have the big, wide chimneys they used to build, but they can't keep
Santa Claus out--no, they can't keep Santa Claus out! Ha, ha, ha.
Though the chimney were no bigger than a gas pipe, Santa Claus would
slide down it!"

It didn't require a second glance to assure Joel that the new-comer
was indeed Santa Claus. Joel knew the good old saint--oh, yes--and he
had seen him once before, and, although that was when Joel was a
little boy, he had never forgotten how Santa Claus looked.

Nor had Santa Claus forgotten Joel, although Joel thought he had; for
now Santa Claus looked kindly at Joel and smiled and said: "Merry
Christmas to you, Joel!"

"Thank you, old Santa Claus," replied Joel, "but I don't believe it's
going to be a very merry Christmas. It's been so long since I've had a
merry Christmas that I don't believe I'd know how to act if I had
one."

"Let's see," said Santa Claus, "it must be going on fifty years since
I saw you last--yes, you were eight years old the last time I slipped
down the chimney of the old homestead and filled your stocking. Do you
remember it?"

"I remember it well," answered Joel. "I had made up my mind to lie
awake and see Santa Claus; I had heard tell of you, but I'd never seen
you, and Brother Otis and I concluded we'd lie awake and watch for you
to come."

Santa Claus shook his head reproachfully.

"That was very wrong," said he, "for I'm so scarey that if I'd known
you boys were awake I'd never have come down the chimney at all, and
then you'd have had no presents."

"But Otis couldn't keep awake," explained Joel. "We talked about
everythin' we could think of, till father called out to us that if we
didn't stop talking he'd have to send one of us up into the attic to
sleep with the hired man. So in less than five minutes Otis was sound
asleep and no pinching could wake him up. But _I_ was bound to see
Santa Claus and I don't believe anything would've put me to sleep. I
heard the big clock in the sitting-room strike eleven, and I had begun
wonderin' if you never were going to come, when all of a sudden I
heard the tinkle of the bells around your reindeers' necks. Then I
heard the reindeers prancin' on the roof and the sound of your
sleigh-runners cuttin' through the crust and slippin' over the
shingles. I was kind o' scared and I covered my head up with the sheet
and quilts--only I left a little hole so I could peek out and see what
was goin' on. As soon as I saw you I got over be