SANTA CLAUS. 
439 
moment, if you were to step into the nursery and tell Tom and 
Bessie that Santa Claus is in the next room, and wishes to see 
them, they would not believe you. If you were to repeat the 
assertion, it is probable that Bessie would reprove you for telling 
a story, and Tom might go so far as to enter into a logical dis- 
quisition on the subject, informing you that nobody ever sees 
Santa Claus, for the reason that there is no such person ; who 
ever heard of an old man's driving up the side of a house, over 
the roof, and down the chimney ! Such things can't be done ; 
he knows it very well. Nevertheless, next year Tom and Bessie 
will be just as eager as ever for a visit from Santa Claus, and they 
will continue to think his sugar-plums the sweetest, and his toys 
the most delightful of all that are given to them, until they liave 
quite done with toys and sugar-plums — with those of the nursery, 
at least. Happy will it be for the little people if they never have 
a worse enemy, a worse friend either, among their acquaintances, 
whether real or fictitious. In fact, there is no more danger that 
the children should believe in the positive existence of Santa 
Claus, than there is a probability of their believing the Christmas- 
tree to grow out of the tea-table. We should be careful, how- 
ever, to make them understand every Christmas, that the good 
things they now receive as children are intended to remind them 
of far better gifts bestowed on them and on us. 
But most of the wisest people in the land know little more 
about Santa Claus than the children. There is a sort of vague, 
moonlight mystery still surrounding the real identity of the old 
worthy. Most of us are satisfied with the authority of pure un- 
alloyed tradition going back to the burghers of New Amsterdam, 
more especially now that we have the portrait by Mr. Weir, 
