over with him and nearly
buried him as he sprawled on the slippery floor. This seemed a huge
joke to all the others and they screamed with laughter at "Old
Smartie," as they called him, and poured more bundles down on him,
just as though they were having a pillow-fight. Then when Old Smartie
had at last gotten on his feet, they had a great game of tag among the
piles and over them, and the first thing Tommy knew he and Johnny were
at it as hard as anybody. He was very proud because Johnny could jump
over piles as high as the best of them. Tommy, himself, however, could
not jump; for they led him to a pile so high that he could not see
over it; and on top were the fragments of all the things he had ever
had and had broken up. He could not help crying a little; but just
then in dashed a number of little men and gathering them up, rushed
out with them. Tommy was wondering what they were going to do with
them, when his friend, the guard, said: "We mend some of them; and
some we keep to remind you with. Now try again." Tommy tried and did
very well, only his left foot had gone to sleep in the sled and had
not quite waked up.

"That was because Sate went to sleep on it," said his friend, the
guard, and Tommy wondered how he knew Sate's name.

"Why," said the guard, "we have to know dogs' names to keep them from
barking at us and waking everybody up. Let me lend you these boots,"
and with that he kicked off his boots. "Now, jump," and Tommy gave a
jump and lit in them, as he sometimes did in his father's shoes. No
sooner had Tommy put them on than he found that he could jump over the
highest pile in the room.

"Look, look!" cried several of the others. "The captain has lent that
little boy his 'Seven Leaguers.'"

"I know where he is going," said one; "to jump over the North Pole."

"No," laughed another. "He is going to catch the cow that 'jumped over
the moon,' for Johnny Stout's mother."

Just then a message came that "Old Santa," as they called him, was
waiting to see the two boys who had come in the new box-sled, as he
wanted to know how their mothers were and what they wished for
Christmas. So there was a great scurrying to get their heads brushed
before the bell rang again, and Tommy got soap in his eyes wetting the
brush to make his hair lie smooth, while Johnny's left shoe came off
and dropped in a hole in the floor. Smartie, however, told him that
that was for the "Old Woman who lived in a shoe" to feed her cow