But at last evening came and they were all gathered in the back room with only a few moments more to wait. Patient Miss Martin took pity on them and answered the same questions over and over as she moved about the room straightening twisted neckties and perking up fallen hair-ribbons.
“Yes, I’m sure Santa Claus is coming,” said Miss Martin for the tenth time to Luley and Lena, who hand in hand trotted up with the question every few minutes as if asking something new each time. “Why am I sure, Polly? Because he comes every year to the Children’s Home. He has never forgotten us yet.”
“Maybe he’s stuck in the snow,” said Sammy gloomily; “it’s deep, deep. Maybe he’s having a fight with the Indians.”
At this thought Sammy brightened, but Luley and Lena put out their under lips in such pitiful fashion that Miss Martin was glad to hear Mary Ellen say sturdily:
“I don’t believe there ever was a snowdrift or an Indian either that could keep Santa Claus away.”
“Good, Mary Ellen,” said Miss Martin with an approving smile; “I’m sure you are right. Take your finger out of your mouth, Tom. Yes, Lydia, what is it?”
Lydia stood on tiptoe and spoke softly. She didn’t want any one else to hear her question.
“Miss Martin,” whispered she, “will Santa Claus bring you whatever you ask for—even if it won’t go into your stocking?”
“Of course he will,” answered Miss Martin with an arm about Lydia. “Think of our big swing he brought last year. That wouldn’t go in a giant’s stocking. Think of the big—What’s that sound, children?”
Every one listened. Nearer and nearer and nearer came the jingle of sleigh-bells, little by little the folding doors slid open, and there before their very eyes Santa Claus himself came into the room. Sammy said afterward he knew he saw him come down the chimney and step out of the fireplace, and this in spite of Mary Ellen who declared she saw him come walking through the door. But however he came, there he was, covered with snow and with a big pack on his back fairly bursting with toys. Dolls and drums and horns, jack-in-the-boxes, toy lambs, furry dogs, soft white rabbits stuck out in every direction. Luley and Lena fixed their round eyes upon two white cats peeping slyly side by side over the edge of the pack, and oh, how they hoped that Santa Claus would know that they wanted those pussies more than anything in the world.