Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1902-12-19
How Santa Claus Found Katrinka.
A Story of a Happy Christmas in
Nebraska Sod House.

Katrinka was little girl who lived in
"a sodhouse in Nebraska. out on the
great, treeless prairies, the people who
take up claims often build houses made
of sods, which are cut in thick squares,
and piled one above another TO form
walls. \ few pieces of lumber are laid
across the walls. and sods are laid upon
these To make the roof
Such a house Is queer to look at but
when the inside is plastered and floors
are laid. the sodhouse is very comfort
able and warm-a thing OF great i'm
portance> on those wind-swept plains
Katrinkas house stood alone on the
prairie. It had one large room In which
the family lived. and in which was a
bed for Katrinka's sister Bertha and her
husband Joseph. and a smaller room
which was used for a Kitchen in which
"A little bed for Katrinka was made up
each night
All about the house were great fields
OF corn tall and green, stretching away
in seemingly endless rows. There was
"A little space near the house which
Bertha reserved for the beets and cab
bages and other vegetables which the
family used
katrinka was sometimes very lonely
cut on that vast prairie. with no little
girl near her. and no one to play with
but Lottchen. Lottchen was the rag
doll. She was not beautiful. but Katrin-
ka loved her dearly.
In summer. she and Lottchen had great
fun running up and down the long rows
Of corn that grew high above their
| heads and making the long. crisp leaves
rustic Sometimes Katrinka played that
she was pony and Lottchen a fine lady
taking ride; and she would canter and
prance up and down in very spirited
fashion.
Sometimes she played she was a rail-
way train; and here and there a place
in the corn-rows. where a hill had died
or was stunted, served her as a station.
AT such places the engine always
whistled and slowly stopped
Katrinka had the stations named. One
was Germany; one was the little town in
the Fatherland where she was born: one
was 'Nited States. and another New
York Those were all the places the
little girl knew.
The real train passed quite near
| katrinkas house. She and Lottchen
always watched for 1t when 1t went up
| in the morning, and in summer she could
| see the return when II passed at about
! eight clock in the evening.
The coming of the morning train was
an event in the day for Katrinka. She
always laughed and waved her hand or
! her apron as il passed, or, II the day
was rainy, pounded on the window.
| Sometimes she caught sight of little girls
| in the car. and then she waved Lottchen.
The trainmen all knew her and learned
| to watch for her.
But she led a different life when winter
| came. Katrinka and Lottchen could no
| longer run up and down the corn-rows,
playing pony or railway train, nor pre-
tend to help Bertha in the little garden.
! They had to stay closely in the house
! l<a "a
thought she would like to have her play
mate Gretchen, and be back in the old
| home in Germany.
Katrinka had not forgotten Germany.
| Joseph and Bertha and she had come to
America only the spring before Katrinka
| remembered the vast ocean, and the ship
and the dreadful sickness that had come
! over her. And she remembered the
| great. noisy, crowded city where they
! had left the ship, and the long ride in
/ the cars across the country of Nebraska.
And now It was the day before Christ
/ mas. Katrlnka stood by the window,
and when the train went by, she pound
| ed on the glass with one hand and waved
/ Lottchen with the other.
! But after 1t had gone. and the sound
/ of its putting engine had died away, a
very sober look crept over Katrinka' 8
face. She had been perplexed for some
| time over a very puzzling question, and
!
| thought about it more and more and
! grew more and more sober.
She knew that in very few hours San
| ia Claus would start out with his rein
! deer How would he know where she
was7
II was hard thing for the little girl
| TO understand. She ind Lottchen talked
| II over; that is. Katrinka did the talk
ing, and Lottchen listened with fiatter-
| ing attention.
How will he know where I ann" she
asked Lottchen. HE always found me
! at the village, before. I was always al
I the same place-even the very same
house, Lottchen-every time he came
But now, when he goes to my house In
the village / shall not be there. Do
you think he will ask where have gone?
''The Herr Pastor knows. Maybe he
will think / am dead, and will give my
presents to my playmate Gretchen. But
| should rather have them myself.
"Maybe the reindeer cannot come
across the ocean. Do you think he
comes to the 'Nited States, Lottchen?"
But Lottchen did not know. She
could only listen to Katrlnkas whispered
condolences.
''There We're, oh, so many little girls
in the great city, Iottchen! I saw them
So Santa Claus must come to New York, -
she said. thoughtfully. but do you
suppose he comes away out here? II