Santa Claus, sure enough. Let's give the old fellow a surprise. Here! All hide behind the Chimney.

Very quickly, but very quietly, too, they all hide. The sleigh-bells come nearer and nearer, till they seem to be just outside: then they stop, and a voice, which plainly belongs to SANTA CLAUS, says: Whoa! Quiet, Prancer! Blitzen, stand still there!

And now Santa Claus himself appears, with his pack of toys. He walks to the middle of the roof, and sets down the pack.

It certainly is getting cold, says SANTA CLAUS to himself. For he does not see Jack Frost and the Snow Fairies, who are hidden behind the Chimney. He goes on talking: And what a lot of snow there is about here. It is really like the Christmas eves we used to have fifty years ago. My pack seems to be coming undone. He stoops to fix it. I should hate to have it burst open, while I was going down the Chimney.

Now the Snow Fairies have come out from behind the Chimney, and are stealing up behind him on tip-toe. When they are quite close, they throw great handfuls of snow at him. He starts up, surprised, but bursts into a great laugh:

Ho! ho! ho! This is a fine way to treat an old man! says SANTA CLAUS. Ho! ho! ho! ho! This is fine fun indeed! Hello, Jack Frost, is that you? And how are you, my little roley-poley snow-balls? White and light as ever, I see. And you've made me all white too, but not very light, I fear. Well, well, be off with you, for I must go down the Chimney.

He bows to the Chimney, whose eyes blink through the snow.

Good evening, my old friend, says SANTA CLAUS. YOU are enjoying good health, I hope. May I climb down inside of you as usual?

THE CHIMNEY answers, in a muffled voice, because he is so covered up with snow: Go ahead, Santa, I'm used to it.

So Santa Claus climbs to the top of the Chimney, steps over, and after throwing a kiss to the Snow Fairies, who return it, he goes down out of sight.

And that is the end of the First Scene.

THE INTERLUDE

Again, before the Second Scene begins, MOTHER GOOSE comes out in front of the curtain and this is what she says:

Well, my dears, I hope you are enjoying my little Play. And what do you suppose comes next? Wouldn't you like to see who lives down inside that house, where the chimney was; and what they were doing while Jack Frost and the others were up on the roof, and whether they heard the Wind Fairies; and whether they knew that the Snow Fairies had come; and how they came to make that mistake, lighting a fire in the fireplace where Santa Claus had come down? Well, that is just what the next scene is to be about. Last time we were up on the roof; this time we shall be down in the Room, in front of the fire-place. So be still and listen carefully, for now it is going to begin.

The Second Scene

When the curtain opens this time, you can see into the Room of the House, just as Mother Goose promised. Notice that on one side of the fire-place is a window with curtains drawn, on the other, a washstand with howl and pitcher. In front, on right and left, are two large beds. In the middle of the room, with her hack to the fire-place, the Grandmother is seated on a low chair, and about her in a half-circle on stools, sit the eight grandchildren, four girls and four boys, all in their night-clothes and wrappers.

ISABEL begins by asking: Grandmother, how old are you?

GRANDMOTHER replies: How old do you think, my dear?

ISABEL guesses: A hundred?

Almost, says GRANDMOTHER: Why, I can remember when all your mothers and fathers were little boys and girls like you. Your mother, Margaret and Sally, and your father, Jack and Tom and Helen, and your father, Isabel, and your mother, Ned and