11. How the First Stockings Were Hung by the Chimneys

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

by L. Frank Baum

When you remember that no child, until Santa Claus began his
travels, had ever known the pleasure of possessing a toy, you will
understand how joy crept into the homes of those who had been favored
with a visit from the good man, and how they talked of him day by day
in loving tones and were honestly grateful for his kindly deeds. It
is true that great warriors and mighty kings and clever scholars of
that day were often spoken of by the people; but no one of them was
so greatly beloved as Santa Claus, because none other was so
unselfish as to devote himself to making others happy. For a
generous deed lives longer than a great battle or a king's decree of
a scholar's essay, because it spreads and leaves its mark on all
nature and endures through many generations.

The bargain made with the Knook Prince changed the plans of
Claus for all future time; for, being able to use the reindeer on but
one night of each year, he decided to devote all the other days to
the manufacture of playthings, and on Christmas Eve to carry them to
the children of the world.

But a year's work would, he knew, result in a vast accumulation
of toys, so he resolved to build a new sledge that would be larger
and stronger and better-fitted for swift travel than the old and
clumsy one.

His first act was to visit the Gnome King, with whom he made a
bargain to exchange three drums, a trumpet and two dolls for a pair
of fine steel runners, curled beautifully at the ends. For the Gnome
King had children of his own, who, living in the hollows under the
earth, in mines and caverns, needed something to amuse them.

In three days the steel runners were ready, and when Claus
brought the playthings to the Gnome King, his Majesty was so greatly
pleased with them that he presented Claus with a string of
sweet-toned sleigh-bells, in addition to the runners.

"These will please Glossie and Flossie," said Claus, as he
jingled the bells and listened to their merry sound. "But I should
have two strings of bells, one for each deer."

"Bring me another trumpet and a toy cat," replied the King, "and
you shall have a second string of bells like the first."

"It is a bargain!" cried Claus, and he went home again for the
toys.

The new sledge was carefully built, the Knooks bringing plenty
of strong but thin boards to use in its construction. Claus made a
high, rounding dash-board to keep off the snow cast behind by the
fleet hoofs of the deer; and he made high sides to the platform so
that many toys could be carried, and finally he mounted the sledge
upon the slender steel runners made by the Gnome King.

It was certainly a handsome sledge, and big and roomy. Claus
painted it in bright colors, although no one was likely to see it
during his midnight journeys, and when all was finished he sent for
Glossie and Flossie to come and look at it.

The deer admired the sledge, but gravely declared it was too big
and heavy for them to draw.

"We might pull it over the snow, to be sure," said Glossie; "but
we would not pull it fast enough to enable us to visit the far-away
cities and villages and return to the Forest by daybreak."

"Then I must add two more deer to my team," declared Claus,
after a moment's thought.

"The Knook Prince allowed you as many as ten. Why not use them
all?" asked Flossie. "Then we could speed like the lightning and
leap to the highest roofs with ease."

"A team of ten reindeer!" cried Claus, delightedly. "That will
be splendid. Please return to the Forest at once and select eight
other deer as like yourselves as possible. And you must all eat of
the casa plant, to become strong, and of the grawle plant, to become
fleet of foot, and of the marbon plant, that you may live long to
accompany me on my journeys. Likewise it will be well for you to
bathe in the Pool of Nares, which the lovely Queen Zurline declares
will render you rarely beautiful. Should you perform these duties
faithfully there is no doubt that on next Christmas Eve my ten
reindeer will be the most powerful and beautiful steeds the world has
ever seen!"

So Glossie and Flossie went to the Forest to choose their mates,
and Claus began to consider the question of a harness for them
all.

In the end he called upon Peter Knook for assistance, for
Peter's heart is as kind as his body is crooked, and he is remarkably
shrewd, as well. And Peter agreed to furnish strips of tough leather
for the harness.

This leather was cut from the skins of lions that had reached
such an advanced age that they died naturally, and on one side was
tawny hair while the other side was cured to the softness of velvet
by the deft Knooks. When Claus received these strips of leather he
sewed them neatly into a harness for the ten reindeer, and it proved
strong and serviceable and lasted him for many years.

