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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43763 ***
+
+Snap-Dragons
+Old Father Christmas
+By J.H. Ewing
+Illustrations by Gordon Browne
+Published by Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
+
+Snap-Dragons, by J.H. Ewing.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+SNAP-DRAGONS, BY J.H. EWING.
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+MR AND MRS SKRATDJ.
+
+Once upon a time there lived a certain family of the name of Skratdj.
+(It has a Russian or Polish look, and yet they most certainly lived in
+England.)  They were remarkable for the following peculiarity.  They
+seldom seriously quarrelled, but they never agreed about anything.  It
+is hard to say whether it were more painful for their friends to hear
+them constantly contradicting each other, or gratifying to discover that
+it "meant nothing," and was "only their way."
+
+It began with the father and mother.  They were a worthy couple, and
+really attached to each other.  But they had a habit of contradicting
+each other's statements, and opposing each other's opinions, which,
+though mutually understood and allowed for in private, was most trying
+to the by-standers in public.  If one related an anecdote, the other
+would break in with half-a-dozen corrections of trivial details of no
+interest or importance to anyone, the speakers included.  For instance:
+Suppose the two dining in a strange house, and Mrs Skratdj seated by
+the host, and contributing to the small-talk of the dinner-table.
+Thus:--
+
+"Oh yes.  Very changeable weather indeed.  It looked quite promising
+yesterday morning in the town, but it began to rain at noon."
+
+"A quarter past eleven, my dear," Mr Skratdj's voice would be heard to
+say from several chairs down, in the corrective tones of a husband and a
+father; "and really, my dear, so far from being a promising morning, I
+must say it looked about as threatening as it well could.  Your memory
+is not always accurate in small matters, my love."  But Mrs Skratdj had
+not been a wife and a mother for fifteen years, to be snuffed out at one
+snap of the marital snuffers.  As Mr Skratdj leaned forward in his
+chair, she leaned forward in hers, and defended herself across the
+intervening couples.
+
+"Why, my dear Mr Skratdj, you said yourself the weather had not been so
+promising for a week."
+
+"What I said, my dear, pardon me, was that the barometer was higher than
+it had been for a week.  But, as you might have observed if these
+details were in your line, my love, which they are not, the rise was
+extraordinarily rapid, and there is no surer sign of unsettled
+weather.--But Mrs Skratdj is apt to forget these unimportant trifles,"
+he added, with a comprehensive smile round the dinner-table; "her
+thoughts are very properly absorbed by the more important domestic
+questions of the nursery."
+
+"Now I think that's rather unfair on Mr Skratdj's part," Mrs Skratdj
+would chirp, with a smile quite as affable and as general as her
+husband's.  "I'm sure he's _quite_ as forgetful and inaccurate as _I_
+am.  And I don't think _my_ memory is at _all_ a bad one."
+
+"You forgot the dinner hour when we were going out to dine last week,
+nevertheless," said Mr Skratdj.
+
+"And you couldn't help me when I asked you," was the sprightly retort.
+"And I'm sure it's not like you to forget anything about _dinner_, my
+dear."
+
+"The letter was addressed to you," said Mr Skratdj.
+
+"I sent it to you by Jemima," said Mrs Skratdj.
+
+"I didn't read it," said Mr Skratdj.
+
+"Well, you burnt it," said Mrs Skratdj; "and, as I always say, there's
+nothing more foolish than burning a letter of invitation before the day,
+for one is certain to forget."
+
+"I've no doubt you always do say it," Mr Skratdj remarked, with a
+smile, "but I certainly never remember to have heard the observation
+from your lips, my love."
+
+"Whose memory's in fault there?" asked Mrs Skratdj triumphantly; and as
+at this point the ladies rose, Mrs Skratdj had the last word.
+
+Indeed, as may be gathered from this conversation, Mrs Skratdj was
+quite able to defend herself.  When she was yet a bride, and young and
+timid, she used to collapse when Mr Skratdj contradicted her
+statements, and set her stories straight in public.  Then she hardly
+ever opened her lips without disappearing under the domestic
+extinguisher.  But in the course of fifteen years she had learned that
+Mr Skratdj's bark was a great deal worse than his bite.  (If, indeed,
+he had a bite at all.)  Thus snubs that made other people's ears tingle,
+had no effect whatever on the lady to whom they were addressed, for she
+knew exactly what they were worth, and had by this time become fairly
+adept at snapping in return.  In the days when she succumbed she was
+occasionally unhappy, but now she and her husband understood each other,
+and having agreed to differ, they unfortunately agreed also to differ in
+public.
+
+Indeed, it was the by-standers who had the worst of it on these
+occasions.  To the worthy couple themselves the habit had become second
+nature, and in no way affected the friendly tenour of their domestic
+relations.  They would interfere with each other's conversation,
+contradicting assertions, and disputing conclusions for a whole evening;
+and then, when all the world and his wife thought that these ceaseless
+sparks of bickering must blaze up into a flaming quarrel as soon as they
+were alone, they would bowl amicably home in a cab, criticising the
+friends who were commenting upon them, and as little agreed about the
+events of the evening as about the details of any other events whatever.
+
+Yes.  The by-standers certainly had the worst of it.  Those who were
+near wished themselves anywhere else, especially when appealed to.
+Those who were at a distance did not mind so much.  A domestic squabble
+at a certain distance is interesting, like an engagement viewed from a
+point beyond the range of guns.  In such a position one may some day be
+placed oneself!  Moreover, it gives a touch of excitement to a dull
+evening to be able to say _sotto voce_ to one's neighbour, "Do listen!
+The Skratdjs are at it again!"  Their unmarried friends thought a
+terrible abyss of tyranny and aggravation must lie beneath it all, and
+blessed their stars that they were still single, and able to tell a tale
+their own way.  The married ones had more idea of how it really was, and
+wished in the name of common sense and good taste that Skratdj and his
+wife would not make fools of themselves.
+
+So it went on, however; and so, I suppose, it goes on still, for not
+many bad habits are cured in middle age.
+
+On certain questions of comparative speaking their views were never
+identical.  Such as the temperature being hot or cold, things being
+light or dark, the apple-tarts being sweet or sour.  So one day Mr
+Skratdj came into the room, rubbing his hands, and planting himself at
+the fire with "Bitterly cold it is to-day, to be sure."
+
+"Why, my dear William," said Mrs Skratdj, "I'm sure you must have got a
+cold; I feel a fire quite oppressive myself."
+
+"You were wishing you'd a seal-skin jacket yesterday, when it wasn't
+half as cold as it is to-day," said Mr Skratdj.
+
+"My dear William!  Why, the children were shivering the whole day, and
+the wind was in the north."
+
+"Due east, Mrs Skratdj."
+
+"I know by the smoke," said Mrs Skratdj, softly but decidedly.
+
+"I fancy I can tell an east wind when I feel it," said Mr Skratdj,
+jocosely, to the company.
+
+"I told Jemima to look at the weathercock," murmured Mrs Skratdj.
+
+"I don't care a fig for Jemima," said her husband.
+
+On another occasion Mrs Skratdj and a lady friend were conversing.
+
+...  "We met him at the Smiths'--a gentlemanlike agreeable man, about
+forty," said Mrs Skratdj, in reference to some matter interesting to
+both ladies.
+
+"Not a day over thirty-five," said Mr Skratdj, from behind his
+newspaper.
+
+"Why, my dear William, his hair's grey," said Mrs Skratdj.
+
+"Plenty of men are grey at thirty," said Mr Skratdj.  "I knew a man who
+was grey at twenty-five."
+
+"Well, forty or thirty-five, it doesn't much matter," said Mrs Skratdj,
+about to resume her narration.
