“Look out what you're doin'. Now see that. You pretty near made me mash my thumb.”
“Aw, now, D., tell me. I think you might. I don't believe you ever did.”
“Oh, you don't, hey? Well, if you had 'a saw what I saw. M-m! Little round eyes an' red nose an' white whiskers, an' heard the sleigh bells, an' oh, my! them reindeers! Cutest little things! Stompin' their little feet” Here he stopped, and went on cracking nuts.
“Tell some more. Woncha, please? Ma, make D. tell me the rest of it.”
“Huck-uh! Dassant. 'T wouldn't be right. Like's not he won't put anythin' in my stockin' now fer what I did tell.”
“How'll he know?”
“How'll he know? Easy enough. He goes around all the houses evenings now to see how the young ones act, an' if he finds they're sassy, an' don't mind their Ma when she tells them to leave the cat alone, an' if they whine: 'I don' want to go out an' cut the kindlin'. Why cain't D. do it?' then he puts potatoes an' lumps o' coal in their stockin's. Oh, he'll be here, course o' the evenin'.”
“D' you s'pose he's round here now?” Eddie got a little closer to his brother.
“I wouldn't wonder. Yes, sir. There he goes now. Sure's you're alive.”
“Where?”