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One Christmas eve Joel Baker was in a most unhappy mood. He was lonesome and miserable; the chimes making merry Christmas music outside disturbed rather than soothed him, the jingle of the sleigh-bells fretted him, and the shrill whistling of the wind around the corners of the house and up and down the chimney seemed to grate harshly on his ears.

“Humph,” said Joel, wearily, “Christmas is nothin’ to me; there was a time when it meant a great deal, but that was long ago–fifty years is a long stretch to look back over. There is nothin’ in Christmas now, nothin’ for me at least; it is so long since Santa Claus remembered me that I venture to say he has forgotten that there ever was such a person as Joel Baker in all the world. It used to be different; Santa Claus used to think a great deal of me when I was a boy. Ah! Christmas nowadays ain’t what it was in the good old time–no, not what it used to be.”

As Joel was absorbed in his distressing thoughts he became aware very suddenly that somebody was entering or trying to enter the room. First came a draught of cold air, then a scraping, grating sound, then a strange shuffling, and then,–yes, then, all at once, Joel saw a pair of fat legs and a still fatter body dangle down the chimney, followed presently by a long white beard, above which appeared a jolly red nose and two bright twinkling eyes, while over the head and forehead was drawn a fur cap, white with snowflakes.

“Ha, ha,” chuckled the fat, jolly stranger, emerging from the chimney and standing well to one side of the hearth-stone; “ha, ha, they don’t have the big, wide chimneys they used to build, but they can’t keep Santa Claus out–no, they can’t keep Santa Claus out! Ha, ha, ha. Though the chimney were no bigger than a gas pipe, Santa Claus would slide down it!”

It didn’t require a second glance to assure Joel that the new-comer was indeed Santa Claus. Joel knew the good old saint–oh, yes–and he had seen him once before, and, although that was when Joel was a little boy, he had never forgotten how Santa Claus looked.

Nor had Santa Claus forgotten Joel, although Joel thought he had; for now Santa Claus looked kindly at Joel and smiled and said: “Merry Christmas to you, Joel!”

“Thank you, old Santa Claus,” replied Joel, “but I don’t believe it’s going to be a very merry Christmas. It’s been so long since I’ve had a merry Christmas that I don’t believe I’d know how to act if I had one.”

“Let’s see,” said Santa Claus, “it must be going on fifty years since I saw you last–yes, you were eight years old the last time I slipped down the chimney of the old homestead and filled your stocking. Do you remember it?”

“I remember it well,” answered Joel. “I had made up my mind to lie awake and see Santa Claus; I had heard tell of you, but I’d never seen you, and Brother Otis and I concluded we’d lie awake and watch for you to come.”

Santa Claus shook his head reproachfully.

“That was very wrong,” said he, “for I’m so scarey that if I’d known you boys were awake I’d never have come down the chimney at all, and then you’d have had no presents.”

“But Otis couldn’t keep awake,” explained Joel. “We talked about everythin’ we could think of, till father called out to us that if we didn’t stop talking he’d have to send one of us up into the attic to sleep with the hired man. So in less than five minutes Otis was sound asleep and no pinching could wake him up. But I was bound to see Santa Claus and I don’t believe anything would’ve put me to sleep. I heard the big clock in the sitting-room strike eleven, and I had begun wonderin’ if you never were going to come, when all of a sudden I heard the tinkle of the bells around your reindeers’ necks. Then I heard the reindeers prancin’ on the roof and the sound of your sleigh-runners cuttin’ through the crust and slippin’ over the shingles. I was kind o’ scared and I covered my head up with the sheet and quilts–only I left a little hole so I could peek out and see what was goin’ on. As soon as I saw you I got over bein’ scared–for you were jolly and smilin’ like, and you chuckled as you went around to each stockin’ and filled it up.”