ONE CHRISTMAS EVE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 301, 20 December 1941, Page 15

ONE CHRISTMAS EVE

(By Joan Shirley)

Once upon a time there was a little boy who thought that Santa Claus must be the kindest, jolliest person in the world. When John remembered all the thousands of stockings Santa Claus had filled, all the thousands of sooty chimneys he had climbed down, and the many times he had gone back to his castle cold and tired out, late on Christmas Eve, he wondered and wondered if there were anyone to welcome Santa back, or whether his slippers had been put to warm, and if anyone waited up at the castle to ask him how he got on. Now, John lived not far from the hill on which Santa Claus had his castle. So the little boy was lucky enough to see him sometimes and say "good morning" very shyly. As Christmas came near one year, a plan came into John's mind. Santa was always giving other people surprises so it was quite time he had one himself!

So, on Christmas Eve, after he had been put to bed, John got up again and dressed himself. He slipped out of doors and ran to the hill where Santa's castle stood, gleaming in the moonlight. In his hand he carried a big parcel. When he came to the castle he saw that the door was open, and he knew that Santa Claus had left with his reindeer to fill all the stockings.

John slipped into the castle. He went upstairs and found Santa's bedroom, a cold, draughty room, The little boy shut the windows, and put a match to the flre. Soon it was roaring up the chimney. John piled logs on to it, and then looked around for Santa Claus' slippers. He put them in the fender to warm, found a kettle and put it on to boil, and placed on a little table a tin of cocoa and some milk he had brought.

Then quickly he found a large stocking and hung it at the end of the bed. Into it he put a large-sized pipe, a packet of tobacco, an enormous white handkerchief, and a very large pair of woolly gloves that he had asked his mother to knit for him. Then out he crept again, smiling all over his kind little face. Now, that night Santa Claus had had a very hard time. One of his reindeer had gone lame, so he couldn't go as fast as he wanted to. He had stuck fast in two chimneys, and made himself very sooty before he had managed to get out. He had dropped one of his gloves somewhere, so his right hand was as cold as ice, and ached badly. In fact, altogether he was feeling rather miserable. And then, he couldn't get a large rocking horse down a chimney, and he had to go and knock at the door and give it to the surprised mother, a thing he always hated doing. When he got home to his castle, he was grumbling away to himself. "What is the sense of doing this every year? I'm an old man now, why should I bother to go out like this on a winter's night, taking a heavy sack of toys with me, for children who never think of writing me a thank-you letter? It's the last time I'll do it, the very last time!" And then he saw his beautiful big fire, and his warm slippers, and his lovely fat stocking full of just what he wanted. "Some child has been here!" he said. "Would you believe it! Well, well, well, to think how I've been grumbling to-night! I'm ashamed of myself, really I am! I shall never stop being Santa Claus, never, so long as there are children in the world. Just look what one has done for me, the generous little soul!" It was then that he spied the cocoa on the table ready to make. And ever since then Santa Claus.has been about as usual at Christmas time.