Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-12-25

grew tired of watching these changes,
and often laughed outright to see what
looked like a wooden MOSQUITO sud-
denly swell out into wooden OK or an
elephant
The number and richness of the pres
cuts surprised him very much; and Santa
| himself admitted that he never had finer
stock. OF course, there were thousands
! upon thousands of cheap toys and trink
cts; but there were also presents of great
value. There were, for instance, one
hundred and seven gold watches, and
seven hundred and one silver ones, nine
ty-three sets of furs, over forty diamond
rings, and earrings and breastpins by the
| bushel.
Sometimes, as Santa was loading his
pack, he would tell Chubby who the diff
| terent gifts were for, and what sort of peo-
pie they were. And Chubby was greatly
perplexed to find that many of the incest
things were for very naughty children,
and that many of the most costly things
were for the rich, who did not need them,
while good boys and girls were often put
OF with very 'neager gift, and the poor,
| too, often with nothing at all. But when
| he asked Santa about it, the old man
| shook his head, and said that he could not
go into that question then; that it had
| perplexed wiser folks than Chubby; and
| that he did not rightly understand it him
self. The good Lord, he said, had seen
| TIT to make some rich and some poor, and
| 1t was not for an old saint like him to try
| to undo his Masters work.
Besides" added he, you must under
stand that the true worth of these things
| is not the store-price of them, but the
amount OF happiness which they bring;
| and have seen many a poor lad more
pleased with tWO-penny toy-watch than
many rich mans son was with q gold
| one. Once" continued Santa, when |
| was quite young and ineXperienced-I
think 1t was on my four hundredth or
four hundred and fist Christ
mas trip-I thought it would be a
bright idea to equalize things little. SO
l gave diamond ring to an old apple
| woman's son, and a penny-whstle to a
young millionaire. The police found the
poor BOY trying to sell his ring, and be-
| lieving that he must have stolen it, put
him in prison. The young millionaire
was SO enraged at the meanness of his
gift, that he got black in the face, fell
down IN fit, and became an idiot After
| that" said Santa, Il never NEEDLE with
folks circumstances, but just adapt my
self to them"
There is one other question | should
like to ask" said Chubby.
'What is it 2"
II should like to know why your pack
seems sometimes to be very light when
there are heavy things in it, and very
heavy when there are light things in
it'
'Now you have hit upon my greatest
secret" said Santa
ooh, don't tell me, if you would rather
not" said Chubby.
II don't mind telling YOU" Santa re-
piled, though | never mentioned it be-
fore. You see our sort of people have
different weights and measures from what
you sort OF people have. Things are light
and heavy to US, according to how much
they are good for. Now, here is a pack
age marked Sam Rothschild. 1t contains
chest of tools, pair of skates, GRO
quet set, and so On-all what you would
call heavy articles But to me the whole
concern doesn't weigh as much as good
sized goose-quill, because they will do
that unhappy, discontinued, unreasonable
Sam no good at all. But here is a bundle
marked Tommy Jones, containing tip
pet and pair Of mittens knit by his grand
mother, new knife from his mother,
and sugar heart from his little sister
Meg-all whatyou would call light things,
you see. yet they are so heavy to me that
| fairly stagger under them, for | know
| they'll make Tom SO happy that he can
hardly contain himself. Why, it seems
to me Pm carrying about five tons of hap
piness in that bundle"
And sure enough, Santa had all that he
could do to lift Tommy's presents into the
n Int c., y, 3 Al
| so much thistle-down. After a night of
hard work, Santa finished his task just
| before day-break. Chubby was glad to
see the last load taken from the magic
box, tor he was getting tired and cold
Santa felt little tired, too, as well he
might; and the last load was pretty
heavy one, for they were in neighbor-
hood now where a great deal of happiness
went with a present. Chubby noticed
something more than fatigue in the old
| mans look as he came slowly back with
his empty pack. He was troubled about
something that was plain.
Did we take everything out of the
| magic box, Chubby" he asked.
Everything but my sled, >" said Chubby.
Don't you know we picked violin and
pair Of copper-tOed shoes out of the
crack in the left hand corner?'
$50 we did," said Santa; land fshed
that miscrOscope out of the nail hole on
the right"
Yet he looked the box all over again,
holding his lantern close down, and hunt
ing every corner. There was nothing
there but Chubby's sled.
"Have you lost anything?" said Club
by.
"No; but there's poor Phil, the lame
boy, in the next house. / wish | had
brought something for him"
81 suppose he couldn't use sled, if he's
lame?" said Chubby.
Just the thing he wants Then his
his big brother Jack could draw him to
school. But we haven't one for him,
that's clear
"There's mine," said Chubby.
"What are you thinking OFF" said San
ia Claus
IL was thinking" said Chubby, "of
what Mr.. Marsh said when he was so
kind to me in the store. He said it was a
time to do good for Jesus sake, because
Christmas was Jesus birthday; and |
should like to do some good for His sake;
and | think He would like to have me
give Phil the sled; and | would like to,
too 1t would be real Christmas pres
ent, then; and l should like to see how it
would be then"
Santa looked at Chubby for a moment
with glistening eyes. Then he stopped
and took the sled from the magic box. It
was the heaviest load he had carried that