n.
What? Say it again. _Is_ there any Santa Claus? Why, who else could
have brought all these presents? Presents for Benny and Jim and Susy
and mudda, and seven bath-gowns for dadda. Isn't that funny? Seven!
And one for mudda. What? I can't quite hear you, pet. Are we going to
send the presents back? Why, who ever heard of such a thing? Jim said
so? And Susy? Well, I will settle with them, when I come to them. You
don't want me to? Well, I won't, then, if Benny doesn't want mudda to.
I'll just give them a kiss apiece, pop in their big ears. What? You've
got something for Santa Claus to give them? What? Where? In your crib?
And shall we go and get it? For mudda too? And dadda? Oh, my little
angel!" She begins to cry over him, and to kiss him again. "You'll
break my heart with your loveliness. He wants to kiss you too, dadda."
She puts the boy into his father's arms; then catches him back and
runs from the room with him. Fountain resumes the work of filling the
long stocking he had begun with; then he takes up a very short sock.
He has that in his hand when Mrs. Fountain comes back, wiping her
eyes. "He'll go to sleep now, I guess; he was half dreaming when he
came in here. I should think, when you saw how Benny believed in it,
you'd be ashamed of saying a word against Christmas."

_Fountain_: "Who's said anything against it? I've just been arguing
for it, and trying to convince you that for the sake of little
children like Benny it ought to be perpetuated to the end of the
world. It began with the childhood of the race, in the rejuvenescence
of the spirit."

_Mrs. Fountain_: "Didn't you say that Christmas began with the
pagans? How monstrously you prevaricate!"

_Fountain_: "That was merely a figure of speech. And besides, since
you've been out with Benny, I've been thinking, and I take back
everything I've said or thought against Christmas; I didn't really
think it. I've been going back in my mind to that first Christmas we
had together, and it's cheered me up wonderfully."

_Mrs. Fountain_, tenderly: "Have you, dearest? I _always_ think of it.
If you could have seen Benny, how I left him, just now?"

_Fountain_: "I shouldn't mind seeing him, and I shouldn't care if I
gave a glance at poor old Jim and Susy. I'd like to reassure them
about not sending back the presents." He puts his arm round her and
presses her toward the door.

_Mrs. Fountain_: "How sweet you are! And how funny! And good!" She
accentuates each