Speaker 1: Missus Santa Claus by Caroline S. Bailey. It was Christmas Eve.
Old Santa Claus was just ready to start out upon
his long journey over the snowy tree tops and roofs
to find the waiting chimneys and the little empty stockings.
Such a busy day as it had been, with the
brownies finishing the packing, and Missus Santa Claus sewing buttons
on the last doll's dress and tying the last hair
ribbon and smoothing the last curl. But everything was ready.
The sleigh was packed from top to bottom, so full
that it seemed as if Old Santa Claus could never
squeeze in himself. There were tops and drums and jack
in the boxes, and steam engines, and hundreds of dolls,
and barrels of chocolate drops and peppermint canes were hanging
out from the back. The reindeer were harnessed and prancing,
Dasher and Dancer, and Donner and Vixen and the rest.
The sleigh bells were ringing gaily, and Old Santa Claus
jumped in and took the reins. Good Bye, mother. He
called to Missus Santa Claus, who stood in the door,
to watch the sleigh start. Anything I can bring you
from the city. Dear, I think I need a new
pair of spectacles, said Missus Santa Claus. My eyes are
growing dim with so much sewing. If the stores are
open when you finish tonight, just bring me a stronger
pair of glasses. I will good bye, shouted Santa Claus,
with a dash and a jingle of bells. The reindeer
jumped to the top of the trees and started, and
Missus Santa Claus went in to sit in her rocking
chair by the fire and doze. The workshop was very still.
Christmas Eve, you know, is the only time of the
whole year when Santa Claus's workmen may rest. So the
little brownies who paint the sleds and nail the doll
houses and test the steamboats were curled up in heaps
on all the benches, fast asleep and snoring. The candy
kettles were polished and hung in a row upon the
kitchen wall. Missus Santa Claus sat and rocked by the
fire and thought of all the dolls she had dressed.
There were four hundred with silk dresses, she said to herself,
and two hundred with blue. There were five hundred baby dolls,
and I never finished dressing them until to day. I
wonder if Santa packed them all. I must go and see.
So Missus Santa Claus lighted a candle and went out
to the sewing room and peered about. In every corner.
There were piles of silk and velvet and satin and
ribbon all over the floor. But oh, there sat three dolls,
a baby doll, a doll in pink, and a doll
in blue. Santa Claus had forgotten them. What shall I do?
What shall I do? Cried Missus Santa Claus, looking out
of the window to see if Santa were anywhere in sight.
But he was not. We counted them all, and there
were just enough to go around. Three little girls will
have no dolls on Christmas morning. I shall have to
go with them myself. Out in the barn, there was
just one reindeer standing in his stall. It was Blitzen,
who had a lame foot, so he could not take
the long journey with thee. He was contentedly munching hay.
But Missus Santa Claus tucked the dolls under her arm,
put on her little red shawl, tied her cap strings tighter,
and hurried out to the barn. Come Blitzen, she said,
as she saddled him and jumped on his back. We
must go as fast as ever we can after Santa Claus.
He has left three dolls behind. So Blitzen dropped his
hay and they started over the woods and the fields
and the fences. They dashed so fast that the wind
was left far behind. They looked very funny, indeed, for
Missus Santa Claus had forgotten to take off her apron,
and her cap was all awry. But on they hurried,
and when they came to the towns, Blitzen stopped at
every roof that Missus Santa Claus might look down the chimney.
But Santa Claus had always been there first, and the
stockings were filled, and the dolls were waiting. We counted
them all. Missus Santa Claus kept saying to herself, some
one will need a doll, And sure enough she came
to a very wee chimney of a very wee house,
and there was a stocking hung, but there was only
an apple in it, nothing else. So Missus Santa Claus
dropped the beautiful doll that was dressed in pink silk
into the stocking and started on once more. Presently they
came to another house, and when Missus Santa Claus looked
down the chimney, she saw no stocking at all hanging
by the fireplace, and there was no fire even. There
was nothing in the room but a table and a
broken chair and a bed where a little girl so
thin and pale, lay sleeping. And Missus Santa Claus dropped
the doll in the blue silk dress right down into
the little girl's arms, and hurried on again. When they
had come to the very end of the town, Missus
Santa Claus saw a little girl standing out in the street.
She had a bundle of papers to sell, and no
one had seen her because she was so small, and
she was waiting out in the cold and the snow.
Missus Santa Claus dropped the baby doll down to the
little girl's lap, and then she turned Blitzen toward home again.
It was almost Christmas morning when they reached the barn,
and oh, they were very tired. When Santa Claus came
back with his empty sleigh and the new spectacles, he
found Missus Santa Claus fast asleep in her rocking chair
by the fire. Poor mother, he said, she's been sewing
too much. And Missus Santa Claus woke up, but she
never told about the three dolls and of Missus Santa
Claus by Caroline S. Bailey