Then she turned to Granny who, well wrapped in her old plaid shawl, sat rocking to and fro.
‘I hope Santa Claus will bring you something, too,’ said Ailie.
‘I have had my Christmas already,’ replied Granny, ‘a good new friend round the corner and a cure for my cough.’
‘But perhaps Santa Claus will bring you something more,’ said Ailie hopefully, as she climbed into bed with Polly in her arms.
‘Snuggle doun,’ said Ailie to Polly, ‘while I tell you a secret. I told it to the other Polly and now I will tell it to you. This is what I would like rare fine, though I’m not thinking that Santa Claus will bring it to me to-night. I would like a mither, a pretty mither, who would wear a dress made of silk like the one Patty’s mither wore at the Party to-day. And I would like a father who would put his hand in his pocket and pull me out a penny just as if it were nothing at all. And I would like four little brothers and four little sisters to play with me. I would wash them and dress them and take them all out for a walk. But if I never had a one of them, Polly, I would not cry, because I have you, and so long as I have you I will never be lonely again.’
Hand in hand lay Ailie and Polly on the bed. But presently in her sleep Ailie turned over and burrowed down under the bedclothes until you couldn’t see so much as the tip of her nose nor one of the sandy ringlets that clustered all over the top of her round little head. So far under the bed-covers went she that no doubt that is why Ailie heard not a sound all the night long.
But Polly, lying beside her on the bed, did not close her pretty brown eyes the whole night through. So Polly must have seen Santa Claus, for certainly Ailie’s stocking was filled when she woke in the morning, and who, may I ask, filled the stocking unless Santa Claus himself had been there?
Polly, too, through the window, must have watched the moon sail slowly past in the Christmas sky. She must have seen the stars twinkle and burn and then grow pale as little by little the light grew stronger and at last morning came. No doubt Polly saw the great gray snow-clouds spread and spread until the whole sky was covered over and the first frosty flakes came softly fluttering down.
Last of all, Polly must have heard the clatter of feet on the stairs, a clatter that came nearer and nearer to Ailie’s little room at the very tiptop of the tall, tall building until at last the clatter stopped just outside Ailie’s own door.
Now Granny was already awake and dressed when the noise came up the stair.