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"
Get your Christmas trees all ready for my coming," he said to them; "and
then I shall be able to leave the presents without loss of time, and you can put
them on the trees when I am gone."
And to others he said: "See that the children's stockings are hung up in
readiness for my coming, and then I can fill them as quick as a wink."
And often, when parents were kind and good-natured, Santa Claus would
simply fling down his package of gifts and leave the fathers and mothers to fill
the stockings after he had darted away in his sledge.
"
I will make all loving parents my deputies!" cried the jolly old fellow, "and they
shall help me do my work. For in this way I shall save many precious minutes
and few children need be neglected for lack of time to visit them."
Besides carrying around the big packs in his swift-flying sledge old Santa
began to send great heaps of toys to the toy-shops, so that if parents wanted
larger supplies for their children they could easily get them; and if any
children were, by chance, missed by Santa Claus on his yearly rounds, they
could go to the toy-shops and get enough to make them happy and contented.
For the loving friend of the little ones decided that no child, if he could help it,
should long for toys in vain. And the toy-shops also proved convenient
whenever a child fell ill, and needed a new toy to amuse it; and sometimes, on
birthdays, the fathers and mothers go to the toy-shops and get pretty gifts for
their children in honor of the happy event.
Perhaps you will now understand how, in spite of the bigness of the world,
Santa Claus is able to supply all the children with beautiful gifts. To be sure,
the old gentleman is rarely seen in these days; but it is not because he tries to
keep out of sight, I assure you. Santa Claus is the same loving friend of
children that in the old days used to play and romp with them by the hour;
and I know he would love to do the same now, if he had the time. But, you
see, he is so busy all the year making toys, and so hurried on that one night
when he visits our homes with his packs, that he comes and goes among us
like a flash; and it is almost impossible to catch a glimpse of him.
And, although there are millions and millions more children in the world than
there used to be, Santa Claus has never been known to complain of their
increasing numbers.
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