+
+"Five years matter a good deal to most people at thirty-five," said Mr
+Skratdj, as he walked towards the door.  "They would make a remarkable
+difference to me, I know;" and with a jocular air Mr Skratdj departed,
+and Mrs Skratdj had the rest of the anecdote her own way.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE LITTLE SKRATDJS.
+
+The Spirit of Contradiction finds a place in most nurseries, though to a
+very varying degree in different ones.  Children snap and snarl by
+nature, like young puppies; and most of us can remember taking part in
+some such spirited dialogues as the following:--
+
+"I will."  "You daren't."
+
+"You can't."  "I dare."
+
+"You shall."  "I'll tell Mamma."
+
+"I won't."  "I don't care if you do."
+
+It is the part of wise parents to repress these squibs and crackers of
+juvenile contention, and to enforce that slowly-learned lesson, that in
+this world one must often "pass over" and "put up with" things in other
+people, being oneself by no means perfect.  Also that it is a kindness,
+and almost a duty, to let people think and say and do things in their
+own way occasionally.
+
+But even if Mr and Mrs Skratdj had ever thought of teaching all this
+to their children, it must be confessed that the lesson would not have
+come with a good grace from either of them, since they snapped and
+snarled between themselves as much or more than their children in the
+nursery.
+
+The two eldest were the leaders in the nursery squabbles.  Between
+these, a boy and a girl, a ceaseless war of words was waged from morning
+to night.  And as neither of them lacked ready wit, and both were in
+constant practice, the art of snapping was cultivated by them to the
+highest pitch.
+
+It began at breakfast, if not sooner.
+
+"You've taken my chair."
+
+"It's not your chair."
+
+"You know it's the one I like, and it was in my place."
+
+"How do you know it was in your place?"
+
+"Never mind.  I do know."
+
+"No, you don't."
+
+"Yes, I do."
+
+"Suppose I say it was in my place."
+
+"You can't, for it wasn't."
+
+"I can, if I like."
+
+"Well, was it?"
+
+"I sha'n't tell you."
+
+"Ah! that shews it wasn't."
+
+"No, it doesn't."
+
+"Yes, it does."
+
+Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
+
+The direction of their daily walks was a fruitful subject of difference
+of opinion.
+
+"Let's go on the Common to-day, Nurse."
+
+"Oh, don't let's go there; we're always going on the Common."
+
+"I'm sure we're not.  We've not been there for ever so long."
+
+"Oh, what a story!  We were there on Wednesday.  Let's go down Gipsey
+Lane.  We never go down Gipsey Lane."
+
+"Why, we're always going down Gipsey Lane.  And there's nothing to see
+there."
+
+"I don't care.  I won't go on the Common, and I shall go and get Papa to
+say we're to go down Gipsey Lane.  I can run faster than you."
+
+"That's very sneaking; but I don't care."
+
+"Papa!  Papa!  Polly's called me a sneak."
+
+"No, I didn't, Papa."
+
+"You did."
+
+"No, I didn't.  I only said it was sneaking of you to say you'd run
+faster than me, and get Papa to say we were to go down Gipsey Lane."
+
+"Then you did call him sneaking," said Mr Skratdj.  "And you're a very
+naughty ill-mannered little girl.  You're getting very troublesome,
+Polly, and I shall have to send you to school, where you'll be kept in
+order.  Go where your brother wishes at once."
+
+For Polly and her brother had reached an age when it was convenient, if
+possible, to throw the blame of all nursery differences on Polly.  In
+families where domestic discipline is rather fractious than firm, there
+comes a stage when the girls almost invariably go to the wall, because
+they will stand snubbing, and the boys will not.  Domestic authority,
+like some other powers, is apt to be magnified on the weaker class.
+
+But Mr Skratdj would not always listen even to Harry.
+
+"If you don't give it me back directly, I'll tell about your eating the
+two magnum-bonums in the kitchen garden on Sunday," said Master Harry on
+one occasion.
+
+  "Tell-tale tit!
+  Your tongue shall be slit,
+  And every dog in the town shall have a little bit,"
+
+quoted his sister.
+
+"Ah!  You've called me a tell-tale.  Now I'll go and tell Papa.  You got
+into a fine scrape for calling me names the other day."
+
+"Go, then!  I don't care."
+
+"You wouldn't like me to go, I know."
+
+"You daren't.  That's what it is."
+
+"I dare."
+
+"Then why don't you?"
+
+"Oh, I am going; but you'll see what will be the end of it."
+
+Polly, however, had her own reasons for remaining stolid, and Harry
+started.  But when he reached the landing he paused.  Mr Skratdj had
+especially announced that morning that he did not wish to be disturbed,
+and though he was a favourite, Harry had no desire to invade the
+dining-room at this crisis.  So he returned to the nursery, and said
+with a magnanimous air, "I don't want to get you into a scrape, Polly.
+If you'll beg my pardon I won't go."
+
+"I'm sure I sha'n't," said Polly, who was equally well informed as to
+the position of affairs at head-quarters.  "Go, if you dare."
+
+"I won't if you want me not," said Harry, discreetly waiving the
+question of apologies.
+
+"But I'd rather you went," said the obdurate Polly.  "You're always
+telling tales.  Go and tell now, if you're not afraid."
+
+So Harry went.  But at the bottom of the stairs he lingered again, and
+was meditating how to return with most credit to his dignity, when
+Polly's face appeared through the banisters, and Polly's sharp tongue
+goaded him on.
+
+"Ah!  I see you.  You're stopping.  You daren't go."
+
+"I dare," said Harry; and at last he went.
+
+As he turned the handle of the door, Mr Skratdj turned round.
+
+"Please, Papa--" Harry began.
+
+"Get away with you!" cried Mr Skratdj.  "Didn't I tell you I was not to
+be disturbed this morning?  What an extraor--"
+
+But Harry had shut the door, and withdrawn precipitately.
+
+Once outside, he returned to the nursery with dignified steps, and an
+air of apparent satisfaction, saying,--
+
+"You're to give me the bricks, please."
+
+"Who says so?"
+
+"Why, who should say so?  Where have I been, pray?"
+
+"I don't know, and I don't care."
+
+"I've been to Papa.  There!"
+
+"Did he say I was to give up the bricks?"
+
+"I've told you."
+
+"No, you've not."
+
+"I sha'n't tell you any more."
+
+"Then I'll go to Papa and ask."
+
+"Go by all means."
+
+"I won't if you'll tell me truly."
+
+"I sha'n't tell you anything.  Go and ask, if you dare," said Harry,
+only too glad to have the tables turned.
+
+Polly's expedition met with the same fate, and she attempted to cover
+her retreat in a similar manner.
+
+"Ah! you didn't tell."
+
+"I don't believe you asked Papa."
+
+"Don't you?  Very well!"
+
+"Well, did you?"
+
+"Never mind."
+
+Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
+
+Meanwhile Mr Skratdj scolded Mrs Skratdj for not keeping the children
+in better order.  And Mrs Skratdj said it was quite impossible to do
+so, when Mr Skratdj spoilt Harry as he did, and weakened her (Mrs
+Skratdj's) authority by constant interference.
+
+Difference of sex gave point to many of these nursery squabbles, as it
+so often does to domestic broils.
+
+"Boys never will do what they're asked," Polly would complain.
+
+"Girls ask such unreasonable things," was Harry's retort.
+
+"Not half so unreasonable as the things you ask."
+
+"Ah! that's a different thing!  Women have got to do what men tell them,
+whether it's reasonable or not."
+
+"No, they've not!" said Polly.  "At least, that's only husbands and
+wives."