The harness and sledge were prepared at odd times, for Claus
devoted most of his days to the making of toys. These were now much
better than the first ones had been, for the immortals often came to
his house to watch him work and to offer suggestions. It was
Necile's idea to make some of the dolls say "papa" and "mama." It
was a thought of the Knooks to put a squeak inside the lambs, so that
when a child squeezed them they would say "baa-a-a-a!" And the Fairy
Queen advised Claus to put whistles in the birds, so they could be
made to sing, and wheels on the horses, so children could draw them
around. Many animals perished in the Forest, from one cause or
another, and their fur was brought to Claus that he might cover with
it the small images of beasts he made for playthings. A merry Ryl
suggested that Claus make a donkey with a nodding head, which he did,
and afterward found that it amused the little ones immensely. And so
the toys grew in beauty and attractiveness every day, until they were
the wonder of even the immortals.

When another Christmas Eve drew near there was a monster load of
beautiful gifts for the children ready to be loaded upon the big
sledge. Claus filled three sacks to the brim, and tucked every
corner of the sledge-box full of toys besides.

Then, at twilight, the ten reindeer appeared and Flossie
introduced them all to Claus. They were Racer and Pacer, Reckless
and Speckless, Fearless and Peerless, and Ready and Steady, who, with
Glossie and Flossie, made up the ten who have traversed the world
these hundreds of years with their generous master. They were all
exceedingly beautiful, with slender limbs, spreading antlers, velvety
dark eyes and smooth coats of fawn color spotted with white.

Claus loved them at once, and has loved them ever since, for
they are loyal friends and have rendered him priceless service.

The new harness fitted them nicely and soon they were all
fastened to the sledge by twos, with Glossie and Flossie in the lead.
These wore the strings of sleigh-bells, and were so delighted with
the music they made that they kept prancing up and down to make the
bells ring.

Claus now seated himself in the sledge, drew a warm robe over
his knees and his fur cap over his ears, and cracked his long whip as
a signal to start.

Instantly the ten leaped forward and were away like the wind,
while jolly Claus laughed gleefully to see them run and shouted a
song in his big, hearty voice:

      "With a ho, ho, ho!
   
    And a ha, ha, ha!
And a ho, ho, ha, ha, hee!

        Now away we go
     
  O'er the frozen snow,
As merry as we can be!

        There are many joys
 
      In our load of toys,
As many a child will
know;
        We'll scatter them wide

        On our wild night ride
O'er the crisp
and sparkling snow!"

Now it was on this same Christmas Eve that little Margot and her
brother Dick and her cousins Ned and Sara, who were visiting at
Margot's house, came in from making a snow man, with their clothes
damp, their mittens dripping and their shoes and stockings wet
through and through. They were not scolded, for Margot's mother knew
the snow was melting, but they were sent early to bed that their
clothes might be hung over chairs to dry. The shoes were placed on
the red tiles of the hearth, where the heat from the hot embers would
strike them, and the stockings were carefully hung in a row by the
chimney, directly over the fireplace. That was the reason Santa
Claus noticed them when he came down the chimney that night and all
the household were fast asleep. He was in a tremendous hurry and
seeing the stockings all belonged to children he quickly stuffed his
toys into them and dashed up the chimney again, appearing on the roof
so suddenly that the reindeer were astonished at his agility.

"I wish they would all hang up their stockings," he thought, as
he drove to the next chimney. "It would save me a lot of time and I
could then visit more children before daybreak."

When Margot and Dick and Ned and Sara jumped out of bed next
morning and ran downstairs to get their stockings from the fireplace
they were filled with delight to find the toys from Santa Claus
inside them. In face, I think they found more presents in their
stockings than any other children of that city had received, for
Santa Claus was in a hurry and did not stop to count the toys.

Of course they told all their little friends about it, and of
course every one of them decided to hang his own stockings by the
fireplace the next Christmas Eve. Even Bessie Blithesome, who made a
visit to that city with her father, the great Lord of Lerd, heard the
story from the children and hung her own pretty stockings by the
chimney when she returned home at Christmas time.

On his next trip Santa Claus found so many stockings hung up in
anticipation of his visit that he could fill them in a jiffy and be
away again in half the time required to hunt the children up and
place the toys by their bedsides.

The custom grew year after year, and has always been a great
help to Santa Claus. And, with so many children to visit, he surely
needs all the help we are able to give him.