She says it all began when he came staggering in with his armful of wood and his blue mittens; and he? he doesn’t care at all when it began. He only realizes the joy that has come to him, and believes that after a certain day next May it will be Christmas for him all the year round.
IX
TREASURE TROVE; A CHRISTMAS STORY
Everybody in that part of the city knew Old Claus; that is, they knew him by sight; very few had ever spoken to him or heard his voice. The grocer and the provision man, and one or two others said he was civil enough to them, that his name was Jonathan R. Claus, spelt with a u, not a w, and that he paid his bills promptly. That was about all anybody knew of him.
What a surly, grim old man he was, as you met him on a cold winter’s afternoon on his way home from his marketing; his long white hair and beard blowing about his head, his forehead puckered into a frown, his stout cane striking the pavements as if he hated the very earth he walked on!
Grown people gave him the width of the sidewalk; children shouted after him,
“Old Claus,