"This is the day before Christmas and if I do not see him
to-day, you know I shall have to wait a whole year."
"Yes, you may go out and look for Santa Claus," the Child's mother
said, and she brought him his warm coat and cap and his red mittens;
"but do not go too far away from home, for Santa Claus stays very
close to the homes where there are children on Christmas Eve," she
added.
So the Child started out. He was very sure that he would know Santa
Claus when he saw him. Ever since he was a very little boy he had seen
pictures of Santa Claus. He would be a jolly, fat little old man with
twinkling eyes and a nose like a cherry. He would wear a long red
cloak and, perhaps, he would be in his toy shop making toys, of which
he would give the child a great many. Or he would be driving his
sleigh full of toys through the city, and the Child would know that he
was coming by the tinkling sound of his silver bells.
At the gate the Child met his grandfather. He was a very old man with
white hair and spectacles. But he could play horse as well as the
Child, and all the Child's nicest toys, the stone blocks, and the
train with tracks, and all the rest, his grandfather had given him.
Now, his grandfather's arms were full of fat, mysterious parcels.
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