Speaker 1: Christmas at the Hollow Tree Inn by Albert Bigelow Paine.
Once upon a time, when the robin and turtle, and
squirrel and jack Rabbit had all gone home for the winter,
nobody was left in the Hollow Tree except the coon
and the possum and the old black crow. Of course,
the others used to come back and visit them pretty often,
and mister dog too, Now that he had got to
be good friends with all the deep Woods people, and
they'd ought a great deal of him. When they got
to know him better, mister Dogg told him a lot
of things they had never heard of before, things that
he had learned at mister Mann's house, and maybe that's
one reason why they got to liken him so well.
He told him about Santa Claus, for one thing, and
how the old fellow came down the chimney on Christmas
Eve to bring presents to mister Mann and his children,
who always hung up their stockings for them. And mister
Dogg said that once he had hung up his stocking too,
and got a nice bone in it that was so
good that he had buried and dug it up again
as much as six times before spring. He said that
Santa Claus always came to mister Man's house, and then
whenever the children hung up their stockings, they were always
sure to get something in them. Well, the Hollow Tree
people had never heard of Santa Claus. They knew about Christmas,
of course, because everybody, even the cows and sheep, knows
about that, but they'd never heard of Santa Claus. You see,
Santa Claus only comes from mister Mann's house, but they
didn't know that either. So they thought that if they
just hung up their stockings, he'd come there too, and
that's what they made up their minds to do. They
talked about it a great deal together, and mister Possum
looked over all his stockings to pick out the biggest
one he had, and mister Crow made himself a new
pair on purpose. Mister Coon said he never knew mister
Crow to make himself such big stockings before, but mister
Crow said he was getting old and needed things bigger.
And when he loaned one of his new stockings to
mister Coon, mister Coon said, he said, that's so, and
that he guessed they were about right. After all. They
didn't tell anybody about it first, but by and bye
they told mister Dog what they were going to do,
and when mister Dog heard it, he wanted to laugh
right out. You see, he knew Santa Claus never went
anywhere except to mister Mann's house, and he thought it
would be a great joke on the Hollow Tree people
when they hung up their stockings and didn't get anything,
but by and bye, mister Dog thought about something else.
He thought it would be too bad too for them
to be disappointed that way. You see, mister Dog liked
them all now, And when he thought about that a minute,
he made up his mind to do something, and this
is what it was. He made up his mind to
play Santa Claus. He knew just how Santa Claus looked
because he'd seen lots of pictures at mister Man's house,
and he thought it would be great fun to dress
up that way, take a bag of presents to the
Hollow Tree while they were all asleep, and fill up
the stockings of the Coon and Possum and the old
Black Crow. But first he had to be sure of
some way of getting in, so he said to them
he didn't see how they could expect Santa Claus. Their
chimneys were so small, and mister Crow said they could
leave the latch string out downstairs, which was just what
mister Dog wanted. Then they said they were going to
have all the folks that had spent the summer with
them over for Christmas dinner and to see the presents
they had gotten their stockings. They told mister Dog to
drop over too, if he could get away, and mister
dogg said he would and went off laughing to himself
and ran all the way home because he felt so
pleased at what he was going to do. Well, he
had to work pretty hard, I tell you, to get
things ready. It wasn't so hard to get the presents
as it was to rig up his Santa Claus dress.
