Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-01-10
Playing Santa Claus,

| something IKE cousin of Toms
Would You believe it, that fellow said
there wasn't any Santa CLAUSE / was
ashamed for him. and | told him at
once that he could never have any little
Ratchet.
Now that boy distinctly did tell-but
l won't mention it, We should never
reyea! the wickedness of other people.
and ought always to he thankful that
we are worse than any body else.
Otherwise we should be IKE the Phar-
isee, and he was very bad. l knew for
certain that ii was a fib Tom McGinnis'
cousin told. But, all the same, the
more thought about it the more l got
worried.
| Ii there is Santa Claus-and, of
course. there is--how could he get up
on the top of the house, 50 he could
come down the chimney. unless he car
ried a big ladder with him; and if he
did this, how could he carry presents
enough to fill mornahundred stockings?
And then how could he help getting
the things all over SCOT from the chin
ney, and how does he manage when the
chimney is all full of smoke and fire.
as it always is at Christmas? But
then, as the preacher says. he may be
supernatural had to look that word
| up in the dictionary.
The story Tom McGinnis' cousin told
kept on worrying me, and finally I be-
gan to think how perfectly awful it
would be if there was any truth in it.
How the children would feel. There's
going to be 10 end of children at our
house this Christmas. ard Aunt Eliza
and her two small boys are here already.
heard mother and Aunt Eliza talking
about Christmas the other day, and
they agreed that all the children should
Sleep on cot bedsteads in the back
parlor, 50 that they could open their
stockings together, and mother said:
You know, Eliza, there's big fire.
place in that room, and the children
can hang their stockings around the
chimney
Now l know did wrong, but it was
only because did not want the chill
dren to be disappointed. We should al
ways do to others and so on, and l
know | should have been grateful if
anybody had tried to get up a Santa
Claus for me in case of the real one be-
ing out of repair Neither do l blame
mother, though if she hadn't spoken
about the fireplace in the way she did,
it would never have happened. But l
do think that they ought to have made
little allowance for me, since was only
trying to help make the Christmas bust
ness successful.
1t all happened yesterday. Tom Me-
Ginnis had come to see me, and all the
folks had gone out to ride except Aunt
ELIAS little boy Harry. We were
tn king about Christmas. and was tell
ing Tom how all the children We're to
sleep in the back parlOr, and how there
was q chimney there that was just the
thing for Santa Claus. We went and
looked ut the chimney. and then l
said to Tom what fun it would be to
dress up and come down the chimney
and pretend to be Santa Claus. and how
it would amuse the children, and how
pleased the grown-up folks would be.
for they are always wanting us to amuse
them.
Tom agreed with me that it would be
splendid fun, and said we ought to
practice coming down the chimney, SO
that we could do it easily on Christmas
eve. He said he thought ought to do
it, because it was our house; but
said no. he was a visitor, and it would
be mean and selfish in me to deprive
him of any plea sure But Tom wouldn't
do it. He said that he wasn't feeling
very well, and that he didn't like to
take liberties with our chimney, and.
besides, he was afraid that he was so
big that he wouldn't fit the chimney.
Then we thought OF Harry, and agreed
that he was jus: the right size. OF
course Harry said he'd do it when we
asked him, for he isn't afraid of any
thing. and is so proud t. be allowed to
play with Tom and me that he would do
anything we asked him to do.
Well. Harry took off his coat and
shoes, and we all went up to the root,
and Tom and boosted Harry till he got
on the top of the chimney and put his
legs in it and slid down. He went
down like fash, for he didn't know
enough to brace himself the way the
chimney sweeps do. Tom and l hur-
ried down t, the back parlor to meet
him. but he lad not arrived yet, though
the fire place was full of ashes and
SCOT
We supposed he had stopped on the
way to rest; but after awhile we
thought we heard noise, like somebody
calling, that was a great way of. We
went up on the roof, thinking Harry
might have climbed back up the chin
ney. but he wasn't there. When we
got on the top of the chimney we could
hear him plain enough. He was crying
and yelling for help, for he was stuck
about halfway down the chimney and
couldn't get either up or down.
We talked it over for some time, and
decided that the best thing to do was to
get rope and let it down to him and
pull him out. So got the clothes-line
and let it down, but Harry's arms were
damned close to his sides. so he couldn't
get hold of it. Tom said we ought to
make slippernoose. catch it over
Harry's head, and pull him out that
way, but knew that Harry wasn't very
strong, and was afraid ii We did that
he might come apart.
Then proposed that we should get
long pole and push Harry down the
rest of the chimney, but after hunting
all over the yard we couldn't findla
pole that was long enough, so we had
to give that plan up. All this
time Harry was crying in tae most !
way. although we were
doing all we could for him. That's the |
way with little boys. They never have |
any gratitude, and are always discon-
tented.
As we couldn't poke Harry down,
Tom said let's try to poke him up. So ,
we told Harry TO be patient and consid-
crate, and we went down stairs again. /