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CHAPTER II

THE LITTLE ESKIMO

Following Santa Claus, his little men hurried into the North Pole shop. They were dancing and capering about, for they felt very lively after their rest, and they were ready to start again making toys, or finishing those half completed.

“Oh! Oh! Oh! Such a lot of trouble!” cried Santa Claus, but even this trouble could not keep the laughter out of his jolly voice. “Snow! Snow! Snow all over everything!” went on Saint Nicholas. “Who left the windows open so that all the flakes blew in?” he asked.

“I–I guess I did, Santa Claus,” replied one of the little men who wore a red cap. “I wanted some fresh air, for I was working over the paint pots, putting blue eyes in wax dolls, and the paint smell almost choked me. So I opened some windows.”

“I guess no great harm is done,” said Santa Claus, looking about. “It is so cold the snow hasn’t melted, and it is only melted snow that spoils toys. But I don’t see how the snow got all over the floor, as well as on the benches,” he added.

Ah, if Santa Claus had only seen the toys at play, throwing snowballs all about, and washing the faces of one another, he would have known how it happened. But even Santa Claus was not allowed to see the toys come to life and play.

“Get brooms, sweep up the snow, and close the windows,” called Saint Nicholas. “Get the shop ready to work in again, for we are going to be very busy. The Earth children want many toys this year, and we have not made nearly enough. Clean out the snow!”

With brooms, shovels, and brushes, the merry little men fell to work, and soon the shop of Santa Claus was as it should be, and as it had been before the storm. The windows, made of sheets of ice, were pulled down, and soon there was the hum of songs all through the shop, for the men of Santa Claus sang as they worked.

One of the men, as he pulled down the window near his bench, where he was making a lot of little animals for a Noah’s Ark, looked out through the pane of ice glass.

“What do you see?” asked the workman next him.

“Oh, one of those odd Eskimo children, all dressed in fur, was right under this window,” answered the other little man. “He must have been here when the windows were open. Maybe he wanted to see us making toys. Well, he won’t see any better toy than the Plush Bear I just finished,” said the little man proudly.

“No, indeed!” agreed the second little man. “But does Santa Claus know about these little Eskimo children coming around his workshop?” he asked.

“Oh, they never bother us,” was the answer. “Now we mustn’t talk any more, for we have many toys to make for the Earth children.”

So the little men became very busy–too busy to talk, though the Plush Bear heard them singing as they made toy after toy. The Plush Bear and the other playthings could hear what was said, though they could take no part in the talk while Santa Claus, or any of his men, were in the shop. And Santa Claus was there now, seeing that each one of his tiny elves made as many toys as possible.

“Well, we certainly had a good time for a while!” thought the Plush Bear to himself. “What fun that snowball fight was! I’d like another. I didn’t feel a bit cold!”

And no wonder. His coat of silk plush was as warm as the fur coat of a real bear. The Plush toy was looking straight at the Polar Bear and the big, white fellow seemed to be blinking his eyes at the other Bear.

All through the great North Pole workshop of Santa Claus the little men were busy, singing over their tasks. But they could not work all night and all day as well, so at last there came an hour when Santa Claus rang a bell and said: