Santa Claus' Sweetheart

SANTA CLAUS’ SWEETHEART

“Will ye tell me good-by now, swateheart?”
Page 93.
BY IMOGEN CLARK ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET Copyright, 1906, E. P. Dutton & Co. Published September, 1906. THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. TO E. A. M. M.



SANTA CLAUS’ SWEETHEART
TERRY O’CONNOR always declared he was born under a happy star, and he also maintained that at the time of his coming into the world it had danced for very joy. This statement, which no matter how much others might doubt but could not dispute, he had direct from his mother’s mother, who was present on that most auspicious occasion, and had observed the unusual con duct of the stellar body from the window. And, moreover, as if to establish quite conclusively the connection between the shining merriment in the skies and the advent of the little child on earth, the first thing the baby did was to smile. Old Mrs. Mulcahey knew what she was talking of. She had seen many new-born children in her time, and all of them, with the exception of her small and only grandchild, had worn such doleful countenances that a less hopeful person than herself would have been cast into despair. Whether that dazzling, dancing star had blinded her eyes, or had given them a truer vision, who shall say? She had seen—what she had seen! A little joyful slip of humanity come valiantly into this world of trouble, equipped from the outset with the sign-royal of a light heart.
It was the humblest of cradles; but to it, as to all cradles—so runs the old belief—had trooped, unseen, the good fairies with their gifts, and hither also had come the wicked fairy, who is seldom absent at such times, and whose malignant generosity mars all the gracious giving, making possession only too often of doubtful value. Here, as elsewhere, she wreaked her evil will so that the little child grew to be a man known through the countryside as a good-for-naught. That was the extent of her work, however; she was powerless to prevent another testimony. He was also known as a kindly, happy-go-lucky fellow, his own worst enemy, but the friend of all the world. Such was the record of five-and-sixty years, and such it would be to the end.