!" or, "Give me a new pair of shoes!" or whatever each one
wanted most.

"Where is he going?" asked Kit and Kat.

"He's carrying presents to houses where there are good girls and boys,"
Father Vedder said. "For bad children, there is only a rod in the shoe."

"I'm glad we're so good," said Kit.

"When will he come to our house?" asked Kat.

"Not until to-morrow," said Father Vedder. "But you must fill your
wooden shoes with beans or hay for his good horse, to-night; and then
perhaps he will come down the chimney and leave something in them. It's
worth trying."

Kit and Kat were in a hurry to get home, for fear the Saint would get
there first.

It was growing late, so they all went to a waffle shop for their supper.

In the shop a woman sat before an open fire. On the fire was a big
waffle iron. She made the waffles, put sugar and butter on them, and
passed a plate of them to each one. Oh, how good they were!

When they had eaten their waffles, Father and Mother Vedder and the
Twins went back to the canal and put on their skates. It was late in
the afternoon. They took hold of hands and began to skate toward home,
four in a row. Father and Mother Vedder were on the outside, and the
Twins in the middle.

It was dark when they reached home. Vrouw Vedder lighted the fire,
while Father Vedder went to feed the cow and see that the chickens and
ducks and geese were all safe for the night.

Kit and Kat ran for their wooden shoes. They each took one and put some
hay in it. This was for St. Nicholas to give to his horse. Father
Vedder put the shoes on the mantel. Then they hurried to bed to make
morning come quicker.

Father and Mother Vedder sat up late that night. Mother Vedder said it
was to prepare the goose for dinner the next day.

When the Twins woke the next morning, the fire was already roaring up
the chimney, and the kitchen was warm as toast. They hopped out of bed
and ran for their wooden shoes. Mother Vedder reached up to the mantel
shelf for them. Truly, the hay was gone and there in each shoe was a
package done up in paper!

"Oh, he did come! He did come!" cried Kat. "O Mother, you're sure you
didn't build the fire before he had got out of the chimney?"

"I'm sure," said Vrouw Vedder. "I've made the fire on many a St.
Nicholas morning, and I've never burned him yet!"

The Twins climbed up the steps to their cupboard bed and sat on the
edge of it to open their packages. In Kit's was a big St. Nic