4. Claus

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

by L. Frank Baum

Another day found Necile's bower the most popular place in the
Forest. The nymphs clustered around her and the child that lay asleep
in her lap, with expressions of curiosity and delight. Nor were they
wanting in praises for the great Ak's kindness in allowing Necile to
keep the babe and to care for it. Even the Queen came to peer into
the innocent childish face and to hold a helpless, chubby fist in her
own fair hand.

"What shall we call him, Necile?" she asked, smiling. "He must
have a name, you know."

"Let him be called Claus," answered Necile, "for that means 'a
little one.'"

"Rather let him be called Neclaus,"** returned the Queen, "for
that will mean 'Necile's little one.'"

The nymphs clapped their hands in delight, and Neclaus became
the infant's name, although Necile loved best to call him Claus, and
in afterdays many of her sisters followed her example.

Necile gathered the softest moss in all the forest for Claus to
lie upon, and she made his bed in her own bower. Of food the infant
had no lack. The nymphs searched the forest for bell-udders, which
grow upon the goa-tree and when opened are found to be filled with
sweet milk. And the soft-eyed does willingly gave a share of their
milk to support the little stranger, while Shiegra, the lioness,
often crept stealthily into Necile's bower and purred softly as she
lay beside the babe and fed it.

So the little one flourished and grew big and sturdy day by day,
while Necile taught him to speak and to walk and to play.

His thoughts and words were sweet and gentle, for the nymphs
knew no evil and their hearts were pure and loving. He became the
pet of the forest, for Ak's decree had forbidden beast or reptile to
molest him, and he walked fearlessly wherever his will guided him.

Presently the news reached the other immortals that the nymphs
of Burzee had adopted a human infant, and that the act had been
sanctioned by the great Ak. Therefore many of them came to visit the
little stranger, looking upon him with much interest. First the
Ryls, who are first cousins to the wood-nymphs, although so
differently formed. For the Ryls are required to watch over the
flowers and plants, as the nymphs watch over the forest trees. They
search the wide world for the food required by the roots of the
flowering plants, while the brilliant colors possessed by the
full-blown flowers are due to the dyes placed in the soil by the
Ryls, which are drawn through the little veins in the roots and the
body of the plants, as they reach maturity. The Ryls are a busy
people, for their flowers bloom and fade continually, but they are
merry and light-hearted and are very popular with the other
immortals.

Next came the Knooks, whose duty it is to watch over the beasts
of the world, both gentle and wild. The Knooks have a hard time of
it, since many of the beasts are ungovernable and rebel against
restraint. But they know how to manage them, after all, and you will
find that certain laws of the Knooks are obeyed by even the most
ferocious animals. Their anxieties make the Knooks look old and worn
and crooked, and their natures are a bit rough from associating with
wild creatures continually; yet they are most useful to humanity and
to the world in general, as their laws are the only laws the forest
beasts recognize except those of the Master Woodsman.

Then there were the Fairies, the guardians of mankind, who were
much interested in the adoption of Claus because their own laws
forbade them to become familiar with their human charges. There are
instances on record where the Fairies have shown themselves to human
beings, and have even conversed with them; but they are supposed to
guard the lives of mankind unseen and unknown, and if they favor some
people more than others it is because these have won such distinction
fairly, as the Fairies are very just and impartial. But the idea of
adopting a child of men had never occurred to them because it was in
every way opposed to their laws; so their curiosity was intense to
behold the little stranger adopted by Necile and her sister
nymphs.

Claus looked upon the immortals who thronged around him with
fearless eyes and smiling lips. He rode laughingly upon the
shoulders of the merry Ryls; he mischievously pulled the gray beards
of the low-browed Knooks; he rested his curly head confidently upon
the dainty bosom of the Fairy Queen herself. And the Ryls loved the
sound of his laughter; the Knooks loved his courage; the Fairies
loved his innocence.

The boy made friends of them all, and learned to know their laws
intimately. No forest flower was trampled beneath his feet, lest the
friendly Ryls should be grieved. He never interfered with the beasts
of the forest, lest his friends the Knooks should become angry. The
Fairies he loved dearly, but, knowing nothing of mankind, he could
not understand that he was the only one of his race admitted to
friendly intercourse with them.

Indeed, Claus came to consider that he alone, of all the forest
people, had no like nor fellow. To him the forest was the world. He
had no idea that millions of toiling, striving human creatures
existed.

And he was happy and content.

** Some people have spelled this name Nicklaus and
others Nicolas, which is the reason that Santa Claus is still known
in some lands as St. Nicolas. But, of course, Neclaus is his right
name, and Claus the nickname given him by his adopted mother, the
fair nymph Necile.