“Oh dear, dear!” cried Santa Claus, in much distress. “Is it really as bad as that! I never should have thought you could find so many grumbly people in a town full of pleasant things, with so much to make them happy! I suppose I ought to give them a severe lesson to check this terrible habit, but I’m afraid, Dame, that I should quite spoil my own Christmas pleasure if I were to pass them all by!
“What can be done about it? Don’t you think we might let them off this time with a warning? I’m sure you must already have given them a pretty good scolding, for it seems to me you are getting to be quite a grumbler yourself, and I have no doubt you have been lecturing them all along the way.”
“Indeed I have!” replied the dame, “and a thankless job it was! They’re a troublesome lot, I tell you, and you’d better not let them off too easily! But, of course, you must suit yourself.”
“Oh dear! Oh dear!” cried Santa Claus again, as he tried to look sternly at the unhappy grumblers. “This is very sad—very sad indeed! It is too near Christmas for any one even to look cross, to say nothing of scolding!” And here his round face broke into a broad smile, and all the grumblers smiled, too.
“See, Dame Quimp!” cried he, eagerly, “these poor people are all in a good temper already, and I feel sure that, if I trust them, they will try very hard not to be grumblers any longer. Is it not so, my friends?”
And Farmer Jones, the milliner’s little daughter, the baker’s boy, the grocer’s clerk, the doctor’s cook, little Tommy Brooks, the shoemaker’s wife, the minister’s twin grandchildren, the banker’s Dorothy, and the barber’s grandmother, all promptly answered, “Yes!”
“Now hurry home as fast as you can,” said Santa Claus, giving them each a big stick of candy. “You have been gone so long that your friends will be anxiously wondering where you are. Dame Quimp and the barber’s grandmother will wait and have a cup of tea with me, and I will take them home in my sleigh a little later.”
There was a perfect chorus of thanks and promises, a beaming smile from Santa Claus, a reluctant grunt of farewell from Dame Quimp, and each member of the grumbler procession set out at best speed on the return trip.
It was late when they all reached home, but, strange to say, with the exception of the doctor’s cook, the baker’s boy, and the grocer’s clerk, not one of them had been missed, for the various friends and relations had been having such a delightfully quiet and restful afternoon that they had forgotten all about the departed grumblers.
[13] Reprinted by permission of the author and “St. Nicholas Magazine.”