he dear old gentleman some time to clear his throat; but when
he had found his voice, which at first was as fine as a knitting-needle,
and all of a tremble, he made

THE SPEECH OF SANTA CLAUS.

"How do, my darlings? How do, all round? Bless your little hearts, how
do you all do? Did they tell ye Santa wasn't a-comin', my dears? Did
your grandpas and grandmas say, 'Humph! there isn't any such a person.'
My love to the good old people. I know they mean all right; but tell
them they'll have to give it up now!"

(Here Santa Claus made a low bow. Everybody laughed and clapped; but
Prudy whispered, "O, don't he look old all over? What has he done with
his _teeth_? O, dear, has anybody pulled 'em out?")

"Yes, my dears," continued the old gentleman, encouraged by the
applause,--"yes, my dears, here I am, as jolly as ever! But bless your
sweet little hearts, I've had a terrible time getting here! The wind has
been blowin' me up as fierce as you please, and I've been shook round
as if I wasn't of more account than a kernel of corn in a popper!

"O, O, I've been ducked up to the chin in some awful deep snow-drifts,
up there by the North Pole! This is the very first time the storms have
come so heavy as to cover over the end of the North Pole! But this year
they had to dig three days before they could find it. O, ho!

"I was a-wanderin' round all last night; a real shivery night, too! Got
so _broke up_, there's nothing left of me but small pieces. O, hum!

"Such a time as I had in some of those chimneys, you haven't any idee!
Why, if you'll believe me, over there in Iceland somebody forgot to
clear out the chimney, and there I stuck fast, like a fish-bone in your
throat; couldn't be picked out, couldn't be swallowed!

"The funniest time that was! How I laughed! And then the children's
mother woke up, and, 'O, dear,' said she; 'hear the wind sigh down the
chimney!' 'Only me,' says I; 'and I've caught you napping this time!'
She helped me out, and when I had caught my breath, I climbed out the
window; but, deary me, I shouldn't wonder if that very woman went to
sleep again, and thought it was all a dream! Heigh-ho! that's the way
they always treat poor Santa Claus nowadays."

(Here the children laughed, and Susy said, "I guess he must have bumped
his nose against that chimney: see what a hump!")

"O, O, don't you make sport of me, children! My nose is big, to be sure,
but I'm going to keep it and make the best of it! If yo