The artisan’s face dropped and a pout came out. A smile though quickly smoothed down the pout, and he exclaimed, in triumph, “Santa Claus! He’s a friend of our club! We thought we would be in season for Christmas, and people could buy their presents of us, and—and—will you buy?”
“I will—buy—that.”
“You will? I’ll give you a kiss for that,” and Aunt Stanshy’s young lover came up to her and in his delight gave her a kiss. Of a tuft of cotton Charlie had made a head. Another tuft furnished a body; two more supplied arms to work with, and two more supplied legs to stand on. Charlie put a three-cornered hat on Santa’s head and tied together the parts of his body with a girdle of pink worsted. A card on Santa announced the fact that he could be bought for TWO CENTS.
Charlie trembled when Aunt Stanshy’s eyes were directed toward the price lest she might not think it worth the money.
“What’s that?”
“Two cents,” replied Charlie, in fear.
“O! Well, I’ll give that.”
“You will?” said Charlie, in delight. “I’ll give you another kiss.”
“Charlie,” said the blushing Constantia, “you’ll make a fool of an old woman like me.”
In the night the lips of the sleeping Charlie parted as he said, with a smile, “Two cents!” When this good news of the first sale was announced to the club in the morning, it threw the members into a feverish excitement.