The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Thin Santa Claus, by Ellis Parker Butler

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Title: The Thin Santa Claus
The Chicken Yard That Was a Christmas Stocking

Author: Ellis Parker Butler

Illustrator: May Wilson Preston

Release Date: March 6, 2006 [EBook #17937]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: "_Mrs. Gratz watched the thin man search the
chicken yard for toober-chlosis bugs_"]

THE THIN
SANTA CLAUS

The Chicken Yard That Was
a Christmas Stocking

By

ELLIS PARKER BUTLER

_Illustrated by May Wilson Preston_

NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
MCMIX

_Copyright, 1909, by_
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
_Published, November, 1909_.

Copyright, 1908, by The Curtis Publishing Company

TO

HARRY S. MOORE

ILLUSTRATIONS

"_Mrs. Gratz watched the thin man search the chicken yard for
toober-chlosis bugs_" Frontispiece

"_He looked like a man who had lost nine hundred dollars, but he did
not look like Santa Claus_"

THE THIN SANTA CLAUS

Mrs. Gratz opened her eyes and looked out at the drizzle that made the
Christmas morning gray. Her bed stood against the window, and it was
easy for her to look out; all she had to do was to roll over and pull
the shade aside. Having looked at the weather she rolled again on to
the broad flat of her back and made herself comfortable for awhile,
for there was no reason why she should get up until she felt like it.

"Such a Christmas!" she said good-naturedly to herself. "I guess such
weathers is bad for Santy Claus. Mebby it is because of such weathers
he don't come