reams of wondrous toy-shops
Dancing through each head.

Funny little stockings
Hanging in a row
Stuffed with sweet surprises,
Down from top to toe.

Skates, and balls, and trumpets,
Dishes, tops, and drums,
Books and dolls and candles,
Nuts and sugar-plums.

Little sleepers waking:
Bless me, what a noise!
Wish you merry Christmas,
Happy girls and boys!

The Nursery

[Illustration: Santa Claus making Toys.]

[Page 76--Santa Claus Land]

[Illustration: Santa Claus looking up names of Good Boys and Girls.]

Christmas

When the children have been good,
That is, be it understood,
Good at meal-times, good at play,
Good all night and good all day,--
They shall have the pretty things
Merry Christmas always brings.

[Illustration: Santa Claus starting to distribute Toys.]

A Christmas Eve Adventure

Once on a time, in a queer little town,
On the shore of the Zuyder Zee,
When all the good people were fast asleep,
A strange thing happened to me.

Alone, the night before Christmas,
I sat by the glowing fire,
Watching the flame as it rose and fell,
While the sparks shot high and higher.

Suddenly one of these sparks began
To flicker and glimmer and wink
Like a big bright eye, till I hardly knew
What to do or to say or to think.

Quick as a flash, it changed to a face,
And what in the world did I see
But dear old Santa Claus nodding his head,
And waving his hand to me!

"Oh! follow me, follow me!" soft he cried,--
And up through the chimney with him
I mounted, not daring to utter a word
Till we stood on the chimney's rim.

"Now tell me, I beg you, dear Santa Claus,
Where am I going with you?"
He laughingly answered, "Why, don't you know?
To travel the whole world through!

"From my crystal palace, far in the North,
I have come since dark,--and see
These curious things for the little folk
Who live on the Zuyder Zee."

Then seating himself in his reindeer sledge,
And drawing me down by his side,
He whistled, and off on the wings of the wind
We flew for our midnight ride.

But first, such comical presents he left
For the little Dutch girls and boys,--
Onions and sausages, wooden-faced dolls,
Cheeses and gingerbread toys!

Away we hurried far to the South,
To the beautiful land of France;