He found some long wool out in mister Mann's barn
for his white whiskers, and he put some that wasn't
so long on the edges of his overcoat and boot
tops and around an old hat he had. Then he
borrowed a big sack he found out there too, and
fixed it up to swing over his back, just as
he had seen Santa Claus do in the picture. He
had a lot of nice things to take along, three
tender young chickens. He borrowed from mister Man for one thing,
and then he bought some new neckties for the hollow
tree folks all around, and a big striped candy cane
for each one, because candy canes always looked well sticking
out of a stalking. Besides all that, he had a
new pipe for each and a package of tobacco. You see,
mister Dogg lived with mister Mann and didn't never have
to buy much for himself, so he had always saved
his money. He had even more things than that, but
I can't remember now just what they were. And when
he started out all dressed up like Santa Claus, i'd
tell you his bag was pretty heavy, and he almost
wished before he got there that he hadn't started with
quite so much. It got heavier and heavier all the way,
and he was glad enough to get there and find
the latch string out. He set his bag down to
rest a minute before climbing the stairs, and then opened
the doors softly and listened. He didn't hear a thing
except mister Crow and mister Coon and mister Possum breathing
pretty low, and he knew they might wake up any minute,
and he wouldn't have been caught there in the midst
of things for a good deal. So he slipped up
just as easy as anything. And when he got up
there in the big parlor room, he almost had to
laugh right out loud, for there were the stockings, sure enough,
all hung up in a row, and a card with
a name on it over each one, telling whom it
belonged to. Then he listened again, and all at once
he jumped and held his breath, for he heard mister
Possum say something. But mister Possum was only talking in
his sleep, and say I'll take another piece, please, And
mister Dog knew he was dreaming about the mince pie
he'd had for supper. So then he opened his bag
and filled the stockings. He put in mixed candy and
nuts and little things first, and then the pipes and
tobacco and candy canes so they'd show at the top,
and hung a nice dressed chicken outside. I'd tell you
they'd look fine. It almost made mister Dog wish he
had a stocking of his own there to fill, and
he forgot all about them, waking up and sat down
in a chair to look at the stockings. It was
a nice rocking chair, and over in a dark corner
where they wouldn't be apt to see him, even if
one of em did wake up and stick his head
out of his room. So mister Dog felt pretty safe now. Anyway.
He rocked softly and looked and looked at the nice
stockings and thought how pleased they'd be in the morning,
and how tired he was. You've heard about people being
as tired as a dog, and that's just how mister
Dog felt. He was so tired he didn't feel a
bit like starting home, and by and by, he never
did know how it happened, but by and by mister
Dog went sound asleep right there in his chair with
all his Santa Claus clothes on. And there he sat
with his empty bag in his hand and the nice
full stockings in front of him all night long. Even
when it came morning and began to get light. Mister
Dog didn't know it. He just slept right on. He
was that tired. Then pretty soon the door of mister
Possum's room opened and he poked out his head. And
then the door of mister Coon's room opened, and he
poked out his head. Then the door of the old
Black Crow opened and out poked his head. They all
looked toward the stockings, and they didn't see mister Dog
or even each other at all. They saw their stockings, though,
and mister Coon said, almost at once, oh, there's something
in my stocking. And then mister Crow says, oh, there's
something in my stocking too, and mister Possum says, oh,
there's something in all our stockings. And with that they
gave a great hurrah together and rushed out and grabbed
their stockings and turned around just in time to see
mister Dog jump right straight out of his chair, for
he did not know where he was the least bit
in the world. Oh there's Santa Claus himself. They all
shouted together and made a rush for their rooms, for
they were scared almost to death. But it all dawned
on mister Dog in a second, and he commenced to
laugh in a row to think what a joke it
was on everybody. And when they heard mister Dog laugh,
they knew him right away, and they all came out
and looked at him, and he had to tell just
what he'd done and everything. So they emptied out their
stockings on the floor and ate some of the presents
and looked at the others until they almost forgot about breakfast,
just as children do on Christmas morning. Then mister Crow
said all at once that he'd make a little coffee,
and that mister dog must stay and have some, and
by and bye. They made him promise to spend the
day with him and be there when the Robin and
the squirrel and mister Turtle and Jack Rabbit came, which
he did, and it was snowing hard outside, made it
a nicer Christmas than if it hadn't been. And when
all the others came, they brought presents too, And when
they saw mister dogg dressed up as Santa Claus and
heard how he'd gone to sleep and been caught, they
laughed and laughed, and it snowed so hard they had
to stay all night, and after dinner they sat around
the fire and told stories, and they had to stay
the next night too, and all that Christmas week. And
I wish I could tell you all that happened that week,
but I can't because I haven't time. But it was
the very nicest Christmas that ever was in the hollow
tree or in the deep big woods, anywhere, and of
Christmas at the Hollow Tree Inn by Albert Bigelow Pane