(FROM The New Year's Bargain BY SUSAN COOLIDGE)
Off they went, the magic stillness of the night broken only by
the tinkling bells. First one chimney, then another; bag after
bag full of toys and sweets; here a doll, there a diamond ring,
here only a pair of warm stockings. Everybody had something,
except in a few houses over whose roofs St Nicholas paused
a moment with a look half sad, half angry, and left nothing.
People lived there who knew him little, and loved him less.
Through the air_more towns_more villages. Now the sea
was below them, the cold, moon-lit sea. Then again land came
in sight_towers and steeples, halls and hamlets; and the work
began again. A wild longing, seized the Cat. She begged the
Saint to take her down one specially wide chimney on his
shoulder. He did so. The nursery within looked strange and
foreign; but the little sleeping face in bed was like Gretchen's and
pussy felt at home. A whole bag full of presents was left here ...
And then, hey! presto! they were off again to countless homes,
to roofs so poor and low that only a Saint would have thought
of visiting them, to stately palaces, to cellars and toll-gates and
lonely attics; at last to a church,dim, and fragrant with ivy-leaves
and twisted evergreen, where their errand was to feed a robin
who had found shelter, and was sleeping on the topmost bough.
How his beads of eyes sparkled as the Saint awoke him! and how
eagerly he pecked the store of good red berries which were his
Christmas present, though he had hung up no stocking and
evidently expected nothing.
