Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-12-23

Liph, this here tree'n just suit your
grandmother.
TWAS splendid young spruce tree.
with wide-reaching boughs at less than
two feet from the snow level. Grand
father Vrooman worked his way care
fully in until he could reach the trunk
with saw and axe, and then there was
sharp bit of work for him and Liph
to get that Christmas tree slowed
safely on the top of the sleigh load.
"Now for home, Liph. Your grand
mother II cut into one of them new
pies for you when you get there
''Look!" shouted Liph, ''that little
fellows waiting for us at the top of the
hill.n
The hill was not high one, and the
road led right over it, and there on the
summit stood Bijah.
''I'm so tired and hungry" he said
to himself, ''and there comes old Santa
Claus, sleigh and all"
He was getting colder, too, now he
was standing still, and when Grand
father Vrooman came along the road,
walking in front of the sleigh, while
Liph perched among the evergreens
and drove, there seemed to be some
thing warm about him.
1t was not so much his high fur hat,
or his tremendous overcoat, or his long
white beard. or the way he smiled, but
something in the sound of his voice
almost drove the frost out of Biiah's
nose.
''Well, my little man, don't you want
to come to my house and get some pie?"
Eyes, sir. y
Biiah could not think of one other
word he wanted to say, and he mus
tered all the courage he had not to cry
when Grandfather Vrooman picked
him up, as if he had been kitten, and
perched him by the side of Liph among
evergreens.
n he went, and Bijah did not an
single one of Liph's questions
five long minutes. Then he turned
black eyes full on his driver and
asked, FDo you live with Santa Claus
in his own house?''
eyes, sir-ee," responded Liph, with
a great chuckle of fun; but all he had
to do the rest of the way home was to
spin yarns for Bjah about the way they
mas 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 hall, and set it up in the
F'dark room" at the end OF the hall.
That ought to have been the incest
room in the house, for it was right in
the middle, but there were no windows
in it. There were doors in every direc-
ton, however, and in the center the
ceiling was ''scuttle hole more than
two feet square, with a wooden lid on
it.
John" said Grandfather Vrooman
to Mr.. Hardy, ''we'll hoist the top of
the tree through the hole. You 90 up
and open the souttle. Hitch the top
good and strong. There'u be lots of
things to hang on them branches
Liph's father hurried upstairs to open
the scuttle, and that gave Grandfather
Vrooman chance to think of Bijah.
"Where is he, Liph?"
''Oh, he's all right. Grandmother's
got him. She and mother caught him
before he got into the house. He tried
to run away, too"
Bijah's short legs had been too tired
to carry him very fast, and Grand
mother Vrooman 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, and 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'll be
choke, jam, packed full, and thereisn't
an extra bed. ;"
''Father found him in the snow some
where. Just like him. But what a
rosy little dot he isa'
''Are you Santa Claus wives?" asked
Bijah, with a culver of his lip in spite
of himself.
How they did chuckle when they
tried to answer that question! ALI they
made clear to BUah was that the place
for him was in a hig chair before the
sitting-room fireplace, with a plate of
mince-pie in his lap, and Bush, the big
house-dog, sitting beside him.
''It's Santa Claus dog" said Bijah
to himself; ''but his house isn't as big
as the 'sylum."