+
+"All women are inferior animals," said Harry.
+
+"Try ordering Mamma to do what you want, and see!" said Polly.
+
+"Men have got to give orders, and women have to obey," said Harry,
+falling back on the general principle, "And when I get a wife, I'll take
+care I make her do what I tell her.  But you'll have to obey your
+husband when you get one."
+
+"I won't have a husband, and then I can do as I like."
+
+"Oh, won't you?  You'll try to get one, I know.  Girls always want to be
+married."
+
+"I'm sure I don't know why," said Polly; "they must have had enough of
+men if they have brothers."
+
+And so they went on, _ad infinitum_, with ceaseless arguments that
+proved nothing and convinced nobody, and a continual stream of
+contradiction that just fell short of downright quarrelling.
+
+Indeed, there was a kind of snapping even less near to a dispute than in
+the cases just mentioned.  The little Skratdjs, like some other
+children, were under the unfortunate delusion that it sounds clever to
+hear little boys and girls snap each other up with smart sayings, and
+old and rather vulgar play upon words, such as:
+
+"I'll give you a Christmas box.  Which ear will you have it on?"
+
+"I won't stand it."
+
+"Pray take a chair."
+
+"You shall have it to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow never comes."
+
+And so if a visitor kindly began to talk to one of the children, another
+was sure to draw near and "take up" all the first child's answers, with
+smart comments, and catches that sounded as silly as they were tiresome
+and impertinent.
+
+And ill-mannered as this was, Mr and Mrs Skratdj never put a stop to
+it.  Indeed, it was only a caricature of what they did themselves.  But
+they often said, "We can't think how it is the children are always
+squabbling!"
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE SKRATDJ'S DOG AND THE HOT-TEMPERED GENTLEMAN.
+
+It is wonderful how the state of mind of a whole household is influenced
+by the heads of it.  Mr Skratdj was a very kind master, and Mrs
+Skratdj was a very kind mistress, and yet their servants lived in a
+perpetual fever of irritability that just fell short of discontent.
+They jostled each other on the back stairs, said sharp things in the
+pantry, and kept up a perennial warfare on the subject of the duty of
+the sexes with the general man-servant.  They gave warning on the
+slightest provocation.
+
+The very dog was infected by the snapping mania.  He was not a brave
+dog, he was not a vicious dog, and no high-breeding sanctioned his
+pretensions to arrogance.  But like his owners, he had contracted a bad
+habit, a trick, which made him the pest of all timid visitors, and
+indeed of all visitors whatsoever.
+
+The moment anyone approached the house, on certain occasions when he was
+spoken to, and often in no traceable connection with any cause at all,
+Snap the mongrel would rush out, and bark in his little sharp
+voice--"Yap! yap! yap!"  If the visitor made a stand, he would bound
+away sideways on his four little legs; but the moment the visitor went
+on his way again, Snap was at his heels--"Yap! yap! yap!"  He barked at
+the milkman, the butcher's boy, and the baker, though he saw them every
+day.  He never got used to the washerwoman, and she never got used to
+him.  She said he "put her in mind of that there black dog in the
+Pilgrim's Progress."  He sat at the gate in summer, and yapped at every
+vehicle and every pedestrian who ventured to pass on the high road.  He
+never but once had the chance of barking at burglars; and then, though
+he barked long and loud, nobody got up, for they said, "It's only Snap's
+way."  The Skratdjs lost a silver teapot, a Stilton cheese, and two
+electro christening mugs, on this occasion; and Mr and Mrs Skratdj
+dispute who it was who discouraged reliance on Snap's warning to the
+present day.
+
+One Christmas-time, a certain hot-tempered gentleman came to visit the
+Skratdjs.  A tall, sandy, energetic young man, who carried his own bag
+from the railway.  The bag had been crammed rather than packed, after
+the wont of bachelors; and you could see where the heel of a boot
+distended the leather, and where the bottle of shaving-cream lay.
+
+As he came up to the house, out came Snap as usual--"Yap! yap! yap!"
+Now the gentleman was very fond of dogs, and had borne this greeting
+some dozen of times from Snap, who for his part knew the visitor quite
+as well as the washerwoman, and rather better than the butcher's boy.
+The gentleman had good, sensible, well-behaved dogs of his own, and was
+greatly disgusted with Snap's conduct.  Nevertheless he spoke friendly
+to him; and Snap, who had had many a bit from his plate, could not help
+stopping for a minute to lick his hand.  But no sooner did the gentleman
+proceed on his way, than Snap flew at his heels in the usual fashion--
+
+"Yap!  Yap!  Yap!"
+
+On which the gentleman--being hot-tempered, and one of those people with
+whom it is (as they say) a word and a blow, and the blow first--made a
+dash at Snap, and Snap taking to his heels, the gentleman flung his
+carpet-bag after him.  The bottle of shaving-cream hit upon a stone and
+was smashed.  The heel of the boot caught Snap on the back, and sent him
+squealing to the kitchen.  And he never barked at that gentleman again.
+
+If the gentleman disapproved of Snap's conduct, he still less liked the
+continual snapping of the Skratdj family themselves.  He was an old
+friend of Mr and Mrs Skratdj, however, and knew that they were really
+happy together, and that it was only a bad habit which made them
+constantly contradict each other.  It was in allusion to their real
+affection for each other, and their perpetual disputing, that he called
+them the "Snapping Turtles."
+
+When the war of words waxed hottest at the dinner-table between his host
+and hostess, he would drive his hands through his shock of sandy hair,
+and say, with a comical glance out of his umber eyes, "Don't flirt, my
+friends.  It makes a bachelor feel awkward."
+
+And neither Mr nor Mrs Skratdj could help laughing.
+
+With the little Skratdjs his measures were more vigorous.  He was very
+fond of children, and a good friend to them.  He grudged no time or
+trouble to help them in their games and projects, but he would not
+tolerate their snapping up each other's words in his presence.  He was
+much more truly kind than many visitors, who think it polite to smile at
+the sauciness and forwardness which ignorant vanity leads children so
+often to "shew off" before strangers.  These civil acquaintances only
+abuse both children and parents behind their backs, for the very bad
+habits which they help to encourage.
+
+The hot-tempered gentleman's treatment of his young friends was very
+different.  One day he was talking to Polly, and making some kind
+inquiries about her lessons, to which she was replying in a quiet and
+sensible fashion, when up came Master Harry, and began to display his
+wit by comments on the conversation, and by snapping at and
+contradicting his sister's remarks, to which she retorted; and the usual
+snap-dialogue went on as usual.
+
+"Then you like music," said the hot-tempered gentleman.
+
+"Yes, I like it very much," said Polly.
+
+"Oh, do you?"  Harry broke in.  "Then what are you always crying over it
+for?"
+
+"I'm not always crying over it."
+
+"Yes, you are."
+
+"No, I'm not.  I only cry sometimes, when I stick fast."
+
+"Your music must be very sticky, for you're always stuck fast."
+
+"Hold your tongue!" said the hot-tempered gentleman.
+
+With what he imagined to be a very waggish air, Harry put out his
+tongue, and held it with his finger and thumb.  It was unfortunate that
+he had not time to draw it in again before the hot-tempered gentleman
+gave him a stinging box on the ear, which brought his teeth rather
+sharply together on the tip of his tongue, which was bitten in
+consequence.
+
+"It's no use _speaking_," said the hot-tempered gentleman, driving his
+hands through his hair.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Children are like dogs, they are very good judges of their real friends.
+Harry did not like the hot-tempered gentleman a bit the less because he
+was obliged to respect and obey him; and all the children welcomed him
+boisterously when he arrived that Christmas which we have spoken of in
+connection with his attack on Snap.
