“Look, Look! The captain has lent that little boy his
‘Seven Leaguers.’”
“Now,” he said, as he glanced at it, “this is more like it. He is improving. I see he has asked for a lot of things for a friend of his named Johnny. Johnny Stout—who is he? It seems to me I hardly remember him or where he lives.”
“Yes,” said Johnny, stepping up. “That’s me. He gave me a sled, too, and he made it himself.” Santa Claus turned and looked at him and his expression turned to a smile; in fact, Tommy thought he really winked at Johnny.
“Oh, I know that sled. It was a pretty good sled, too,” he said.
This gave Tommy courage, and he stepped forward and said, “He lives in a little bit of a house near our place—just that way—” He turned and pointed. “I’ll show it to you when you come.”
“Good,” said Santa Claus. “I’ll show it to you and you show it to me. We are apt to overlook those little houses. So you are Tommy Trot?” he said. “Glad to see you,” and he turned and held out his hand to Tommy. “I sent my reindeer to fetch you and I am glad you made that sled, for it is only a sled made for others that can get up here. You see, everything here, except the North Pole, is made for some one else, and that’s the reason we have such a good time up here. If you like, I’ll take you around and show you and Johnny our shops.” This was exactly what Tommy wanted, so he thanked him politely.
“I’ll be back in a little while,” said Santa Claus to the lady, “for as soon as the boys are all asleep I must set out. I have a great many stockings to fill this year. See that everything is ready. Come along, boys,” and next minute they were going through room after room and shop after shop, filled with so many things that Tommy could not keep them straight in his mind. He wondered how any one could have thought of so many things, except his mother, of course; she always thought of everything for everyone. Some of them he wished for, but every time he thought of wanting a thing for himself the lights got dim, so that he stopped thinking about himself at all, and turned to speak to Johnny, but he was gone.
Presently Santa Claus said: “These are just my stores. Now we will go and see where some of these things are made.” He gave a whistle, and the next second up dashed a sled with a team of reindeer in it, and who was there holding the reins but Johnny, with his little cap perched on the top of his head! At Tommy’s surprise Santa Claus gave a laugh that made him shake all over like a bowl full of jelly, quite as Tommy had read he did in a poem he had learned the Christmas before, called “The Night Before Christmas, when all through the house.”
“That comes of knowing how to drive goats,” said Santa Claus. “Johnny knows a lot and I am going to give him a job, because he works so hard,” and with that Tommy’s boots suddenly jumped him into the sled, and Santa Claus stepped in behind him and pulled up a big robe over them.
“Here goes,” he said, and at the word they turned the corner, and there was a gate of ice that looked like the mirrored doors in Tommy’s mother’s room, which opened before them, and they dashed along between great piles of things, throwing them on both sides like snow from a sled-runner, and before Tommy knew it they were gliding along a road, which Tommy felt he had seen somewhere before, though he could not remember where. The houses on the roadside did not seem to have any front-walls at all, and everywhere the people within were working like beavers; some sewing, some cutting out, some sawing and hammering, all making something, all laughing or smiling. They were mostly dressed like grown-up people, but when they turned their faces they all looked young. Tommy was wondering why this was, when Santa Claus said that was because they were “Working for others. They grow young every Christmas. This is Christmas Land and Kindness Town.” They turned another corner and were whisking by a little house, inside of which was some one sewing for dear life on a jacket. Tommy knew the place by the little backyard.