ecause they were so bright and shiny.
Everything was ready for the St. Nicholas feast. The goose was nearly
roasted, and there was such a good smell of it in the air!

After a while there was a great stamping of feet at the door; and Vrouw
Vedder ran with the broom to brush the snow off Grandfather and
Grandmother, who had skated all the way from town, on the canal. When
they were warmed and dried, and all their wraps put away, Grandfather
and Grandmother Winkle looked around the pleasant kitchen; and
Grandmother said to Grandfather,

"Our Neltje is certainly a good house-wife." Neltje was Vrouw Vedder.
And Grandfather said,

"There's only one better one, my dear." He meant Grandmother Winkle.

By and by they all sat down to dinner, and I can't begin to tell you
how good it was! It makes one hungry just to think of it. They had
roast goose and onions and turnips and cabbage. They had bread and
butter, and cheese, and sweet cakes.

"Everything except the flour in the bread, we raised ourselves," said
Vrouw Vedder. "The hens gave us the eggs; and the cow, the butter. The
Twins helped Father and me to take care of the chickens, and to milk
the cow, and to make the butter; so it is our very own St. Nicholas
feast that we are eating."

"A farmer's life is the best life there is," said Father Vedder.

They sat a long time at the table; and Grandfather told stories about
when he was a boy; and Father Vedder told how Kit and Kat learned to
skate; and Kit and Kat told how they saw St. Nicholas riding on a white
horse, and how he sent them the very things they wanted; and they all
enjoyed themselves very much.

After dinner, Grandmother Winkle sat down in the chimney corner and
called Kit and Kat.

"Come here," she said, "and I'll tell you some stories about St.
Nicholas."

The Twins brought two little stools and sat beside her, one on each
side. She took out her knitting; and as the needles clicked in her
fingers, she told this story:

"Once upon a time, many years ago, three little brothers went out one
day to the woods to gather fagots. They were just about as big as you
are, Kit and Kat."

"Were they all three, twins?" asked Kat.

"The story doesn't tell about that," said Grandmother Winkle; "but
maybe they were. At any rate, they all got lost in the woods and
wandered ever so far, trying to find their way home. But instead of
finding their way home, they just got more and more lost all the time.
They were v