+
+It was on the morning of Christmas Eve that the china punch bowl was
+broken.  Mr Skratdj had a warm dispute with Mrs Skratdj as to whether
+it had been kept in a safe place; after which both had a brisk encounter
+with the housemaid, who did not know how it happened; and she, flouncing
+down the back passage, kicked Snap; who forthwith flew at the gardener
+as he was bringing in the horse-radish for the beef; who stepping
+backwards trode upon the cat; who spat and swore, and went up the pump
+with her tail as big as a fox's brush.
+
+To avoid this domestic scene, the hot-tempered gentleman withdrew to the
+breakfast-room and took up a newspaper.  By-and-by, Harry and Polly came
+in, and they were soon snapping comfortably over their own affairs in a
+corner.
+
+The hot-tempered gentleman's umber eyes had been looking over the top of
+his newspaper at them for some time, before he called, "Harry, my boy!"
+
+And Harry came up to him.
+
+"Shew me your tongue, Harry," said he.
+
+"What for?" said Harry; "you're not a doctor."
+
+"Do as I tell you," said the hot-tempered gentleman; and as Harry saw
+his hand moving, he put his tongue out with all possible haste.  The
+hot-tempered gentleman sighed.  "Ah!" he said in depressed tones; "I
+thought so!--Polly, come and let me look at yours."
+
+Polly, who had crept up during this process, now put out hers.  But the
+hot-tempered gentleman looked gloomier still, and shook his head.
+
+"What is it?" cried both the children.  "What do you mean?"  And they
+seized the tips of their tongues in their fingers, to feel for
+themselves.
+
+But the hot-tempered gentleman went slowly out of the room without
+answering; passing his hands through his hair, and saying, "Ah!  Hum!"
+and nodding with an air of grave foreboding.
+
+Just as he crossed the threshold, he turned back, and put his head into
+the room.  "Have you ever noticed that your tongues are growing
+pointed?" he asked.
+
+"No!" cried the children with alarm.  "Are they?"
+
+"If ever you find them becoming forked," said the gentleman in solemn
+tones, "let me know."
+
+With which he departed, gravely shaking his head.
+
+In the afternoon the children attacked him again.  "_Do_ tell us what's
+the matter with our tongues."
+
+"You were snapping and squabbling just as usual this morning," said the
+hot-tempered gentleman.
+
+"Well, we forgot," said Polly.  "We don't mean anything, you know.  But
+never mind that now, please.  Tell us about our tongues.  What is going
+to happen to them?"
+
+"I'm very much afraid," said the hot-tempered gentleman, in solemn
+measured tones, "that you are both of you--fast--going--to--the--"
+
+"Dogs?" suggested Harry, who was learned in cant expressions.
+
+"Dogs!" said the hot-tempered gentleman, driving his hands through his
+hair.  "Bless your life, no!  Nothing half so pleasant!  (That is,
+unless all dogs were like Snap, which mercifully they are not.)  No, my
+sad fear is, that you are both of you--rapidly--going--_to the
+Snap-Dragons_!"
+
+And not another word would the hot-tempered gentleman say on the
+subject.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+CHRISTMAS EVE.
+
+In the course of a few hours Mr and Mrs Skratdj recovered their
+equanimity.  The punch was brewed in a jug, and tasted quite as good as
+usual.  The evening was very lively.  There were a Christmas-tree, Yule
+cakes, log, and candles, furmety, and snap-dragon after supper.  When
+the company was tired of the tree, and had gained an appetite by the
+hard exercise of stretching to high branches, blowing out "dangerous"
+tapers, and cutting ribbon and pack-thread in all directions, supper
+came, with its welcome cakes and furmety and punch.  And when furmety
+somewhat palled upon the taste (and it must be admitted to boast more
+sentiment than flavour as a Christmas dish), the Yule candles were blown
+out and both the spirits and the palates of the party were stimulated by
+the mysterious and pungent pleasures of snap-dragon.
+
+Then, as the hot-tempered gentleman warmed his coat-tails at the
+Yule-log, a grim smile stole over his features as he listened to the
+sounds in the room.  In the darkness the blue flames leaped and danced,
+the raisins were snapped and snatched from hand to hand, scattering
+fragments of flame hither and thither.  The children shouted as the
+fiery sweetmeats burnt away the mawkish taste of the furmety.  Mr
+Skratdj cried that they were spoiling the carpet; Mrs Skratdj
+complained that he had spilled some brandy on her dress.  Mr Skratdj
+retorted that she should not wear dresses so susceptible of damage in
+the family circle.  Mrs Skratdj recalled an old speech of Mr Skratdj
+on the subject of wearing one's nice things for the benefit of one's
+family, and not reserving them for visitors.  Mr Skratdj remembered
+that Mrs Skratdj's excuse for buying that particular dress when she did
+not need it, was her intention of keeping it for the next year.  The
+children disputed as to the credit for courage and the amount of raisins
+due to each.  Snap barked furiously at the flames; and the maids hustled
+each other for good places in the doorway, and would not have allowed
+the man-servant to see at all, but he looked over their heads.
+
+"St!  St!  At it!  At it!" chuckled the hot-tempered gentleman in
+undertones.  And when he said this, it seemed as if the voices of Mr
+and Mrs Skratdj rose higher in matrimonial repartee, and the children's
+squabbles became louder, and the dog yelped as if he were mad, and the
+maids' contest was sharper; whilst the snap-dragon flames leaped up and
+up, and blue fire flew about the room like foam.
+
+At last the raisins were finished, the flames were all but out, and the
+company withdrew to the drawing-room.  Only Harry lingered.
+
+"Come along, Harry," said the hot-tempered gentleman.
+
+"Wait a minute," said Harry.
+
+"You had better come," said the gentleman.
+
+"Why?" said Harry.
+
+"There's nothing to stop for.  The raisins are eaten, the brandy is
+burnt out--"
+
+"No, it's not," said Harry.
+
+"Well, almost.  It would be better if it were quite out.  Now come.
+It's dangerous for a boy like you to be alone with the Snap-Dragons
+to-night."
+
+"Fiddle-sticks!" said Harry.
+
+"Go your own way, then!" said the hot-tempered gentleman; and he bounced
+out of the room, and Harry was left alone.
+
+He crept up to the table, where one little pale blue flame flickered in
+the snap-dragon dish.
+
+"What a pity it should go out!" said Harry.  At this moment the brandy
+bottle on the side-board caught his eye.
+
+"Just a little more," murmured Harry to himself; and he uncorked the
+bottle, and poured a little brandy on to the flame.
+
+Now of course, as soon as the brandy touched the fire, all the brandy in
+the bottle blazed up at once, and the bottle split to pieces; and it was
+very fortunate for Harry that he did not get seriously hurt.  A little
+of the hot brandy did get into his eyes, and made them smart, so that he
+had to shut them for a few seconds.
+
+But when he opened them again, what a sight he saw!  All over the room
+the blue flames leaped and danced as they had leaped and danced in the
+soup-plate with the raisins.  And Harry saw that each successive flame
+was the fold in the long body of a bright blue Dragon, which moved like
+the body of a snake.  And the room was full of these Dragons.  In the
+face they were like the dragons one sees made of very old blue and white
+china; and they had forked tongues, like the tongues of serpents.  They
+were most beautiful in colour, being sky-blue.  Lobsters who have just
+changed their coats are very handsome, but the violet and indigo of a
+lobster's coat is nothing to the brilliant sky-blue of a Snap-Dragon.
