown Boy. ‘How can it be a dream? Look here!’

From the pocket in his night-clothes he pulled a chestnut, a roasted chestnut that the Brownies had given to him last night.

‘How can it be a dream?’ asked the Little Brown Boy again.

‘I don’t know,’ answered his mother. ‘Perhaps it did happen. At any rate, I am glad that, after this, you are going to pick up your toys every night.’

‘I am,’ said the Little Brown Boy with a nod. ‘I promised Santa Claus.’

And I don’t have to tell you that the Little Brown Boy kept his word.

THE BROWNIE WHO FOUND CHRISTMAS

THE BROWNIE WHO FOUND CHRISTMAS

Merrythought was tired of Christmas.

‘I can scarcely believe it,’ said Santa Claus. ‘I never heard of such a thing before.’

‘Neither did I,’ answered Merrythought, shaking his head until the tip of his scarlet cap wagged to and fro. ‘But it is true, Santa Claus. I am tired of Christmas.’

Merrythought was a Brownie. He was not only a Brownie, he was Santa Claus’s very best workman as well. It was Santa Claus himself who said so, and surely he ought to know.

All the year round Merrythought sat in the Snow Palace, at the very tip-top of the North Pole, making toys for Christmas--toys for boys, toys for girls, toys for babies too, and no one but the most skillful Brownie could have made such beautiful, shining Christmas toys. There is not the slightest doubt in the world about that.

It was the week before Christmas and all the other Brownies who help Santa Claus stood together in a corner of the work-room whispering about Merrythought behind their hands.

‘To think that Merrythought is tired of Christmas!’ said Brownie Kindheart, who was in charge of the smallest baby dolls because of his gentle, friendly way. ‘Why, I think Merrythought’s dolls are the most beautiful of all. Their eyes are the bluest, and their cheeks are the rosiest, and their lips have the sweetest smiles. I don’t see how Merrythought can be tired of Christmas.’

‘He says he doesn’t like toys any more,’ spoke up Nimbletoes, ‘but I never saw such fine Jumping Jacks as he has made this year. They leap and dance and fling their arms and legs about until I can scarcely stand still.’

And Nimbletoes jumped up and down like a Jumping Jack till he lost his breath and had to sit down in the corner to find it again.

‘I like his Jack-in-the-Boxes immensely,’ said Brownie Mischief, smiling at the very thought. ‘They shoot up in the air with so much spirit and dash and they all wear such cheerful grins. Each one seems to say, “Don’t you wish you were a Jack-in-the-Box?” And, I declare, sometimes I almost do.’

‘Give me his rocking-horses,’ said Fleetfoot, whose specialty was making roller skates and snow coasters and kites. ‘They prance and gallop and champ at their bits as if they would like nothing better than to take you for a ride to Banbury Cross and back again. I think he is the best toy-maker of us all.’

‘Poor Merrythought!’ whispered gentle Silvertongue, pointing to the corner where Merrythought sat alone. ‘How sober he looks! He used to grow happier and happier as Christmas drew near. He would sing at his work and smile to himself until the whole Snow Palace was in a good humor no matter how busy we might be.’

‘Yes, indeed,’ agreed Kindheart. ‘He was as merry as his name. But he says this year he has lost his feeling for Christmas. He used to love it, the toys and the candy and the surprises. But he doesn’t feel so now. He thinks children want too many toys. He has lost Christmas, he says.’

‘Lost Christmas?’ exclaimed little Sharpeyes, the errand boy. He was the Brownie who picked up pins and threaded needles and found the scissors for every one else. ‘Perhaps I can find it for him. I will begin to look this very minute. I would look for a week without stopping rather than have Merrythought feel so sad.’

‘Ho! I know what to do!’ cried Sweet-Tooth, chief of the candy cooks. ‘I will make a new candy for Merrythought, a new chewy kind, that will keep him so busy he will forget that he has lost Christmas. Now let me tell you Brownies what I mean to put in it.’

Sweet-Tooth checked off the items on his fingers while the Brownies crowded round to hear.

