He searched and searched, but it was of no use, and he said, "I can't run away in the snow with a bare foot."
"HE CRAWLED FORWARD, AND LOOKED DOWN THROUGH THE SCUTTLE HOLE."
He had been getting braver and braver, now he was wide awake, and he crawled forward and looked down through the scuttle hole. He knew that room in a minute, but he had to look twice before he knew the tree.
"Ever so many stockings! And they're all full. Look at those sleds! Oh my!"
Whichever way he looked, he saw something wonderful, and he began to get excited.
"I can climb down. It's just like going down stairs."
It was just about as safe and easy, with all those branches under him, and all he had to do was to sit on one, and get ready to sit on the next one below him. He got about half way down, and there was the grain bag, with its mouth wide open. Just beyond it on the same bough, but further out, there hung a very small stocking indeed.
"That's mine!" exclaimed Bijah. "It's cram full, too. They've borrowed it, after all theirs were full. I want it to put on now, but I can't reach it out there."
Just then he began to hear noises up stairs, and other noises in the rooms below—shouts and stamping, and people calling to one another—and he could not make out what they were saying.