self.

When Tommy slipped back again and found his father waiting for him at
the gate, he thought he had never had so fine a time in all his life.
He determined to make a sled for somebody every Christmas.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

II

When they reached home Tommy, after warming his hands and telling his
mother about the sled, set to work to write a letter to Santa Claus on
behalf of Johnny, and as he wrote, a number of things came to him that
he thought Johnny would like to have. He remembered that he had no
gloves and that his hands were very red; that his cap was very old and
too small for him; that a real flexible flier would be a fine thing
for him. Then, as he had asked for a gun for himself to hunt polar
bears with and a fur coat to go out with in the snow, he added these
in Johnny's letter also; in fact, he asked for Johnny just the things
he had asked for himself, except the goats, and, as Johnny had two
goats, it was not necessary to ask for them for him. Instead of goats,
however, he asked that Santa Claus might give Johnny's mother a cow,
as good as one of their cows. As he was not a very rapid writer it
took him some time to write this letter, especially, as he did not
know how to spell a good many words, and had to ask his mother how to
spell them, for his father had gone out soon after their return from
taking the sled to Johnny, and immediately after showing him the
picture of the polar bear and the map of the North-pole region. Then
when the letter was all done, signed and sealed, Tommy carefully
dropped it in the fire in the library, and watched it as it first
twisted up, then burst into a blaze, and finally disappeared in flame
and smoke up the big chimney, hoping that it would blow away like the
wind to Santa Claus to catch him before he started out that night on
his round of visits.

By this time his supper was ready and he found that he was very
hungry. He had no sooner finished it than he drew up in a big chair by
the warm fire, and began to wonder whether Santa Claus would get his
letter in time, and, if so, what he would bring Johnny. The fire was
warm and his eyes soon began "to draw straws," but he did not wish to
go to bed quite yet and, indeed, had a lingering hope that when his
father returned he might coax him into letting him go out again and
slide with Johnny and then, perhaps, st