"I'm glad it's a big stocking. One'll do for both of 'em."
It was late when they all went to bed, and there was so much fire in the fire-place they were half afraid to leave it, but Grandfather Vrooman said it was of no use to try and cover it up, and the room would be warm in the morning.
When they got up stairs, the children must all have been asleep, for there was not a sound from any room, and the older people went to bed on tiptoe, and they had tried hard to not so much as whisper on the stairs.
Chapter III.
Oh, how beautiful the country was when the gray dawn came next morning!—white and still in the dim and slowly growing light.
So still! But the stillest place was the one Bijah woke up in. He could not guess where he was at first, but he lay awhile and remembered.
"Santa Claus's house, and they're all real good. He's going to give me to somebody as soon as it's Christmas."
He got up very quickly and looked around him. It was not dark in the store-room, for there was a great square hole in the middle of the floor, and a glow of dull red light came up through it which almost made Bijah feel afraid.
There was his little gray suit of clothes, cap and all, close by his bed on the floor, and he put them on faster than he ever had done it before.
"Where's my other stocking?"