+
+How they leaped about!  They were for ever leaping over each other, like
+seals at play.  But if it was "play" at all with them, it was of a very
+rough kind; for as they jumped, they snapped and barked at each other,
+and their barking was like that of the barking Gnu in the Zoological
+Gardens; and from time to time they tore the hair out of each other's
+heads with their claws, and scattered it about the floor.  And as it
+dropped it was like the flecks of flame people shake from their fingers
+when they are eating snap-dragon raisins.
+
+Harry stood aghast.
+
+"What fun!" said a voice close by him; and he saw that one of the
+Dragons was lying near, and not joining in the game.  He had lost one of
+the forks of his tongue by accident, and could not bark for awhile.
+
+"I'm glad you think it funny," said Harry, "I don't."
+
+"That's right.  Snap away!" sneered the Dragon.  "You're a perfect
+treasure.  They'll take you in with them the third round."
+
+"Not those creatures?" cried Harry.
+
+"Yes, those creatures.  And if I hadn't lost my bark, I'd be the first
+to lead you off," said the Dragon.  "Oh, the game will exactly suit
+you."
+
+"What is it, please?"  Harry asked.
+
+"You'd better not say `please' to the others," said the Dragon, "if you
+don't want to have all your hair pulled out.  The game is this.  You
+have always to be jumping over somebody else, and you must either talk
+or bark.  If anybody speaks to you, you must snap in return.  I need not
+explain what _snapping_ is.  _You know_.  If anyone by accident gives a
+civil answer, a claw-full of hair is torn out of his head to stimulate
+his brain.  Nothing can be funnier."
+
+"I dare say it suits you capitally," said Harry; "but I'm sure we
+shouldn't like it.  I mean men and women and children.  It wouldn't do
+for us at all."
+
+"Wouldn't it?" said the Dragon.  "You don't know how many human beings
+dance with dragons on Christmas Eve.  If we are kept going in a house
+till after midnight, we can pull people out of their beds, and take them
+to dance in Vesuvius."
+
+"Vesuvius!" cried Harry.
+
+"Yes, Vesuvius.  We come from Italy originally, you know.  Our skins are
+the colour of the Bay of Naples.  We live on dried grapes and ardent
+spirits.  We have glorious fun in the mountain sometimes.  Oh! what
+snapping, and scratching, and tearing!  Delicious!  There are times when
+the squabbling becomes too great, and Mother Mountain won't stand it,
+and spits us all out, and throws cinders after us.  But this is only at
+times.  We had a charming meeting last year.  So many human beings, and
+how they _can_ snap!  It was a choice party.  So very select.  We always
+have plenty of saucy children, and servants.  Husbands and wives too,
+and quite as many of the former as the latter, if not more.  But besides
+these, we had two vestry-men, a country postmaster, who devoted his
+talents to insulting the public instead of to learning the postal
+regulations, three cabmen and two `fares,' two young shop-girls from a
+Berlin wool shop in a town where there was no competition, four
+commercial travellers, six landladies, six Old Bailey lawyers, several
+widows from almshouses, seven single gentlemen and nine cats, who swore
+at everything; a dozen sulphur-coloured screaming cockatoos; a lot of
+street children from a town; a pack of mongrel curs from the colonies,
+who snapped at the human beings' heels, and five elderly ladies in their
+Sunday bonnets with Prayer-books, who had been fighting for good seats
+in church."
+
+"Dear me!" said Harry.
+
+"If you can find nothing sharper to say than `Dear me,'" said the
+Dragon, "you will fare badly, I can tell you.  Why, I thought you'd a
+sharp tongue, but it's not forked yet, I see.  Here they are, however.
+Off with you!  And if you value your curls--Snap!"
+
+And before Harry could reply, the Snap-Dragons came on on their third
+round, and as they passed they swept Harry with them.
+
+He shuddered as he looked at his companions.  They were as transparent
+as shrimps, but of this lovely cerulaean blue.  And as they leaped they
+barked--"Howf!  Howf?"--like barking Gnus; and when they leaped Harry
+had to leap with them.  Besides barking, they snapped and wrangled with
+each other; and in this Harry must join also.
+
+"Pleasant, isn't it?" said one of the blue Dragons.
+
+"Not at all," snapped Harry.
+
+"That's your bad taste," snapped the blue Dragon.
+
+"No, it's not!" snapped Harry.
+
+"Then it's pride and perverseness.  You want your hair combing."
+
+"Oh, please don't!" shrieked Harry, forgetting himself.  On which the
+Dragon clawed a handful of hair out of his head, and Harry screamed, and
+the blue Dragons barked and danced.
+
+"That made your hair curl, didn't it?" asked another Dragon, leaping
+over Harry.
+
+"That's no business of yours," Harry snapped, as well as he could for
+crying.
+
+"It's more my pleasure than business," retorted the Dragon.
+
+"Keep it to yourself, then," snapped Harry.
+
+"I mean to share it with you, when I get hold of your hair," snapped the
+Dragon.
+
+"Wait till you get the chance," Harry snapped, with desperate presence
+of mind.
+
+"Do you know whom you're talking to?" roared the Dragon; and he opened
+his mouth from ear to ear, and shot out his forked tongue in Harry's
+face; and the boy was so frightened that he forgot to snap, and cried
+piteously,--
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon, please don't!"
+
+On which the blue Dragon clawed another handful of hair out of his head,
+and all the Dragons barked as before.
+
+How long the dreadful game went on Harry never exactly knew.  Well
+practised as he was in snapping in the nursery, he often failed to think
+of a retort, and paid for his unreadiness by the loss of his hair.  Oh,
+how foolish and wearisome all this rudeness and snapping now seemed to
+him!  But on he had to go, wondering all the time how near it was to
+twelve o'clock, and whether the Snap-Dragons would stay till midnight
+and take him with them to Vesuvius.
+
+At last, to his joy, it became evident that the brandy was coming to an
+end.  The Dragons moved slower, they could not leap so high, and at last
+one after another they began to go out.
+
+"Oh, if they only all of them get away before twelve!" thought poor
+Harry.
+
+At last there was only one.  He and Harry jumped about and snapped and
+barked, and Harry was thinking with joy that he was the last, when the
+clock in the hall gave that whirring sound which some clocks do before
+they strike, as if it were clearing its throat.
+
+"Oh, _please_ go!" screamed Harry in despair.
+
+The blue Dragon leaped up, and took such a claw-full of hair out of the
+boy's head, that it seemed as if part of the skin went too.  But that
+leap was his last.  He went out at once, vanishing before the first
+stroke of twelve.  And Harry was left on his face on the floor in the
+darkness.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+When his friends found him there was blood on his forehead.  Harry
+thought it was where the Dragon had clawed him, but they said it was a
+cut from a fragment of the broken brandy bottle.  The Dragons had
+disappeared as completely as the brandy.
+
+Harry was cured of snapping.  He had had quite enough of it for a
+lifetime, and the catch-contradictions of the household now made him
+shudder.  Polly had not had the benefit of his experiences, and yet she
+improved also.
+
+In the first place, snapping, like other kinds of quarrelling, requires
+two parties to it, and Harry would never be a party to snapping any
+more.  And when he gave civil and kind answers to Polly's smart
+speeches, she felt ashamed of herself, and did not repeat them.
+
+In the second place, she heard about the Snap-Dragons.  Harry told all
+about it to her and to the hot-tempered gentleman.
+
+"Now do you think it's true?"  Polly asked the hot-tempered gentleman.
