Читать книгу: «Dear Santa Claus», страница 5

Willie found the funniest jumping-jack in his stocking, and Tom pulled a flute out of his. He had everybody awake in no time after that.

Grace was happy when she looked in her stocking. There was a little plush box in it, and in the box was a lovely gold watch; while Harry found just what he wanted too—a pair of skates.

But grandma and grandpa were surprised when they discovered the spectacles and the cane.

"Who in the world could have told Santa what we wanted most?" said grandma.

Grandpa said he couldn't understand it either, and then Bessie had to tell the secret.

She ran up to each of them and whispered, "I wrote to him myself!"

Then how they kissed her.

All day long the library was kept closed; not a child was allowed to peep in. But what fun they had all day, and what a Christmas dinner, with a plum pudding as big as a pumpkin.

In the evening the library door was opened, and there was the prettiest Christmas tree, all blazing with candles and hung with pretty things; while piled around it were books and toys and everything that everybody wanted most.

And just think of it! There, lying in front of the tree and looking as happy as the children themselves, was a great, big, noble dog, who got up and came to meet them as they trooped in.

"Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!" cried Bessie, bending to pat his head. "What's your name, you great, big darling? Ooo! Ooo! Whose is he, papa?"

"Ask Santa Claus," said papa; and sure enough, Santa Claus stepped out from behind the tree.

"His name is on his collar," said Santa Claus. Then the children all rushed for him for they knew it was grandpa dressed up like Santa Claus.

Afterwards Bessie spelled out the dog's name, "C-a-r-l-o," on his collar, and her own name on a card which was tied to it, and she was the happiest little girl in the world.

But everyone else was happy too, and they all said it was the very merriest Christmas they had ever seen, and Clara and Bessie dreamed that Santa Claus told them he himself had never had so much fun before.

—Fannie E. Ostrander.

OFF ON THE WHEELS

ONE summer Alma and her brother Philip spent their vacation with their auntie, who lived in a beautiful village, so near the pretty country that they could take a ride out into it on their wheels, at any time they wished.

They both rode very well indeed, and they were always finding pretty little spots along the road-side, where they played camp out; for auntie let them take a lunch if they wanted to, and the air was so fresh and pure that they were hungry almost all the time.

One morning they started off quite early with their wheels and their lunch, and they rode out into the country on a pretty road where they had never been before.

It had great trees along the side and a little river winding along with it, and they saw the cattle and horses in the fields, and the hens and chickens and turkeys and geese along the road-side, and once they got off their wheels to talk to a pretty bossy and her calf that were very near the fence.

The bossy was a little afraid they might hurt her baby, so she wasn't quite friendly. But she didn't try to drive them away.

At one side of a farm-house near, a big dog was lying in his kennel, and a great black cat came up to him very slyly and tapped him on the nose with one paw. It was funny to see the dog jump up.

The birds sang, and the hens and chickens talked to each other, and once or twice they stopped to let a flock of geese cross the road in front of them.