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city had received, for Santa Claus was in a hurry and did not stop to count
the toys.
Of course they told all their little friends about it, and of course every one of
them decided to hang his own stockings by the fireplace the next Christmas
Eve. Even Bessie Blithesome, who made a visit to that city with her father,
the great Lord of Lerd, heard the story from the children and hung her own
pretty stockings by the chimney when she returned home at Christmas time.
On his next trip Santa Claus found so many stockings hung up in anticipation
of his visit that he could fill them in a jiffy and be away again in half the time
required to hunt the children up and place the toys by their bedsides.
The custom grew year after year, and has always been a great help to Santa
Claus. And, with so many children to visit, he surely needs all the help we are
able to give him.
12. The First Christmas Tree
Claus had always kept his promise to the Knooks by returning to the
Laughing Valley by daybreak, but only the swiftness of his reindeer has
enabled him to do this, for he travels over all the world.
He loved his work and he loved the brisk night ride on his sledge and the gay
tinkle of the sleigh-bells. On that first trip with the ten reindeer only Glossie
and Flossie wore bells; but each year thereafter for eight years Claus carried
presents to the children of the Gnome King, and that good-natured monarch
gave him in return a string of bells at each visit, so that finally every one of the
ten deer was supplied, and you may imagine what a merry tune the bells
played as the sledge sped over the snow.
The children's stockings were so long that it required a great many toys to fill
them, and soon Claus found there were other things besides toys that children
love. So he sent some of the Fairies, who were always his good friends, into
the Tropics, from whence they returned with great bags full of oranges and
bananas which they had plucked from the trees. And other Fairies flew to the
wonderful Valley of Phunnyland, where delicious candies and bonbons grow
thickly on the bushes, and returned laden with many boxes of sweetmeats for
the little ones. These things Santa Claus, on each Christmas Eve, placed in
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