Santa Claus. Well, some boys were talking in a school yard in Chicago, and one of them said loudly: “You can’t fool me. There isn’t any Santa Claus, and there never was. He is nothing but a picture in the books, like Uncle Sam!” And he was a boy with a pair of mittens on his hands that I’d given him last Christmas. He was that curly-haired boy I think, Jennie, that you’ve been knitting mittens for ten years, each year a size larger.
Jennie. Oh, isn’t he ungrateful? And here I have another pair almost finished for him this year, too. [Holds up red mittens.]
Jack. I’ll give that fellow a nip yet. I’ll make him believe in me, anyhow!
Mother Goose. Those certainly were cruel speeches, Santa. But let us hear the worst. What else did they say?
Santa Claus. Some little girls in Los Angeles were at the school gate and I heard one saying, “Oh, Santa Claus will do for babies. But when you are seven you ought to say he’s just make-believe, like the Sand Man and such folks.”
Mother Goose. I don’t wonder you feel hurt, Santa, after all your kindness to children. But you must remember that these were only three out of all the school yards in the country. There must be hundreds of other children who do believe in you. Perhaps these just happened to be the few who don’t believe in fairies, either. There are some such strange children I have heard.
Jennie. Oh, Peter Pan will convince those foolish children who don’t believe in fairies.
Mother Goose. Never mind, Santa. I am sure there cannot be many children of that unbelieving kind. But I wish you had never had your wireless rigged up. It seems only to make you unhappy.
Santa Claus. [Sighing.] It has made me unhappy. I never felt so sad in all my life before. I shall order the wireless telegraph discontinued to-morrow. I shall give up the wireless line and the Christmas business altogether—Dear me, how lonesome I shall be for the children!
Mother Goose. I shall not be sorry to have you give up the wireless line, Santa. I can’t bear to think of your stopping this lovely custom of gift-giving. You have made so many children happy, and so many little believing hearts will miss you.