FOR THE CHILDREN.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 December 1921, Page 4 (Supplement)

FOR THE CHILDREN.

SANTA CLAUS AND HIS DEPUTY. (Specially written for the News.) I met a little girl one Christmas eve. She looked as happy as happy could be. She had a Christmas stocking in her hand, and her face just beamed. Someone had told her “Santa Claus was only make believe;” but she told me he was alive, and she had seen him come down the chimney with a big bundle on his back. She called it the “chimbely.” But Vera was only a little girl and had lived in India, where they have no “chimbelies.” But the real joy was that Santa Claus is not a make believe. He is “all alive o,” as the fish man says. Still 1 was puzzled to know how Santa Claus could possibly visit so many houses the same night, and carry such heaps of things to such a lot of people. Now the secret is out. He employs a number of deputies. If you don’t know what a “deputy” is, look in the dictionary, and you will find it means “an agent,” or “a substitute.” Santa Claus uses others to help him. Here is the story of one of his “deputies.” It happened in America, where the sky is steely blue, and the ground is frosty white, and the air is nippy cold, at Christmas. That is fine if- you have furs, and an overcoat, and your hands are buried in a cosy muft, or warm gloves; but isn't nice if your clothes are tattered and cobwebby, and your hands are red and sored with chilblains. Well there were two girls riding in a train; one was poor. There seemed nothing she did not lack. Her coat was ragged and thread-bare, and the hole in her thin shoes invited the slush to come in out of the wet! The other girl was well off. The poor child feasted her eyes on the other, not because she had fine clothes, but' because she had a splendid Christmas doll in her arms. The poor child never took her eyes off the doll. Her heart was starving for a doll like that. Then the train stopped, and the girl with the doll passed right in front of the other. The doll was near enough to touch, and her dingy fingers stole out for a brief caress, and the well-off girl said, “Santa Claus brought her,” and the poor child watched her down the platform. Poor wee mite!

When the train started again, a woman crossed over to the poor child, and sat down beside her, and smiling said: “Why this is the little girl Santa Clause spoke to me about. He was so sorry he hadn’t time to bring the doll he meant for you, and he asked me to find you and give you this. He wants you to go with me to the shop and buy your own dolly.”

The poor child could hardly believe her ears. She looked timidly up into the fact that smiled on her, and she closed her fingers tightly on the dollar piece which the woman held out. Her mother’s face brightened, too, for it had hurt her to think she had no Christmas gift for her child. Then the three got out at the next station and. went to the nearest store.

Now that I have found out Santa Claus’ secret, I mean to ask him to let me be one of his deputies, not only on Christmas eve, but all the year. I hope he will accept me. A CHRISTMAS PRESENT. FOR THE CHILDHEN. Christmas will soon be here, and Christmas means lots of good things, including Christmas gifts, and Christmas cards and Christmas carols. I hope Father Christmas will visit you. I expect he will, for he is a kind old fellow, and he is specially kind to children. Mind you hang up your stocking, and keep the chimney clean! Christmas means singing carols, too, and this is the 'story of one of the best of them. It was a Christmas gift to a little girl more than 200 years ago. The child’s name was Dolly Byrom. Her father used to romp and play with his little daughter. Just before Christmas, they were playing games, and talking together, about Christmas gifts. I am not quite sure, but I think she asked her father what he was going to give her. Anyway Mr. Byrom promised to write her a Christmas hymn, all for her very own. Dolly was quite satisfied, and kept reminding him of his promise. On Christmas morning, when she came down to breakfast, there were several parcels, by her plate; and one of them was a package carefully folded, and her name written in her father’s handwriting. She opened this first, and a sheet of paper with these words written on the top: “CHRISTMAS DAY FOR DOLLY.” Then followed the hymn, which begins: Christians awake! Salute the happy morn, Where on the Saviour of Mankind was horn. Rise to adore the mystery of love, Which hosts of angels chanted from above; With them the joyful tidings first begun. Of God Incarnate, of the Virgin’s Son. The rest of the hymn you will find in your church book. If you go to Manchester, and visit “the Cheltham Hospital,” you will find the identical sheet of paper, for it is kept in the library there. It is crumpled and yellow, for Dolly carried it about in her pocket. Next time you sing that noble hymn, I want you to remember how it was written. One thing I like about Dolly, is that she was not selfish. She did not keep the gift all to herself. She gave it to a newspaper man, who printed it, and then someone else wrote music for it, so that other girls and boys have been able to share it. The best Christmas gifts are those we share with others, especially with the unfortunate and the poor. The little Lord Jesus was God’s first Christmas gift—the best the world ever had, for He was God giving Himself as a present to everybody.