Miss Santa Claus of the Pullman

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


Miss Santa Claus _Frontispiece_

PAGE
"Oh, dear Santa Claus" 19

"Here!" he said 29

"Oh, rabbit _dravy_!" he cried 57

He pushed aside the red plush curtain and looked in 69

And ran after the boy as hard as she could go 77

It was about the Princess Ina 99

The shower of stars falling on the blanket made her
think of the star-flower 121

"Take it back!" 165





MISS SANTA CLAUS OF

THE PULLMAN




CHAPTER I


THE last half hour had seemed endless to Will'm, almost as long as the
whole four years of his life. With his stubby little shoes drawn up
under him, and his soft bobbed hair flapping over his ears every time
the rockers tilted forward, he sat all alone in the sitting-room behind
the shop, waiting and rocking.

It seemed as if everybody at the Junction wanted something that
afternoon; thread or buttons or yarn, or the home-made doughnuts which
helped out the slim stock of goods in the little notion store which had
once been the parlor. And it seemed as if Grandma Neal never would
finish waiting on the customers and come back to tell the rest of the
story about the Camels and the Star; for no sooner did one person go out
than another one came in. He knew by the tinkling of the bell over the
front door, every time it opened or shut.

The door between the shop and sitting-room being closed, Will'm could
not hear much that was said, but several times he caught the word
"Christmas," and once somebody said "_Santa Claus_," in such a loud
happy-sounding voice that he slipped down from the chair and ran across
the room to open the door a crack. It was only lately that he had begun
to hear much about Santa Claus. Not until Libby started to school that
fall did they know that there is such a wonderful person in the world.
Of course they had heard his name, as they had heard Jack Frost's, and
had seen his picture in story-books and advertisements, but they hadn't
known that he is really true till the other children told Libby. Now
nearly every day she came home with something new she had learned about
him.

Will'm must have known always about Christmas though, for he still had a
piece of a rubber dog which his father had sent him on his first one,
and--a Teddy Bear on his second. And while he couldn't recall anything
about those first two festivals except what Libby told him, he could
remember the last one perfectly. There had been a sled, and a
fire-engine that wound up with a key, and Grandma Neal had made him some
cooky soldiers with red cinnamon-drop buttons on their coats.

She wasn't his own grandmother, but she had taken the place of one to
Libby and him, all the years he had been in the world. Their father paid
their board, to be sure, and sent them presents and came to see them at
long intervals when he could get away from his work, but that was so
seldom that Will'm did not feel very well acquainted with him; not so
well as Libby did. She was three years older, and could even remember a
little bit about their mother before she went off to heaven to get well.
Mrs. Neal wasn't like a real grandmother in many ways. She was almost
too young, for one thing. She was always very brisk and very busy, and,
as she frequently remarked, she meant what she said and _she would be
minded_.

That is why Will'm turned the knob so softly that no one noticed for a
moment that the door was ajar. A black-bearded man in a rough overcoat
was examining a row of dolls which dangled by their necks from a line
above the show case. He was saying jokingly: