Annie Fellows Johnston

“ She had waited to leave her overshoes on the porch, her lunch basket in the kitchen, her wraps in the entry, The white ruffled apron which she had worn all day was scarcely mussed. The bows on her narrow braids stuck out stiffly and properly, Her shoes were tied and the laces tucked in, She walked on tiptoe, and every movement showed that she was keeping up the reputation she had earned of being “so good that nobody could be any better, no matter how hard he tried,” She had been that good for over a week.
Will’m ran to get the orange which had been given him that morning. ”

“ The door between the shop and sitting-room being closed, Will’m could not hear much that was said, but several times he caught the word “Christmas,” and once somebody said “Santa Claus” in such a loud, happy-sounding voice, that he slipped down from the chair and ran across the room to open the door a crack. It was only lately that he had begun to hear much about Santa Claus. Not until Libby started to school that fall did they know that there is such a wonderful person in the world. ”

“ Will’m and Libby knew nearly every engineer
“‘OH, DEAR SANTA CLAUS, PLEASE DON’T MIND WHAT WILL’M SAID.’” and conductor on the road by sight, and had their own names for them, The engineer on this morning train they called Mr. Smiley, because he always had a cheerful grin for them, and sometimes a wave of his big, grimy hand. This time Mr. Smiley was too busy and too provoked by the delay to pay any attention to the small boy perched on the fence-post. Some of the passengers, finding that they might have to wail half an hour or more, began to climb out and walk up and down the road past him. ”

“ It’s the same way it is about going to heaven. Only those who b’leeve will be saved and get in.”
“Dranma and Uncle Neal will go to heaven,” insisted Will’m, loyally, and in a tone which suggested his willingness to hurt her if she contradicted him. Uncle Neal was “Dranma’s’ husband.
“Oh, of course they ‘ll go to heaven all right,” was Libby’s impatient answer. “They ’ve got faith in the Bible and the minister and the heathen and such things, But they won’t get anything in their stockings because they are n’t sure about there even being a Santa Claus! ”

“ Then he caught sight of a section of a small boy peeping through the door, for all that showed of Will’m through the crack was a narrow strip of blue overalls, which covered him from neck to knees, a round pink cheek, and one solemn eye peering out from under his thatch of straight flaxen hair like a little Skye terrier’s, When the man saw that eye, he hurried to say, “Of course mud ought n’t to make any difference to Santy’s reindeer. They take the sky road, right over the housetops and all.” ”

“ So there!”
“Well, if Santa Claus won’t put anything in my Dranma Neal’s stocking, he ’s a mean old thing, and I don’t want him to put anything in mine,” began Will’m, defiantly, but was silenced by the sight of Libby’s horrified face.
“Oh, brother! Hush!” she cried, darting a frightened glance over her shoulder toward the chimney. Then in a shocked whisper which scared Will’m worse than a loud yell would have done, she said impressively, “Oh, I hope he has n’t heard you! He never would come to this house as long as he lives! ”

“ You’re just about the nicest boy I’ve come across yet. I ‘ll have to tell Santa Claus about you. What ’s your name?”
Will’m told him, and pointed across to the shop when asked where he lived. At the steward’s high praise, Will’m was ready to take the sky road himself, when he heard that he was to be reported to the master of the reindeer as the nicest boy the steward had come across. ”

“ And it seemed as if Grandma Neal never would finish waiting on the customers and come back to tell the rest of the story about the camels and the star; for no sooner did one person go out than another one came in. ”

“ He ’s a mighty mysterious man to me. But, then, probably he would n’t try to put the ride in a stocking, He ’d send the ticket or the money Lo buy it with. And he might give it to you before hand, and not wait for stocking-hanging time, knowing how much you want it.”
All this from Miss Sally because Mrs. Neal had just told her that the children were to be sent to their father the day before Christmas, and that they were to go on a Pullman car, because the ordinary coaches did not go straight through. The children were too small to risk changing cars, and he was too busy to come for them. ”

“ Then she knelt on the rug, the fateful missive in her hand.
“Maudie is going to ask for ’most a dozen presents,” she said. “Rut as long as this will be Santy’s first visit to this house, I ’m not going to ask for more than one thing, and you must n’t, either. It would n’t be polite.”
“But we can ask him to bring a ring to Dranma,” Will’m suggested, his face beaming at the thought. The answer was positive and terrible, out of her wisdom newly gained at both church and school.
“No, we can’t! He only brings things to people who b’leeve in him. ”

“ Usually he does n’t mind strangers, but he takes spells like that sometimes.”
“That ’s only natural,” was the drawling answer. “But it is n’t everybody who knows how to manage children, Mrs. Neal. I hope, now, that his stepmother, when he gets her, will understand him as well as you do. My wife tells me that the poor little kids are going to have one soon. How do they take to the notion?” ”

“ The next instant Will’m heard her call imploringly up the chimney, “Oh, dear Santa Claus, if you ’re up there looking down, please don’t mind what Will’m said. He ’s so little he does n’t know any better. ”