Charley laughed when he saw him,
In spite of himself;
While a wink of his eye,
A twist of his head,
Soon gave him to know
He had nothing to dread.”
Charles was excessively delighted, and shouted so loud that his mother thought he had the nightmare. He watched the old gentleman closely, and then looked at his stocking. It hung very conveniently. “He can’t put the pony in it,” said he to himself; “that’s a pity.”
The old gentleman’s pockets stuck out prodigiously, and he panted and puffed as if he had been cudgelling an alligator.
“Well,” said he, wiping the perspiration off his face, although it was the 25th of December, “if this is not hard work. Eighty-five youngsters have I called on the last hour. Hark! St. Michael’s sounds loud down the chimney. One, two. I shall have a tough job, from two o’clock till daylight, popping down the chimneys from the Battery to the High bridge. I wonder what this