‘Molasses--and sugar--and hickory nuts--and cream----’

* * * * *

But Mischief slipped away and strolled over to the work-bench where Merrythought sat, his head on his hand.

‘What is the matter, Merrythought?’ asked Mischief kindly. ‘You look as if you had lost your best friend.’

‘I have,’ answered Merrythought, without raising his head, ‘or worse. I have lost Christmas. I don’t like Christmas any more.’

‘What is the matter with Christmas?’ asked Mischief again. ‘You used to like Christmas the best of us all.’

‘I know I did,’ answered Merrythought, ‘but I have had too much of it. I am tired of toys and presents and Christmas Trees, and the very thought of tinsel and silver and gold Tree ornaments makes me shudder from head to foot.’

‘Dear me,’ said Mischief with a little frown, ‘that is too bad. What you need is a change, Merrythought. I am sure you need a change. Why don’t you ask Santa Claus to let you ride with him around the world on Christmas Eve?’

‘He wouldn’t take me,’ answered Merrythought, slowly shaking his head. ‘You know he always says that if he took one Brownie he would have to take all, and that if he took us all we would make so much noise that we would wake the children in their beds. I don’t want to go, anyway. It would be nothing but toys, toys, toys. That is all children think of nowadays, at Christmas, how many toys they are going to get.’

‘I don’t believe all children have so many toys,’ said Mischief. ‘I think if you went with Santa Claus you would see some children who had very little Christmas indeed.’

‘Humph, I don’t,’ answered Merrythought. ‘Think of that sleigh full of toys, enough for the whole world. And I am tired of toys, I tell you. I have made only one toy this year that I really like, and that is Lady Arabella.’

‘Oh, yes, Lady Arabella,’ said Mischief, and walked off without another word.

* * * * *

Lady Arabella was a big little-girl doll, and Merrythought had made her for little Princess Maud.

It happened this way. Early in December, Santa Claus had a letter from Princess Maud’s grandmother in which she said that she would like Princess Maud to have a big little-girl doll for Christmas this year. Santa Claus took the letter to Merrythought, his best workman, and Merrythought sat himself down and made Lady Arabella.

Now Merrythought was so tired of curly hair and lace dresses with satin bows and pale blue kid shoes to match that he didn’t give Lady Arabella any of these. He thought to himself, ‘Perhaps Princess Maud is tired of fancy dresses, too; perhaps she would like a plain comfortable doll whose clothes she could not spoil no matter how hard she played with her.’ So he gave Lady Arabella pretty blue eyes and pink cheeks, to be sure, and two long yellow braids tied with flyaway pink bows. But he dressed her in neat brown shoes and stockings and in a plain, though fine, white frock. And over the frock he put a pink-and-white pinafore that covered her from top to toe, a good, sensible pinafore that was not in the least like a lace dress with satin bows and pale blue kid shoes to match. The pinafore had pockets and in one pocket was a tiny handkerchief and in the other a purse just large enough to hold a penny. Oh! Merrythought knew how to do things When it came to making dolls.

Now you might think that Lady Arabella was too plain and sensible for a Christmas doll. But there was something about her that every one liked. The toys liked her, the Brownies liked her--you remember that Merrythought liked her best of all the toys he had made that year--and Santa Claus felt sure that Princess Maud and her grandmother would be delighted with her, too.

Now when Mischief left Merrythought he went looking for Lady Arabella, and he found her seated on the window-sill behind the curtain watching the reindeer romping in the snow.

Mischief slipped behind the curtain too, and first of all he asked Lady Arabella if she had heard him talking to Merrythought just now.

Yes, Lady Arabella had heard every single word.

Then Mischief asked a very strange question, indeed.

‘Do you know what a tantrum is, Lady Arabella?’ asked he.

‘No, I never heard of a tantrum,’ said Lady Arabella.

‘Well, a tantrum is this,’ explained Mischief, his face very sober but his eyes twinkling with fun. ‘You want your own way, and you dance up and down and scream and cry and sometimes you lie on the floor and kick. Now, Lady Arabella, do you think you could have a tantrum?’ asked he.

