play
of the immortal bard, and that he had to take his time in getting out.
When he went away next morning he borrowed Samson's pack basket. I felt
bad because we couldn't go and make any arrangements with Santa Claus for
the children. Joe was dreadfully worried, for Betsey had told him that
Santa Claus never came to children whose father and mother were sick.
Christmas Eve Abe came with the pack basket chock-full of good things
after the children were asleep. He took out a turkey and knit caps and
mittens and packages of candy and raisins for the children and some cloth
for a new dress for me. Mrs. Kelso had come to spend the night with us,
although Samson and I were so much better it really wasn't necessary. I
made her go up the ladder to bed before midnight. That evening a short,
fat Santa Claus came in with a loaded pack. He had a long, brown beard
and a red nose and carried a new clay pipe in his mouth and was very much
bundled up.

"We called the children. They stood looking at Santa Claus, and Santa
Claus stood looking at them. He gave them mufflers and some candy hearts
and tried to pick them up. They ran away and he chased them under our bed
and got hold of Joe's foot and tried to pull him out, and Joe hollored
like a painter, and Santa Claus dropped his pipe and sat down on the
floor and began laughing. I saw it was Bim Kelso. Abe left with her, and
I suppose they went back to the village and around in a regular Santa
Claus spree.

"Mrs. Kelso said that she had been making a beard of pieces of buffalo
skin and fitting up an old suit of her father's clothes that afternoon.
I wonder what she'll do next. It's terrible to be so much in love and not
quite seventeen. Harry is as bad as she is. I wish they had been a little
older before they met.

"Joe said yesterday that he was going back to Vergennes.

"'How are you going to get there?' I asked.

"'Abe's going to make me a pair o' wings, and I'm going to smash right up
through the sky and go awa-a-y off to Vergennes and play with Ben and
Lizzie Tyler. Abe says there ain't no bad roads up there.'

"I asked him what I should do if he went away and left me like that.

"'Oh, I'll come right back,' he said, 'and maybe I'll see Heaven way up
in the clouds. If I do I'll stop there in a tavern over night and buy
something for you.'

"In a minute a new idea came to him and he said:

"'I guess Abe would make a pair of wings for you if you'd ask him.'

"Often I wi