ed of himself that he wasn't
wicked any more."

"Does St. Nicholas give everybody presents so they will be good?" asked
Kat.

"Yes," said Grandmother; "that's why bad children get only a rod in
their shoes."

"He gave the bad man nice presents to make him good," said Kit. "Why
doesn't he give bad children nice things to make them good too?"

Grandmother Winkle knitted for a minute without speaking. Then she said,

"I guess he thinks that the rod is the present that will make them good
in the shortest time."

The clock had been ticking steadily along while Grandmother had been
telling stories, and it was now late in the afternoon. The sky was all
red in the west; there were long, long shadows across the snowy fields,
and the corners of the kitchen were quite dark.

"It's almost time to expect him, now," said Vrouw Vedder; and she
brought out a sheet and spread it in the middle of the kitchen floor.
She stirred up the fire, and the room was filled with the pleasant glow
from the flames.

Kit and Kat sat on their little stools. Their eyes were very big. At
five minutes of six, Vrouw Vedder said,

"He will be here in just a few minutes, now. Get up, Kit and Kat, and
sing your song!"

The Twins stood up on the edge of the sheet and began to sing:

"St. Nicholas, good, holy man,
Put on your best gown;
Ride with it to Amsterdam,
From Amsterdam to Spain."

While they were singing, there was a sound at the door, of some one
feeling for the latch. Then the door flew open, and a great shower of
sweet cakes and candies fell onto the sheet, all around Kit and Kat!
There in the doorway stood St. Nicholas himself, smiling and shaking
off the snow! His horse was stamping outside. Kit and Kat could hear it.

They stopped singing and hardly breathed, they stood so still. They
looked at St. Nicholas with big, big eyes. In one hand St. Nicholas
carried two large packages; in the other, a birch rod.

"Are there any good children here?" said St. Nicholas.

"Pretty good, if you please, dear St. Nicholas," said Kit in a very
small voice.

"Children who always mind their mothers and fathers and grandfathers
and grandmothers?" said St. Nicholas, "and who do not quarrel?"

Kat couldn't say anything at all, though the Saint looked right at her!
Vrouw Vedder spoke.

"I think, dear St. Nicholas, they are very good children," she said.

"Then I will leave these for them and carry the rod along to some bad