I'll go with
you upstairs, and hang my stocking beside yours, and mamma shall put into
it all the lovely things you have told me about. Santa Claus does not
know much about my coming here, nor what kind of a girl I am, so your
kind mamma meant to act the part of Santa Claus in my behalf this year,
and give him a chance to get acquainted with me. But he knows all about
you, and there's no telling how soon he may come to fill your stocking.
You know he has to fill the stockings of all the little boys and girls in
the country, and that will take a long time. So I think we had better go
at once, for I don't believe he would like it if he came and found you up
and awake."
This put a new aspect upon going to bed early, and having seen his short,
chubby stocking dangling with a long, slender one of Amy's by the
chimney-side, Ned closed his eyes with ineffable content and faith. Amy
then returned to the sitting-room, whither she was soon followed by Maggie,
and after some further light and laughing talk the conversation naturally
drifted toward those subjects in which the family was practically
interested.
"What do you think, father?" Leonard asked. "Won't this finish the peach
and cherry buds? I've always heard that ten degrees of cold below zero
destroyed the fruit germs."
"Not always," replied the man of long experience. "It depends much upon
their condition when winter sets in, and whether, previous to the cold
snap, there have been prolonged thaws.
Pages:
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43