‘Yes,’ answered Lady Arabella promptly, ‘I am sure that I could.’

‘Then let me whisper in your ear,’ said Mischief.

And when he had finished whispering, he and Lady Arabella laughed and nodded at one another and laughed again.

They had a secret, and presently you shall know what it was.

* * * * *

It was late afternoon on Christmas Eve--the busiest moment in the whole year at Santa Claus’s Snow Palace on the very tip-top of the North Pole.

The great sleigh stood in front of the door, the eight tiny reindeer harnessed and in place before it. In and out of the Palace scurried the Brownies, packing the sleigh with the toys they had been at work upon for a long, long year.

Out came the trains, the wagons, the sleds. Nimbletoes sped by with his arms full of Teddy bears and Jumping Jacks. Sweet-Tooth staggered along under his load of candy, fifty different kinds. Silvertongue carried toy cats and dogs, elephants, sheep, and camels, too. Very gently Kindheart brought out the dolls, tucking them carefully into warm and comfortable nooks. Mischief dragged down the steps two rocking-horses at a time, their manes and tails blowing in the frosty air. Fleetfoot and Merrythought were everywhere at once, tying a bicycle on the back of the sleigh, pushing in a stray Noah’s Ark, squeezing a Jack-in-the-Box into place. Little by little the sleigh was filled. Higher and higher grew the pile of toys. It was more and more difficult to find a place for each toy now.

Sharpeyes ran about, picking up the last few toys that had been dropped here and there.

Merrythought stood by the reindeer, rubbing Dasher’s head, patting Dancer upon his furry nose.

Santa Claus drew on his gloves. It was almost time to start.

Suddenly Mischief, whose face had grown very red, called out, ‘Where is Lady Arabella? We have forgotten Lady Arabella.’

Every one looked at every one else. It was true, quite true, they had forgotten Lady Arabella.

Mischief, always as quick as a flash, darted into the Palace, to come running out again, holding Lady Arabella by the hand.

‘I found her!’ called Mischief. ‘I found her! She was hiding behind the curtain, on the window-sill. But, look, Santa Claus, she is crying! Lady Arabella is crying!’

And so it was. Lady Arabella was crying. In spite of her tiny handkerchief which she pulled from her pinafore pocket, the tears ran down her pretty pink cheeks and the end of her little tip-tilted nose was red.

The Brownies stared at Lady Arabella, and Santa Claus stared too. Such a thing as a crying doll had never happened before. The toys were always happy and excited on Christmas Eve, looking forward to their new homes, wherever Santa Claus might leave them.

‘What is the matter, Lady Arabella?’ asked Santa Claus in his kindest voice. ‘Have you a pain? Are you hungry? What is the matter with you?’

‘I am homesick,’ sobbed Lady Arabella. ‘I am homesick and lonely too. I don’t want to go riding all aloney-loney-loney. I want Merrythought to go with me. I do, I do, I do!’

‘But you will not be alone,’ said Santa Claus in surprise. ‘There is a nice place for you beside Red Jumping Jack. Look and see! He will hold one hand and the White Polar Bear will hold the other. I am sure you will not be lonely if only you make up your mind not to cry.’

But Lady Arabella shook her head and danced up and down and cried louder than before.

‘No, no!’ cried Lady Arabella, shaking her elbows as if she would like to poke the Red Jumping Jack and the White Polar Bear. ‘I want Merrythought! I want Merrythought to go with me or else I won’t go at all.’

Here Lady Arabella threw herself on the ground and kicked with all her might and main. You could scarcely see her brown shoes and stockings, Lady Arabella kicked them to and fro so very fast.

A strange way, indeed, for Lady Arabella to act! It didn’t seem at all like a doll who had been made to live with a little Princess. Surely such a doll would be on her best behavior every moment of the time.

But you would have thought it still more strange if you could have seen Mischief hiding down behind the sleigh. All of the other Brownies were so sorry for Lady Arabella that they looked quite troubled; one or two of them looked quite shocked. But Mischief was not troubled at all. He almost seemed trying not to laugh. He was muttering to himself as well, and Silvertongue said afterward that he thought he heard him say, ‘Hurrah for you, Lady Arabella! That is a good tantrum. That is one of the best tantrums I have ever seen.’

