h of the many
needs that personage would see fit to satisfy? And the very Christmas
after he had exposed the old fellow as a delightful, kindly fraud, he
had sheepishly asked his parents to decorate the tree and arrange the
gifts as before, "'Cause being surprised is the best part of Christmas."

That night when he had caught Santa! The memory of it brought a
retrospective smile to his lips, in spite of the shivers which the
chilled bed sheets sent through his warm little body. Awakened by a
noise below, he had drawn the old bathrobe about him as protection from
the frosty air, and tiptoed into the dark hallway. Well around the stair
landing, a scene met his eyes!

There stood the tree, wedged firmly into the soapbox support with flat
irons around the base for ballast. In one corner of the room, a Noah's
ark, which later came to an untimely end on a mud-puddle cruise, had
spilled its assortment of cardboard animals out on the carpet. Near the
doorway lay a red fireman's suit, and in the dining-room, bending over
the candy-filled cornucopias on the table were his father and mother.

"W-where's Santa Claus?" he had stammered, not grasping the situation at
first. A sharp, gasping breath of surprise came from his mother as his
father broke into chagrined laughter.

"I guess you've found him, son," had been the reply. And that was the
end of Santa Claus.

A few moments later, a long, empty freight train rattled cityward
unnoticed, as John's regular breathing told off, faithfully as any
timepiece, the fast lessening minutes which stood between him and
Christmas Day.

He wakened with a start. The late, gray dawn of winter was peering in
between the window shades and the sashes, casting hesitant shadows about
the room. He rubbed his eyes sleepily for a moment, then, remembering,
sprang to his feet and opened the blinds.

A dun railroad embankment lay before him, with lighter streaks which
told where the shining rails lay. Over on the boulevards, the arc lights
twinkled sleepily, their long night vigil nearly finished. The barren
tree tops which skirted the park, made a lace work against the frosty,
winter's sky, and here and there, chance rays of light threw piles of
rubbish in the big lot into unlovely relief. The same kindly, grimy,
disorderly neighborhood of the day before and the year before, and yet
the spirit of Christmas cast a halo over the whole and beautified it in
the boy's eyes.

"It's Christmas, it's Chri