“I’m almost ready,” quoth he, quoth he,

“And Christmas is almost here;

But one thing more—I must write a book,

And give to each one this year.”

So he clapped his specks on his little round nose,

And seizing the stump of a pen,

He wrote more lines in one little hour

Than you ever could read in ten.

He told them stories all pretty and new,

And wrote them all out in rhyme;