Now Santa Claus was like the Brownies. He was troubled to see Lady Arabella so unhappy. It was growing late, too.

‘Dear me!’ said Santa Claus, rubbing his nose with his great fur glove. ‘Dear me! Little Princess Maud won’t want a doll who has been crying. Perhaps you had better jump in, Merrythought, and go with us, after all.’

‘Yes, sir,’ answered Merrythought.

His breath was quite taken away at the idea of going round the world with Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. But he managed to raise Lady Arabella to her feet and together they quickly climbed into place in the sleigh.

Mischief tucked the robe round Lady Arabella and patted her hand. Santa Claus gathered up the reins, he cracked his whip, the Brownies gave three loud cheers, and the sleigh was off.

Lady Arabella still behaved strangely. She wiped her eyes and smiled round at Merrythought. She was not at all ashamed of having had a tantrum, though the Red Jumping Jack and the White Polar Bear gave her a scornful look. Then she hid her face on Merrythought’s shoulder and laughed and laughed and laughed. And not until they were well out of sight of the palace was she able to sit around straight and look about her as she rode.

Now have you guessed the secret that Lady Arabella and Mischief had between them? Just think a moment and I am sure you will.

* * * * *

On sped the sleigh over the snow, the moon and the stars glittering cold and bright in the frosty sky. Snow, snow, still more snow. Then the forests, dark and piney and sweet-smelling. Now and then a house. Up, up, up to the roof would go the sleigh, down the chimney Santa Claus would creep, then back again to his place and off, the reindeer seeming fairly to fly over the snow. Now a village, now a town.

And everywhere children in bed and asleep, their bedrooms dark or dimly lighted by a low night-lamp. And everywhere ready and waiting for Santa Claus, though not always ready in just the same way. Sometimes there would be stockings hung by the chimney place, sometimes a little wooden shoe placed outside the door, sometimes a candle burning in the window to light Noel upon his way. But always Santa Claus knew what to do and just what presents to leave in every house.

Into a big city dashed the sleigh, straight toward a great castle with turrets and towers and many windows sparkling in the frosty starlight. It was the castle where Princess Maud lived, and now Merrythought and Lady Arabella were forced to say good-bye.

‘I know you will make Princess Maud happy,’ said Merrythought, kissing Lady Arabella’s pretty pink cheek.

In return Lady Arabella threw both arms about Merrythought’s neck.

‘I’m so glad that you could come with us,’ whispered she, hugging him close, ‘and do try to find Christmas again to-night if you can.’

Then down the chimney went Lady Arabella and Santa Claus and the great pack of toys into the peaceful night nursery where slept the little Princess Maud, dreaming of the big little-girl doll she hoped Santa Claus would bring her that night.

On went the sleigh. Merrythought crept next to Santa Claus and cuddled down close as the sleigh swept across the ocean with its dashing waves and snow squalls and great ships ploughing silently along through the black and icy water.

There were children on those ships. Do you think Santa Claus passed them by? Not he! By special arrangement down on the decks he flung great sacks of toys so that no child should wake on Christmas Morning and find his stocking unfilled.

Over the land again, Santa Claus stopping so often now that Merrythought grew quite used to holding the reins. Here were more children fast asleep, here were mothers and fathers trimming Christmas Trees, and people trudging through the snow carrying presents and wreaths of holly and bunches of mistletoe.

‘Gay, isn’t it?’ asked Santa Claus, smiling with all his might. ‘There is nothing in the world quite like Christmas and plenty of toys for every one. Eh, Merrythought?’

And his face was so happy as he looked down at Merrythought that the little Brownie was ashamed to tell him how he really felt.

So he buried his nose in the warm fur robe and only mumbled something about ‘too many toys.’

But Santa Claus heard him and understood. He didn’t speak again to Merrythought. He only looked at him when they reached a poor house where all Santa Claus left for the little boy was a fire-engine, and next door where the baby had only a monkey-on-a-stick.