+
+"Hum!  Ha!" said he, driving his hands through his hair.  "You know I
+warned you, you were going to the Snap-Dragons."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Harry and Polly snubbed "the little ones" when they snapped, and utterly
+discountenanced snapping in the nursery.  The example and admonitions of
+elder children are a powerful instrument of nursery discipline, and
+before long there was not a "sharp tongue" amongst all the little
+Skratdjs.
+
+But I doubt if the parents ever were cured.  I don't know if they heard
+the story.  Besides, bad habits are not easily cured when one is old.
+
+I fear Mr and Mrs Skratdj have yet got to dance with the Dragons.
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+OLD FATHER CHRISTMAS.
+
+"Can you fancy, young people," said Godfather Garbel, winking with his
+prominent eyes, and moving his feet backwards and forwards in his square
+shoes, so that you could hear the squeak-leather half a room off--"can
+you fancy my having been a very little boy, and having a godmother?  But
+I had, and she sent me presents on my birthdays too.  And young people
+did not get presents when I was a child as they get them now.  _Grumph_!
+We had not half so many toys as you have, but we kept them twice as
+long.  I think we were fonder of them too, though they were neither so
+handsome, nor so expensive as these new-fangled affairs you are always
+breaking about the house.  _Grumph_!
+
+"You see, middle-class folk were more saving then.  My mother turned and
+dyed her dresses, and when she had done with them, the servant was very
+glad to have them; but, bless me! your mother's maids dress so much
+finer than their mistress, I do not think they would say `thank you' for
+her best Sunday silk.  The bustle's the wrong shape.  _Grumph_!
+
+"What's that you are laughing at, little miss?  It's _pannier_, is it?
+Well, well, bustle or pannier, call it what you like; but only donkeys
+wore panniers in my young days, and many's the ride I've had in them.
+
+"Now as I say, my relations and friends thought twice before they pulled
+out five shillings in a toy-shop, but they didn't forget me, all the
+same.
+
+"On my eighth birthday my mother gave me a bright blue comforter of her
+own knitting.
+
+"My little sister gave me a ball.  My mother had cut out the divisions
+from various bits in the rag bag, and my sister had done some of the
+seaming.  It was stuffed with bran, and had a cork inside which had
+broken from old age, and could no longer fit the pickle jar it belonged
+to.  This made the ball bound when we played `prisoner's base.'
+
+"My father gave me the broken driving-whip that had lost the lash, and
+an old pair of his gloves, to play coachman with; these I had long
+wished for, since next to sailing in a ship, in my ideas, came the
+honour and glory of driving a coach.
+
+"My whole soul, I must tell you, was set upon being a sailor.  In those
+days I had rather put to sea once on Farmer Fodder's duck-pond than ride
+twice atop of his hay-waggon; and between the smell of hay and the
+softness of it, and the height you are up above other folk, and the
+danger of tumbling off if you don't look out--for hay is elastic as well
+as soft--you don't easily beat a ride on a hay-waggon for pleasure.  But
+as I say, I'd rather put to sea on the duck-pond, though the best craft
+I could borrow was the pigsty-door, and a pole to punt with, and the
+village boys jeering when I got aground, which was most of the time--
+besides the duck-pond never having a wave on it worth the name, punt as
+you would, and so shallow you could not have got drowned in it to save
+your life.
+
+"You're laughing now, little master, are you?  But let me tell you that
+drowning's the death for a sailor, whatever you may think.  So I've
+always maintained, and have given every navigable sea in the known world
+a chance, though here I am after all, laid up in arm-chairs and
+feather-beds, to wait for bronchitis or some other slow poison.
+_Grumph_!
+
+"Well, we must all go as we're called, sailors or landsmen, and as I was
+saying if I was never to sail a ship, I would have liked to drive a
+coach.  A mail coach, serving His Majesty.  (Her Majesty now God bless
+her!) carrying the Royal Arms, and bound to go, rough weather and fair.
+Many's the time I've done it (in play you understand) with that whip and
+those gloves.  Dear! dear!  The pains I took to teach my sister Patty to
+be a highwayman, and jump out on me from the drying ground hedge in the
+dusk with a `Stand and deliver!' which she couldn't get out of her
+throat for fright, and wouldn't jump hard enough for fear of hurting me.
+
+"The whip and the gloves gave me joy, I can tell you; but there was more
+to come.
+
+"Kitty the servant gave me a shell that she had had by her for years.
+How I had coveted that shell!  It had this remarkable property: when you
+put it to your ear you could hear the roaring of the sea.  I had never
+seen the sea, but Kitty was born in a fisherman's cottage, and many an
+hour have I sat by the kitchen fire whilst she told me strange stories
+of the mighty ocean, and ever and anon she would snatch the shell from
+the mantelpiece and clap it to my ear, crying, `There child, you
+couldn't hear it plainer than that.  It's the very moral!'
+
+"When Kitty gave me that shell for my very own I felt that life had
+little more to offer.  I held it to every ear in the house, including
+the cat's; and, seeing Dick the sexton's son go by with an armful of
+straw to stuff Guy Fawkes, I ran out, and in my anxiety to make him
+share the treat, and learn what the sea is like, I clapped the shell to
+his ear so smartly and unexpectedly, that he, thinking me to have struck
+him, knocked me down then and there with his bundle of straw.  When he
+understood the rights of the case, he begged my pardon handsomely, and
+gave me two whole treacle sticks and part of a third out of his
+breeches' pocket, in return for which I forgave him freely, and promised
+to let him hear the sea roar on every Saturday half-holiday till farther
+notice.
+
+"And, speaking of Dick and the straw reminds me that my birthday falls
+on the fifth of November.  From this it came about that I always had to
+bear a good many jokes about being burnt as a Guy Fawkes; but, on the
+other hand, I was allowed to make a small bonfire of my own, and to have
+eight potatoes to roast therein, and eight-pennyworth of crackers to let
+off in the evening.  A potato and a pennyworth of crackers for every
+year of my life.
+
+"On this eighth birthday, having got all the above named gifts, I cried,
+in the fulness of my heart, `There never was such a day!'  And yet there
+was more to come, for the evening coach brought me a parcel, and the
+parcel was my godmother's picture-book.
+
+"My godmother was a gentlewoman of small means; but she was
+accomplished.  She could make very spirited sketches, and knew how to
+colour them after they were outlined and shaded in Indian ink.  She had
+a pleasant talent for versifying.  She was very industrious.  I have it
+from her own lips that she copied the figures in my picture-book from
+prints in several different houses at which she visited.  They were
+fancy portraits of characters, most of which were familiar to my mind.
+There were Guy Fawkes, Punch, his then Majesty the King, Bogy, the Man
+in the Moon, the Clerk of the Weather Office, a Dunce, and Old Father
+Christmas.  Beneath each sketch was a stanza of my godmother's own
+composing.
+
+"My godmother was very ingenious.  She had been mainly guided in her
+choice of these characters by the prints she happened to meet with, as
+she did not trust herself to design a figure.  But if she could not get
+exactly what she wanted, she had a clever knack of tracing an outline of
+the attitude from some engraving, and altering the figure to suit her
+purpose in the finished sketch.  She was the soul of truthfulness, and
+the notes she added to the index of contents in my picture-book spoke at
+once for her honesty in avowing obligations, and her ingenuity in
+availing herself of opportunities.
+
+"They ran thus:--
+
+"Number 1.--Guy Fawkes.  Outlined from a figure of a warehouseman
+rolling a sherry cask into Mr Rudd's wine vaults.  I added the hat,
+cloak, and boots in the finished drawing.
+
+"Number 2.--Punch.  I sketched him from the life.
+
+"Number 3.--His Most Gracious Majesty the King.  On a quart jug bought
+in Cheapside.
