Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-12-22

; %, 1882.
kitten, and perched him by the side of Liph
among the evergreens.
On ho went, and Biiah did not answer a
single one of Liph's questions for five long
minutes. Then he turned his black eyes full
on his driver, and asked "Do you live with
Santa Claus in his own house?'
Yes, stree, responded Liph, with great
chuckle of fun; but all he had to do the rest
of the way was to spin yarns for Bjah about
the way they lived at the house where all the
Christmas came from.
When they got there Liph's father and the
hired man and Grandfather Vrooman were
ready to lift off that Christmas tree, and carry
it through the front door and hail. and set it
up in the clark room" at the end of the hall.
That ought to have been the incest room in
the house, for il was right in the middle, but
there were no windows in it. There we're
doors in every direction, however, and in the
centre of the ceiling was a 'scuttle hole"
more than two feet square, with a wooden
lid on it.
John" said Grandfather vrooman to Mr..
Hardy "we'n hoist the top of the tree
through the hole. You 60 up and open the
scuttle. Hitch the top good and strong.
There'll be lots of things to hang on them
branches"
Liph's father hurried up stairs to open the
scuttle, and that gave Grandfather Nrooman
a chance to think of Bjah. "Where is he,
Liph ?"
"Oh, he's all right. Grandmothers got him.
She and mother caught him before be got in
to the house He tried to run away, too"
Bjah's short legs had been too tired to
carry him very fast, and Grandmother Yroo-
man and Mrs. Hardy had caught him before
he got back to the gate.
The way they laughed about it gave him
great deal of courage, aud he never cried
when they took him by his red little hands,
one on each side, and walked him into the
house.
Jane, said grandmother, what will We
do with him The house II be choke, jam,
packed full, aud there isn't an extra bed"
Father found him in the snow somewhere.
just like him. But what rosy little dot he
is :"
'Are you Santa Claus's wives 7" asked
Bijah, with quiver of his lip in spite of him
self.
How they did chuckle while they tried to
answer that question! All they made clear
to Bjah was that the place for him was in
big chair before the sitting-room fireplace,
with plate of mince- pie in his lap, and
Bush the big house dog, sitting beside him.
cts Santa Claus's dog" said Bjah to him
self but his house isn't as big as the 'sy
lum"
II.
There were fire-places in every room on
the ground.hoo of Grandfather Vrooman's
house, and some kind of a stove in pore than
half the rooms up stairs
There were blazing fires on every hearth
down stairs, and Liph got hold of Bijah af-
around with him to help poke them up.
Bijah had never seen fire place before, and
it was a great wonder to him, but Bush sat
down in front of each fire and barked az it.
1t was getting dark when they reached the
great front parlor and the fire place there
was wonderful.
"Woof, woof woof," barked Bush
Bijah stood still in the door while Liph
went near enough to give that fire a poke,
and be could hear Grandfather Vrooman
away back in the sitting room
Now, my dear wen stick him away some
where Put him in one of the stockings and
hang him up"
That's me-" groaned Bijah. He's going
to make present of me to somebody. Oh,
dear l wish l could run away"
But he could not, for there was Liph and
there was Bush and it was getting dark
"Now, my dear" went on grandfather,
''I'll just light up, and then I'll go and
meet that train. I'll bring home Prue and
her folks, and Pat II meet the other, and
bring Ellen and hers. Wont the old house be
full this time -
"He's caught some more somewhere"
whispered Bjah to himself. II wonder who'll
get 'em Who'll get me?'
That was an awful question, but Lph and
Bush all but ran against him just then, and
he heard grandmother say:
you'll have to stick candles on the win
dow-sills. l can't spare any lamps for up
| stairs"
'But, my dear, it's got to be lit up-every
room of it. want 'em to know Christmas is
coming"
That's what they were all saying at the
'syum this morning" thought Bijah, land
| here l am, right where it's coming to-"
So he was, and he and Liph aud Bush
watched them finish setting the supper table,
till suddenly Bush gave a great bark and
| spraug away toward the front door. Grand
father Vrooman had hardly been gone from
! the house an hour, but here be was, back
again.
Jingle, jingle, jingle How the sleigh
bells did dance as that great load of young
folk came down the road, and what racket
they made at the gate, and how Bush, and
Liph, and grandmother, and the rest did help
| them
Hes caught EN- ALL" said Bijah "but
they amt scared a bit"
No one would have thought so if they had
seen Mrs. Prue Hopkins and her husband and
her six children follow Grandfather Nrooman
| into the house.
They were hardly there, and some of them
| had their things on yet, when there came an
other great jingle, and ever SO much talking
and laughter down the other road.
| "Hes caught some more. Some are little
and some are big. l wonder who'll get the
baby ?"
Bush was making himself hoarse, and had
to be spoken to by Mr.. Hardy, while Mrs.
Simpson tried to unmix her children from
the Hopknses long enough to be sure none
of them had dropped out of the sleigh on the
road.
Then Liph set to work to Introduce his
cousins to Biiah, and Bush came and stood
by his new friend in gray, to see that it was
properly done.
"where'd you come from p asked Joe
Simpson.
''sylum," said Bjah. "where'd he catch
you p
"Catch what ?" said Joe, but Liph manag
ed to choke off the chucke he was going in
to, and to shout out:
"Why, Joe, we found him in the road to-
day. He thinks grandfather's old Santa
Claus, and this house is Christmas"
$50 am-so it is, said Grandfather Vroo-
man. oven make him hang up his stock
ing with the rest tonight"
Biiah could not feel scared at all with SO
many children around him, and he was used
to being among a crowd of themi stil, it was
hard to feel at home after supper, and be
might have had blue time of it if it hadn'I
been for Liph and Bush. 1t had somehow
got into Bush's mind that the dot in gray was
| undar his protaction and he followed BiiAh
from one corner to another.
All the doors into the dark room" were
open, and it was the lightest room in the
house, with its big fire on the hearth and al
the lamps that were taken in after supper
but there was not one thing hanging on the
Christmas tree until Grandfather Vroomar
exclaimed