‘Perhaps all children don’t have too many toys,’ thought Merrythought. ‘But they all have something. And I am tired to death of toys, just tired to death of them.’

Now Santa Claus drove through the white countryside, on and on and on, until there was not a house to be seen.

‘Where can we be going?’ Merrythought asked himself. ‘This looks like the end of the world.’

On and on and on, until, half buried in the snow, Merrythought spied a little brown house. There was a light in the window, though it was the middle of the night.

‘Somebody trimming a Christmas Tree, I suppose,’ thought Merrythought. ‘More toys and tinsel and gold, no doubt.’

To his surprise Santa Claus did not stop. He slowed up a little and gently, very gently, he lifted Merrythought out and dropped him in the snow.

‘Go look in the window,’ said Santa Claus, ‘and if I am not mistaken there will be something for you to see. I will be back for you by and by.’

And off sped the sleigh and out of sight among the white drifts of snow.

* * * * *

Merrythought struggled up the path through the deep snow and peeped in the window.

As we know, he had expected to see a Christmas Tree laden with gay balls and chains and ornaments of every kind and hue. He thought he might see stockings in a row. He was sure he would see bunches of holly and sprays of mistletoe.

But the room into which he looked had not a sign of Christmas anywhere.

It was a bare little room with a bed in one corner and an old cook-stove that quite filled one side of the wall.

And in the room were seven children, all wide awake as could be, just as if it were not Christmas Eve, when every wise little boy or girl goes to sleep the moment his bed-time comes. The seven children were in their night-gowns, all but one, the oldest, a girl, and they had huddled round their shoulders bits of shawls and blankets to keep them warm. But in spite of this and the fire in the stove their noses were red with cold and they blew upon their fingers every now and then.

They were watching the stove, the oven of the stove, and all seven were sniffing, sniffing the air. And first one and then the other would call out, ‘I smell them! I smell them! I know I do!’

At this they would become so excited that they would jump up and down and lose off their blankets and bits of shawls. Then the biggest girl would have to go round among them and wrap them up again.

All this Merrythought could hear and see quite plainly, for his nose was pressed flat against the window-pane.

‘They must have a Christmas Turkey in the oven,’ thought he. ‘But what a strange time to cook it. And where are their toys and their Tree and their father and mother, too?’

Merrythought looked and listened with all his might.

‘I must know what is in that oven,’ thought he again. ‘It doesn’t smell like turkey to me.’

Here Merrythought sniffed vigorously all along the window-sill. He was becoming almost as excited as the children themselves.

‘I will know their names soon,’ said he, smiling to see the seven children sniff and clap their hands and jump about. ‘That oldest girl is named Belinda, for the other children are always calling out, “Oh, Belinda, wrap me up! Oh, Belinda, do sniff over here!” She seems to take care of them. I wonder where their own mother is.’

Merrythought rubbed the steam of his breath off the window and peered in again.

‘The littlest boy with freckles is called Tom, and the one with curls and her thumb in her mouth is Matilda, and the baby is Polly, I know. I think those two boys holding hands and giggling are called Danny and Bill. And the one with the pigtails is named Ann Mary, for her two grandmothers, I suppose. I wonder when they will open that oven door and take out whatever is inside.’

The children were wondering this, too.

‘Oh, Belinda, do look in the oven! Oh, Belinda, do see if they are not done! Oh, Belinda, we can’t wait a minute longer!’

Belinda laughed at them and shook her head.

Stand back,’ said she, ‘and I will look in the oven.’

But they didn’t stand back, not they. They crowded round and peeked and sniffed as Belinda gently opened the oven door. And when she said, ‘They are done!’ they clapped their hands and shouted and pranced about the room.

‘What can it be?’ asked Merrythought, clinging to the window-sill, his eyes as round as plates. ‘It must be something very rich and fine.’

But what do you think Belinda took from the oven and carefully set upon the table in a row?

Seven little pies! Seven little saucer pies, in very small saucers, too!

Merrythought almost fell off the window-sill, he was so surprised. And the very next moment he did something much worse. He sneezed! A loud crashing sneeze that jerked his head forward and struck it against the window-pane with a thump!

