Robinson Crusoe. I wish we had had one down on the island, Friday.
Santa Claus. Well, I have just got the connections made, and to-day I went to the Pole to spend the forenoon taking notes from school grounds in various parts of the country. And, to my utter astonishment, I heard children in each section of the nation all saying they did not believe in Santa Claus!
All. [Laughing.] Not believe in Santa Claus! How ridiculous!
Dame Rumor. Oh, Santa Claus, you don’t take that seriously, do you? Why, I have heard that gossip for years, and I have also heard people saying that they did not believe the story of George Washington chopping down the cherry-tree. And yet I used to know a lady who knew a lady whose cousin’s brother-in-law had a piece of cherry-pie made from cherries that grew on that tree before George ever had the hatchet,—yes, indeed!
William Tell. Santa, we are all in the same boat. Don’t let such remarks trouble your mind. It’s the fate of every popular character to be disbelieved. People have gone so far as to discredit me and the story of the shooting of the apple off little William’s head. Think of that!
Dame Rumor. Yes, William, I have heard that apple shooting contradicted, too, and wasn’t that charming song, “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree,” written in honor of a tree that sprang from some of those seeds that you shot out of the apple on little William’s head that day?
Pocahontas. Santa, you must not let such gibes hurt your feelings. My own existence has been denied over and over, notwithstanding John Smith’s testimony. One must simply live such things down.
Lo, the Poor Indian. [Solemnly.] Pocahontas is right, Santa. Don’t you know there is a theory among critics that I exist only in the pages of Cooper’s Indian stories? Think of just being shut up in a book all the time!
Pocahontas and
Lo! the poor Indian