“‘De only spare room am on de end o’ your nose. If you want to have it dere, say so!’
“De elephant he say so. So Santy take one o’ dese yeah suckers, left over from a debilfish, an’ he stick it squar’ in de middle o’ de elephant’s nose. He stick it so hard, an’ he stick it so fast, dat it hasn’t come loose dese thousand o’ years.
“Wall, dat certainly was a busy Chris’mus fer de ole saint. He was fixin’ tails an’ legs an’ ears an’ wings ’most all day. De beaver he gets de sulks ’ca’se de squirrel’s got Bre’r Rabbit’s tail an’ he want it. De rest o’ de critters try to coax him to take somethin’ else, but ’pears like he crazy fer somethin’ behind. He took to moanin’ an’ wailin’ ’ca’se he can’t get what he wants twell bime-by he nat’rally gets ole Santy plumb wore out.
“‘Look yeah,’ says ole Santy, says he. ‘You’s so sot on havin’ somethin’ behind, ’pears like I’d hab to gib you somethin’ diff’rent an’ distinguishin’.’ An’ wif dat de ole saint claps on him one o’ dem flappers dat he’d made fer de li’l’ seals to walk on. An’ it’s been hangin’ to de back o’ de beaver ever since.
“At las’ all de critters were satisfied ’ceptin’ de dog an’ de horse an’ de reindeer.
“‘What you want?’ says ole Santy to de dog.
“‘I want faithfulness,’ says de dog; an’ Santy gib it to him.
“‘What you want?’ he says to de horse.
“‘I want wisdom,’ says de horse; an’ Santy whisper it into his ear.
“‘Now what you want?’ he says last of all to de reindeer.