Well, of course the children rushed over to the window to see what was there. And when they saw a little fellow, only Brownie size, they opened the door, and Belinda called him to come in.

So in Merrythought went, and the room was so sweet with the odor of the seven little pies that Merrythought couldn’t help sniffing and staring at them, too.

‘They are our pies,’ spoke up little Tom proudly.

‘One apiece,’ announced Danny and Bill in a breath.

‘Belinda made them,’ said Ann Mary, twitching her pigtails into place.

‘For our Christmas,’ added Matilda, taking her thumb out of her mouth to say so.

Baby Polly didn’t speak a word. Perhaps she couldn’t. I am not sure about that. But she toddled straight over to Merrythought and slipped her hand in his. She knew at a glance that here was a friend. And she was right. For unless he were a good friend to little children Merrythought could never have made such beautiful playthings for them, in spite of the fact that this Christmas he had grown so tired of toys.

But, somehow, as he looked about the little room, bare of Christmas on Christmas Eve, Merrythought didn’t so dislike the idea of toys. Indeed, it seemed all wrong and strange not to see a shining Tree and stockings, filled to overflowing, in a row, and little heads, brown and black and yellow, snuggled down into a pillow and happy with Christmas dreams.

This was a strange Christmas Eve, and perhaps Merrythought’s face showed what he felt, for Belinda began at once to tell him how it had come about.

‘You see, Father and Mother went to town almost a week ago. Father went to help build a house. He is a carpenter, you know. And Mother went to do sewing for the minister’s wife,’ said Belinda, standing straight and tall. ‘And they left me to take care of the children. They meant to be home for Christmas. They were coming to-night. Mother said she would bring each of the children an orange, if she could. But the snow is very deep, and they didn’t come. So I made the pies for the children. They have apples and molasses and sugar in them. And the children will like them just as well as toys.’

The children did like them. They were hopping round the table and calling out, ‘Smell mine! Smell mine!’

But Merrythought did not like it at all. He thought of the many toys he had made that year in Santa Claus’s Snow Palace on the very tip-top of the North Pole, he thought of Santa Claus’s sleigh still well filled, he thought of the stockings and Christmas Trees that other children would enjoy on Christmas Day. And Merrythought wished with all his generous little Brownie heart that he could give a beautiful toy to each of these seven children who were made so happy on Christmas by a little saucer pie.

‘Oh!’ groaned Merrythought to himself. ‘And I said there were too many toys. I said children thought of nothing but toys and how many they would get. I said I was tired of toys. And these children haven’t a single one, not a single little toy. How could I have said such a thing! Oh! Oh! Oh!’

But here Merrythought felt some one pulling at his hand.

It was Ann Mary, holding out her pie to Merrythought.

‘Here!’ said Ann Mary, her pigtails standing straight out with excitement. ‘Take it. It’s yours. I want to give it to you for Christmas because you haven’t any pie or anything. The other children will give me bites of theirs. They said they would. Take it. It’s for you.’

Merrythought took the pie. He almost wanted to cry, but he took a bite of crust instead.

‘Delicious!’ said Merrythought. ‘It is the best pie I ever ate.’

But at that moment Merrythought’s face grew very bright.

‘Just a minute,’ said he. ‘Don’t stir.’

He opened the door and looked out. He listened and listened again.

Just as he thought. He did hear Santa Claus’s sleigh-bells, faint and clear.

‘Wait! Wait for me!’ he shouted out into the snow. And there came an answering tinkle that told him Santa Claus had heard.

Then he turned back into the room.

‘Think just as fast as you can,’ said Merrythought to the seven astonished children standing before him in a row. ‘Think just as fast as you can, and then tell me what toy you would like most of all for Christmas.’

Why, it didn’t take them two minutes to think. They began to answer before Merrythought had finished speaking to them.

‘A sled! A pair of skates!’ said Danny and Bill, holding tight to one another and giggling as they spoke.

‘A Jack-in-the-Box,’ said Tom, all freckles and smiles.