+
+"Number 4.--Bogy, _with bad boys in the bag on his back_.  Outlined from
+Christian bending under his burden, in my mother's old copy of the
+`Pilgrim's Progress.'  The face from Giant Despair.
+
+"Number 5 and Number 6.--The Man in the Moon, and The Clerk of the
+Weather Office.  From a book of caricatures belonging to Dr James.
+
+"Number 7.--A Dunce.  From a steel engraving framed in rosewood that
+hangs in my Uncle Wilkinson's parlour.
+
+"Number 8.--Old Father Christmas.  From a German book at Lady
+Littleham's."
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+"My sister Patty was six years old.  We loved each other dearly.  The
+picture-book was almost as much hers as mine.  We sat so long together
+on one big footstool by the fire, with our arms round each other, and
+the book resting on our knees, that Kitty called down blessings on my
+godmother's head for having sent a volume that kept us both so long out
+of mischief.
+
+"`If books was allus as useful as that, they'd do for me,' said she; and
+though this speech did not mean much, it was a great deal for Kitty to
+say; since, not being herself an educated person, she naturally thought
+that `little enough good comes of larning.'
+
+"Patty and I had our favourites amongst the pictures.  Bogy, now, was a
+character one did not care to think about too near bed-time.  I was
+tired of Guy Fawkes, and thought he looked more natural made of straw,
+as Dick did him.  The Dunce was a little too personal; but Old Father
+Christmas took our hearts by storm; we had never seen anything like him,
+though now-a-days you may get a plaster figure of him in any toy-shop at
+Christmas-time, with hair and beard like cotton-wool, and a
+Christmas-tree in his hand.
+
+"The custom of Christmas-trees came from Germany.  I can remember when
+they were first introduced into England, and what wonderful things we
+thought them.  Now, every village school has its tree, and the scholars
+openly discuss whether the presents have been `good,' or `mean,' as
+compared with other trees of former years.
+
+"The first one that I ever saw I believed to have come from good Father
+Christmas himself; but little boys have grown too wise now to be taken
+in for their own amusement.  They are not excited by secret and
+mysterious preparations in the back drawing-room; they hardly confess to
+the thrill--which.  I feel to this day--when the folding-doors are
+thrown open, and amid the blaze of tapers, Mamma, like a Fate, advances
+with her scissors to give every one what falls to his lot.
+
+"Well, young people, when I was eight years old I had not seen a
+Christmas-tree, and the first picture of one I ever saw was the picture
+of that held by Old Father Christmas in my godmother's picture-book.
+
+"`What are those things on the tree?'  I asked.
+
+"`Candles,' said my father.
+
+"`No, father, not the candles; the other things?'
+
+"`Those are toys, my son.'
+
+"`Are they ever taken off?'
+
+"`Yes, they are taken off, and given to the children who stand round the
+tree.'
+
+"Patty and I grasped each other by the hand, and with one voice
+murmured, `How kind of Old Father Christmas!'
+
+"By-and-by I asked, `How old is Father Christmas?'
+
+"My father laughed, and said, `One thousand eight hundred and thirty
+years, child,' which was then the year of our Lord, and thus one
+thousand eight hundred and thirty years since the first great Christmas
+Day.
+
+"`He _looks_ very old,' whispered Patty.
+
+"And I, who was, for my age, what Kitty called `Bible-learned,' said
+thoughtfully, and with some puzzledness of mind, `Then he's older than
+Methuselah.'
+
+"But my father had left the room, and did not hear my difficulty.
+
+"November and December went by, and still the picture-book kept all its
+charm for Patty and me; and we pondered on and loved Old Father
+Christmas as children can love and realise a fancy friend.  To those who
+remember the fancies of their childhood I need say no more.
+
+"Christmas week came, Christmas Eve came.  My father and mother were
+mysteriously and unaccountably busy in the parlour (we had only one
+parlour), and Patty and I were not allowed to go in.  We went into the
+kitchen, but even here was no place of rest for us.  Kitty was `all over
+the place,' as she phrased it, and cakes, mince-pies, and puddings were
+with her.  As she justly observed, `There was no place there for
+children and books to sit with their toes in the fire, when a body
+wanted to be at the oven all along.  The cat was enough for _her_
+temper,' she added.
+
+"As to puss, who obstinately refused to take a hint which drove her out
+into the Christmas frost, she returned again and again with soft steps,
+and a stupidity that was, I think, affected, to the warm hearth, only to
+fly at intervals, like a football, before Kitty's hasty slipper.
+
+"We had more sense, or less courage.  We bowed to Kitty's behests, and
+went to the back door.
+
+"Patty and I were hardy children, and accustomed to `run out' in all
+weathers, without much extra wrapping up.  We put Kitty's shawl over our
+two heads, and went outside.  I rather hoped to see something of Dick,
+for it was holiday time; but no Dick passed.  He was busy helping his
+father to bore holes in the carved seats of the church, which were to
+hold sprigs of holly for the morrow--that was the idea of church
+decoration in my young days.  You have improved on your elders there,
+young people, and I am candid enough to allow it.  Still, the sprigs of
+red and green were better than nothing, and, like your lovely wreaths
+and pious devices, they made one feel as if the old black wood were
+bursting into life and leaf again for very Christmas joy!
+
+"And, if one only knelt carefully, they did not scratch his nose," added
+Godfather Garbel, chuckling and rubbing his own, which was large and
+rather red.
+
+"Well," he continued, "Dick was busy, and not to be seen.  We ran across
+the little yard and looked over the wall at the end to see if we could
+see anything or anybody.  From this point there was a pleasant meadow
+field sloping prettily away to a little hill about three-quarters of a
+mile distant; which, catching some fine breezes from the moors beyond,
+was held to be a place of cure for whooping-cough, or `kinkcough,' as it
+was vulgarly called.  Up to the top of this Kitty had dragged me, and
+carried Patty, when we were recovering from the complaint, as I well
+remember.  It was the only `change of air' we could afford, and I dare
+say it did as well as if we had gone into badly-drained lodgings at the
+seaside.
+
+"This hill was now covered with snow, and stood off against the grey
+sky.  The white fields looked vast and dreary in the dusk.  The only gay
+things to be seen were the red berries on the holly hedge, in the little
+lane--which, running by the end of our back-yard, led up to the Hall--
+and a fat robin redbreast who was staring at me.  I was watching the
+robin, when Patty, who had been peering out of her corner of Kitty's
+shawl, gave a great jump that dragged the shawl from our heads, and
+cried,--
+
+"`Look!'"
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+"I looked.  An old man was coming along the lane.  His hair and beard
+were as white as cotton-wool.  He had a face like the sort of apple that
+keeps well in winter; his coat was old and brown.  There was snow about
+him in patches, and he carried a small fir-tree.
+
+"The same conviction seized upon us both.  With one breath we exclaimed,
+`_It's Old Father Christmas_!'
+
+"I know now that it was only an old man of the place, with whom we did
+not happen to be acquainted, and that he was taking a little fir-tree up
+to the Hall, to be made into a Christmas-tree.  He was a very
+good-humoured old fellow, and rather deaf, for which he made up by
+smiling and nodding his head a good deal, and saying, `Aye, aye, _to_ be
+sure!' at likely intervals.
+
+"As he passed us and met our earnest gaze, he smiled and nodded so
+affably, that I was bold enough to cry, `Good-evening, Father
+Christmas!'
+
+"`Same to you!' said he, in a high-pitched voice.
+
+"`Then you _are_ Father Christmas,' said Patty.
+
+"`And a Happy New Year,' was Father Christmas's reply, which rather put
+me out.  But he smiled in such a satisfactory manner, that Patty went
+on, `You're very old, aren't you?'
