Christmas Gold: The Greatest Holiday Novels, Tales & Poems (Illustrated Edition). Гарриет Бичер-Стоу

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СКАЧАТЬ is not a very long time," said Flossie; "but we are swift and strong, and if we get started by this evening we can travel many miles during the night."

      Claus decided to make the attempt, so he hurried on his preparations as fast as possible. After a time he fastened the collars around the necks of his steeds and harnessed them to his rude sledge. Then he placed a stool on the little platform, to serve as a seat, and filled a sack with his prettiest toys.

      "How do you intend to guide us?" asked Glossie. "We have never been out of the Forest before, except to visit your house, so we shall not know the way."

      Claus thought about that for a moment. Then he brought more cords and fastened two of them to the spreading antlers of each deer, one on the right and the other on the left.

      "Those will be my reins," said Claus, "and when I pull them to the right or to the left you must go in that direction. If I do not pull the reins at all you may go straight ahead."

      "Very well," answered Glossie and Flossie; and then they asked: "Are you ready?"

      Claus seated himself upon the stool, placed the sack of toys at his feet, and then gathered up the reins.

      "All ready!" he shouted; "away we go!"

      The deer leaned forward, lifted their slender limbs, and the next moment away flew the sledge over the frozen snow. The swiftness of the motion surprised Claus, for in a few strides they were across the Valley and gliding over the broad plain beyond.

      The day had melted into evening by the time they started; for, swiftly as Claus had worked, many hours had been consumed in making his preparations. But the moon shone brightly to light their way, and Claus soon decided it was just as pleasant to travel by night as by day.

      The deer liked it better; for, although they wished to see something of the world, they were timid about meeting men, and now all the dwellers in the towns and farmhouses were sound asleep and could not see them.

      Away and away they sped, on and on over the hills and through the valleys and across the plains until they reached a village where Claus had never been before.

      Here he called on them to stop, and they immediately obeyed. But a new difficulty now presented itself, for the people had locked their doors when they went to bed, and Claus found he could not enter the houses to leave his toys.

      "I am afraid, my friends, we have made our journey for nothing," said he, "for I shall be obliged to carry my playthings back home again without giving them to the children of this village."

      "What's the matter?" asked Flossie.

      "The doors are locked," answered Claus, "and I can not get in."

      Glossie looked around at the houses. The snow was quite deep in that village, and just before them was a roof only a few feet above the sledge. A broad chimney, which seemed to Glossie big enough to admit Claus, was at the peak of the roof.

      "Why don't you climb down that chimney?" asked Glossie.

      Claus looked at it.

      "That would be easy enough if I were on top of the roof," he answered.

      "Then hold fast and we will take you there," said the deer, and they gave one bound to the roof and landed beside the big chimney.

      "Good!" cried Claus, well pleased, and he slung the pack of toys over his shoulder and got into the chimney.

      There was plenty of soot on the bricks, but he did not mind that, and by placing his hands and knees against the sides he crept downward until he had reached the fireplace. Leaping lightly over the smoldering coals he found himself in a large sitting-room, where a dim light was burning.

      From this room two doorways led into smaller chambers. In one a woman lay asleep, with a baby beside her in a crib.

      Claus laughed, but he did not laugh aloud for fear of waking the baby. Then he slipped a big doll from his pack and laid it in the crib. The little one smiled, as if it dreamed of the pretty plaything it was to find on the morrow, and Claus crept softly from the room and entered at the other doorway.

      Here were two boys, fast asleep with their arms around each other's neck. Claus gazed at them lovingly a moment and then placed upon the bed a drum, two horns and a wooden elephant.

      He did not linger, now that his work in this house was done, but climbed the chimney again and seated himself on his sledge.

      "Can you find another chimney?" he asked the reindeer.

      "Easily enough," replied Glossie and Flossie.

      Down to the edge of the roof they raced, and then, without pausing, leaped through the air to the top of the next building, where a huge, old-fashioned chimney stood.

      "Don't be so long, this time," called Flossie, "or we shall never get back to the Forest by daybreak."

      Claus made a trip down this chimney also and found five children sleeping in the house, all of whom were quickly supplied with toys.

      When he returned the deer sprang to the next roof, but on descending the chimney Claus found no children there at all. That was not often the case in this village, however, so he lost less time than you might suppose in visiting the dreary homes where there were no little ones.

      When he had climbed down the chimneys of all the houses in that village, and had left a toy for every sleeping child, Claus found that his great sack was not yet half emptied.

      "Onward, friends!" he called to the deer; "we must seek another village."

      So away they dashed, although it was long past midnight, and in a surprisingly short time they came to a large city, the largest Claus had ever visited since he began to make toys. But, nothing daunted by the throng of houses, he set to work at once and his beautiful steeds carried him rapidly from one roof to another, only the highest being beyond the leaps of the agile deer.

      At last the supply of toys was exhausted and Claus seated himself in the sledge, with the empty sack at his feet, and turned the heads of Glossie and Flossie toward home.

      Presently Flossie asked:

      "What is that gray streak in the sky?"

      "It is the coming dawn of day," answered Claus, surprised to find that it was so late.

      "Good gracious!" exclaimed Glossie; "then we shall not be home by daybreak, and the Knooks will punish us and never let us come again."

      "We must race for the Laughing Valley and make our best speed," returned Flossie; "so hold fast, friend Claus!"

      Claus held fast and the next moment was flying so swiftly over the snow that he could not see the trees as they whirled past. Up hill and down dale, swift as an arrow shot from a bow they dashed, and Claus shut his eyes to keep the wind out of them and left the deer to find their own way.

      It seemed to him they were plunging through space, but he was not at all afraid. The Knooks were severe masters, and must be obeyed at all hazards, and the gray streak in the sky was growing brighter every moment.

      Finally the sledge came to a sudden stop and Claus, who was taken unawares, tumbled from his seat into a snowdrift. As СКАЧАТЬ