‘A doll, a sleepy doll,’ said Ann Mary, twitching her pigtails into place.

‘A Jumping Jack,’ said Matilda, taking her thumb out of her mouth and putting it back again.

Polly hid her face in Belinda’s skirt, so Belinda answered for her.

‘She wants a woolly lamb on wheels,’ said Belinda. ‘I know that is what she wants most of all.’

‘And what do you want?’ asked Merrythought. ‘Every one has told but you.’

Belinda’s eyes grew bright.

‘I want a sewing-box,’ said Belinda--‘a sewing-box with a lock and key so that the children can never touch what is inside.’

Merrythought nodded. He could go straight to work at once. He started toward the door. Then suddenly he turned back again.

‘But you mustn’t look!’ exclaimed Merrythought. He had remembered how dreadful it would be if any one peeped out of the window and caught even a glimpse of Santa Claus and his sleigh. ‘You mustn’t look, you know. Promise me that not one of you will look.’

‘We will hide our eyes,’ said Belinda. ‘Come, children. Let’s hide our eyes on the side of the bed.’

So down by the side of the bed went the seven children, all in a row, their blankets and bits of shawls huddled round their shoulders and their pink toes and heels showing in the most comical way. They didn’t know what it was all about, to be sure, but it was Christmasy and fun and exciting, and they liked it, every one.

Then Merrythought, his pie in his hand, rushed out of the house to be met by Santa Claus, with both arms full, down at the gate.

‘Yes, yes, I know all about it,’ said Santa Claus, ruddy and smiling, with little icicles hanging from his beard. ‘Here, help me with these toys. This is Danny’s sled, a red one. Put it on the doorstep and pile these blankets on top. Don’t let them fall in the snow.’

‘Blankets?’ said Merrythought in surprise. ‘Nobody wants blankets here.’

‘Oh, yes, they do,’ answered Santa Claus firmly. ‘Their mother does. Didn’t you see how thin their blankets were?’

Merrythought stared at Santa Claus. There was no one in the world quite like him, after all.

‘Here are Bill’s skates and Belinda’s sewing-box with a lock and key,’ went on Santa Claus, reaching down first into one deep pocket and then into the other. ‘Put them on top of the blankets. And here is Ann Mary’s sleepy doll. You made her, Merrythought. She is one of your prettiest. This is Tom’s Jack-in-the-Box. What’s this? Oh, Matilda’s Jumping Jack. How he can jump! And here is Polly’s woolly lamb on green wheels with a bell round his neck. Now, just a little candy,’ finished Santa Claus, packing seven boxes neatly on the edge of the sled, ‘and we are off.’

Into the sleigh, fairly empty now, climbed Merrythought and Santa Claus.

‘Wait! My pie!’ exclaimed Merrythought, pulling it from his pocket. ‘I will break it in two and share with you.’

The pie was so small it could be eaten in two bites, but Santa Claus and Merrythought did not speak of that. They only said how good it was and how well Belinda baked for a girl of her years.

The little pie plate was made of tin, and as the sleigh moved off Merrythought took aim and sent it flying straight at the little front door.

Clatter! Clatter! Rush!

Out on the doorstep tumbled the seven children, head-first, pell-mell. They spied the toys, they seized them, they screamed for joy.

Santa Claus and Merrythought laughed aloud, they were so happy too.

‘My sled! My skates!’

‘A sleepy doll! She really sleeps!’

‘See my Jumping Jack! He jumps so high!’

‘Look! Look! My Jack-in-the-Box!’

‘A real little key and it locks as tight as tight can be!’

‘Tinkle! Tinkle! Tinkle!’ from the woolly lamb.

Merrythought leaned from the sleigh and waved his hand, though of course the children could not see him at all.

‘Too many toys, Merrythought?’ asked Santa Claus, looking down at the Brownie at his side.

Merrythought laughed and shook his head.

‘No, not enough toys,’ answered he. ‘The moment I reach home I am going to begin to make toys for those seven children for next year. But best of all, Santa Claus, I have found Christmas,’ said Merrythought. ‘I have found Christmas again.’

THE END

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.