"D' you think she sispicioned anythin'?" asked Mr. Rowan out of one side of his mouth, and Elmer Lonnie said, "No, sir," and wondered if his Pa "sispicioned anythin"' when Ma said, "Run git the old slippers."

Mr. Waldo always walked up with Mr. Rowan, and just about that time his little Mary Ellen was climbing up into his lap and saying: "I bet you can't guess what I'm a-goin' to buy you for a Christmas gift with my pennies what I got saved up."

"I'll just bet I can."

"No, you can't. It's awful pretty--I mean, they're awful pretty. Somepin you want, too." How could he guess with her fingering his tarnished cuff b.u.t.tons and looking down at them every minute or two?

"Well, now, let me see. Is it a gold watch?"

"Nope."

"Aw, now! I jist set my heart on a gold watch and chain."

"Well, but it'd cost more money 'n I got. Three or fifteen dollars, mebby."

"Well, let me see. Is it a shotgun?"

"No, sir. Oh, you just can't guess it."

"Is it a--a--Is it a horse and buggy?"

"Aw, now, you're foolin'. No, it ain't a horse and buggy."

"I know what it is. It's a dolly with real hair that you can comb, and all dressed up in a blue dress. One that can shut its eyes when it goes bye-bye."

Little Mary Ellen looks at him very seriously a minute, and sighs, and says: "No, it ain't that. But if it was, wouldn't you let me play with it when you was to the store?" And he catches her up in his arms and says: "You betchy! Now, I ain't goin' to guess any more! I want to be surprised. You jump down an' run an' ask Ma if supper ain't most ready.

Tell her I'm as hungry as a hound pup."

He hears her deliver the message, and also the word her mother sends back: "Tell him to hold his horses. It 'll be ready in a minute."

"It will, eh? Well, I can't wait a minute, an' I'm goin' to take a hog-bite right out of YOU!" and he snarls and bites her right in the middle of her stomach, and if there is anything more ticklesome than that, it hasn't been heard of yet.

After supper, little Eddie Allgire teases his brother D. to tell him about Santa Claus. D. is cracking walnuts on a flat-iron held between his knees.

"Is they any Santy Claus, D.?"

"W'y, cert, they is. Who says not?"

"Bunty Rogers says they ain't no sech a person."

"You tell Bunt Rogers that he's a-gittin' too big fer his britches, an'

first thing he knows, he'll whirl round an' see his naked nose. Tell him I said so."

"Well, is they any Santy Claus?"

"W'y cert. Ain't I a-tellin' you? Laws! ain't you never seen him yet?"

"I seen that kind of a idol they got down in Plotner's winder."

"Well, he looks jist like that, on'y he's alive."

"Did you ever see him, D.?"

"O-oh, well! Think I'm goin' to tell everything I know? Well, I guess not."

"Well, but did you now?"

"M-well, that 'd be tellin'."

"Aw, now, D., tell me."

"Look out what you're doin'. Now see that. You pretty near made me mash my thumb."

"Aw, now, D., tell me. I think you might. I don't believe you ever did."

"Oh, you don't, hey? Well, if you had 'a saw what I saw. M-m! Little round eyes an' red nose an' white whiskers, an' heard the sleigh bells, an' oh, my! them reindeers! Cutest little things! Stompin' their little feet" Here he stopped, and went on cracking nuts.

"Tell some more. Woncha, please? Ma, make D. tell me the rest of it."

"Huck-uh! Da.s.sant. 'T wouldn't be right. Like's not he won't put anythin'

in my stockin' now fer what I did tell."

"How'll he know?"

"How'll he know? Easy enough. He goes around all the houses evenings now to see how the young ones act, an' if he finds they're sa.s.sy, an' don't mind their Ma when she tells them to leave the cat alone, an' if they whine: 'I don' want to go out an' cut the kindlin'. Why cain't D. do it?' then he puts potatoes an' lumps o' coal in their stockin's. Oh, he'll be here, course o' the evenin'."

"D' you s'pose he's round here now?" Eddie got a little closer to his brother.

"I wouldn't wonder. Yes, sir. There he goes now. Sure's you're alive."

"Where?"

"Right over yan. Aw, you don't look. See? There he is. Aw! you're too slow. Didn't you see him? Now the next time I tell you--Look, look!

There! He run right acrost the floor an' into the closet. Plain 's day.

didn't you see him? You saw him, mother?"

Mrs. Allgire nodded her head. She was busy counting the st.i.tches in a nubia she was knitting for old Aunt Pashy, Roebuck.

"W'y, you couldn't help but see him, didn't you take notice to his white whiskers?"

"Ye-es," said the child, slowly, with the wide-open stare of hypnosis.

"Didn't you see the evergreen tree he carried?"

"M-hm," said Eddie, the image taking shape in his mind's eye.

"And his brown coat all trimmed with fur, an' his funny peaked hat? An'

his red nose? W'y, course you did." The boy nodded his head. He was sure now. Yes. Faith was lost in sight. He believed.