“And really-truly and truly-really?” asked Johnny, for it was such a strange thing that he wanted to be quite sure about it.
“Oh, yes, this is in earnest,” said the kind man, with a smile. “So come in and pick out what toys you like best. It is near Christmas time, and you can count this as one of your Christmas presents.”
“And may Mary have first choice?” asked Johnny.
“Surely,” said the man, and he was glad that Tommy and Johnny were so kind to their little sister, but then they were most always that way, and I hope you are, too; but of course you are, so I needn’t have said that last part, need I?
And if the window of the toy shop was lovely, the inside of the shop was more beautiful still. Oh! so many toys as there were! It was just like the place where Santa Claus makes all the nice things for the girls and boys. In fact, some of the toys had just come from the workshop of dear old St. Nicholas himself.
“Well, what are you going to choose, Mary?” asked Tommy, of his sister, when they had looked around a bit.
“I—I think I’ll have that nice big doll over there,” said the little girl, after a while, when she had examined many things.
So the toy shop clerk gave Mary the big doll, and the man, whose hat the Trippertrot children had run after, smiled and said:
“Now, Tommy, it’s your turn.”
“I’ll take that nice sailboat,” said Tommy Trippertrot, and the toy shop clerk gave it to him.