"Oh—would we?" murmured the boys, while the girls bashfully whispered:
"Oh, yes, very much indeed!"
"Then here you are!" cried the little old woman, and she set on the table a plate of molasses cookies and a pitcher of milk, with four glasses. Thump looked up from his place on the hearth, hungrily sniffing.
"You shall have your share, too," said the little old lady. "I have a juicy bone in my cupboard for you!"
Soon Thump was gnawing the bone, and the children were eating cookies and drinking milk. The little old lady sat in a deep, easy chair near the blazing fire and said:
"Now tell me more about yourselves, my dears; and this strange story about the runaway rocker. Also, tell me where you live, and I will try to think of a way to send you home, though I cannot take you myself. Tell me all about it."
But before any of them could answer, Weezie, with a queer little, catching sound in her breath, pointed to a window and exclaimed:
"Look! There's Santa Claus!"
And through the glass, a white frame of snow around his face, the other children could see an old man, with apple-red cheeks and long, white whiskers, peering in at them.
"Oh, it is Santa Claus!" murmured Addie, and she dropped a piece of cookie into her glass of milk with a little ploppy splash!