+
+"`So I be, miss, so I be,' said Father Christmas, nodding.
+
+"`Father says you're eighteen hundred and thirty years old,' I muttered.
+
+"`Ay, ay, to be sure,' said Father Christmas, `I'm a long age.'
+
+"A _very_ long age, thought I, and I added, `You're nearly twice as old
+as Methuselah, you know,' thinking that this might not have struck him.
+
+"`Ay, ay,' said Father Christmas; but he did not seem to think anything
+of it.  After a pause he held up the tree, and cried, `D'ye know what
+this is, little miss?'
+
+"`A Christmas-tree,' said Patty.
+
+"And the old man smiled and nodded.
+
+"I leant over the wall, and shouted, `But there are no candles.'
+
+"`By-and-by,' said Father Christmas, nodding as before.  `When it's dark
+they'll all be lighted up.  That'll be a fine sight!'
+
+"`Toys too, there'll be, won't there?' screamed Patty.
+
+"Father Christmas nodded his head.  `And sweeties,' he added,
+expressively.
+
+"I could feel Patty trembling, and my own heart beat fast.  The thought
+which agitated us both, was this--`Was Father Christmas bringing the
+tree to us?'  But very anxiety, and some modesty also, kept us from
+asking outright.
+
+"Only when the old man shouldered his tree, and prepared to move on, I
+cried in despair, `Oh, are you going?'
+
+"`I'm coming back by-and-by,' said he.
+
+"`How soon?' cried Patty.
+
+"`About four o'clock,' said the old man, smiling, `I'm only going up
+yonder.'
+
+"And, nodding and smiling as he went, he passed away down the lane.
+
+"`Up yonder.'  This puzzled us.  Father Christmas had pointed, but so
+indefinitely, that he might have been pointing to the sky, or the
+fields, or the little wood at the end of the Squire's grounds.  I
+thought the latter, and suggested to Patty that perhaps he had some
+place underground, like Aladdin's cave, where he got the candles, and
+all the pretty things for the tree.  This idea pleased us both, and we
+amused ourselves by wondering what Old Father Christmas would choose for
+us from his stores in that wonderful hole where he dressed his
+Christmas-trees.
+
+"`I wonder, Patty,' said I, `why there's no picture of Father
+Christmas's dog in the book.'  For at the old man's heels in the lane
+there crept a little brown and white spaniel, looking very dirty in the
+snow.
+
+"`Perhaps it's a new dog that he's got to take care of his cave,' said
+Patty.
+
+"When we went indoors we examined the picture afresh by the dim light
+from the passage window, but there was no dog there.
+
+"My father passed us at this moment, and patted my head.  `Father,' said
+I, `I don't know, but I do think Old Father Christmas is going to bring
+us a Christmas-tree to-night.'
+
+"`Who's been telling you that?' said my father.  But he passed on before
+I could explain that we had seen Father Christmas himself, and had had
+his word for it that he would return at four o'clock, and that the
+candles on his tree would be lighted as soon as it was dark.
+
+"We hovered on the outskirts of the rooms till four o'clock came.  We
+sat on the stairs and watched the big clock, which I was just learning
+to read; and Patty made herself giddy with constantly looking up and
+counting the four strokes, towards which the hour hand slowly moved.  We
+put our noses into the kitchen now and then, to smell the cakes and get
+warm, and anon we hung about the parlour door, and were most unjustly
+accused of trying to peep.  What did we care what our mother was doing
+in the parlour?--we who had seen Old Father Christmas himself, and were
+expecting him back again every moment!
+
+"At last the church clock struck.  The sounds boomed heavily through the
+frost, and Patty thought there were four of them.  Then, after due
+choking and whirring, our own clock struck, and we counted the strokes
+quite clearly--one! two! three! four!  Then we got Kitty's shawl once
+more, and stole out into the back-yard.  We ran to our old place, and
+peeped, but could see nothing.
+
+"`We'd better get up on to the wall,' I said; and with some difficulty
+and distress from rubbing her bare knees against the cold stones, and
+getting the snow up her sleeves, Patty got on the coping of the little
+wall, I was just struggling after her, when something warm and something
+cold coming suddenly against the bare calves of my legs, made me shriek
+with fright.  I came down `with a run' and bruised my knees, my elbows,
+and my chin; and the snow that hadn't gone up Patty's sleeves, went down
+my neck.  Then I found that the cold thing was a dog's nose, and the
+warm thing was his tongue; and Patty cried from her post of observation,
+`It's Father Christmas's dog, and he's licking your legs.'
+
+"It really was the dirty little brown and white spaniel; and he
+persisted in licking me, and jumping on me, and making curious little
+noises, that must have meant something if one had known his language.  I
+was rather harassed at the moment.  My legs were sore, I was a little
+afraid of the dog, and Patty was very much afraid of sitting on the wall
+without me.
+
+"`You won't fall,' I said to her.  `Get down, will you?'  I said to the
+dog.
+
+"`Humpty Dumpty fell off a wall,' said Patty.
+
+"`Bow! wow!' said the dog.
+
+"I pulled Patty down, and the dog tried to pull me down; but when my
+little sister was on her feet, to my relief, he transferred his
+attentions to her.  When he had jumped at her, and licked her several
+times, he turned round and ran away.
+
+"`He's gone,' said I; `I'm so glad.'
+
+"But even as I spoke he was back again, crouching at Patty's feet, and
+glaring at her with eyes the colour of his ears.
+
+"Now Patty was very fond of animals, and when the dog looked at her she
+looked at the dog, and then she said to me, `He wants us to go with
+him.'
+
+"On which (as if he understood our language, though we were ignorant of
+his) the spaniel sprang away, and went off as hard as he could; and
+Patty and I went after him, a dim hope crossing my mind--`Perhaps Father
+Christmas has sent him for us.'
+
+"This idea was rather favoured by the fact that the dog led us up the
+lane.  Only a little way; then he stopped by something lying in the
+ditch--and once more we cried in the same breath, `It's Old Father
+Christmas!'"
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+"Returning from the Hall, the old man had slipped upon a bit of ice, and
+lay stunned in the snow.
+
+"Patty began to cry.  `I think he's dead,' she sobbed.
+
+"`He is so very old, I don't wonder,' I murmured; `but perhaps he's not.
+I'll fetch Father.'
+
+"My father and Kitty were soon on the spot.  Kitty was as strong as a
+man; and they carried Father Christmas between them into the kitchen.
+There he quickly revived.
+
+"I must do Kitty the justice to say that she did not utter a word of
+complaint at this disturbance of her labours; and that she drew the old
+man's chair close up to the oven with her own hand.  She was so much
+affected by the behaviour of his dog, that she admitted him even to the
+hearth; on which puss, being acute enough to see how matters stood, lay
+down with her back so close to the spaniel's that Kitty could not expel
+one without kicking both.
+
+"For our parts, we felt sadly anxious about the tree; otherwise we could
+have wished for no better treat than to sit at Kitty's round table
+taking tea with Father Christmas.  Our usual fare of thick bread and
+treacle was to-night exchanged for a delicious variety of cakes, which
+were none the worse to us for being `tasters and wasters'--that is,
+little bits of dough, or shortbread, put in to try the state of the
+oven, and certain cakes that had got broken or burnt in the baking.
+
+"Well, there we sat, helping Old Father Christmas to tea and cake, and
+wondering in our hearts what could have become of the tree.  But you
+see, young people, when I was a child, parents were stricter than they
+are now.  Even before Kitty died (and she has been dead many a long
+year) there was a change, and she said that `children got to think
+anything became them.'  I think we were taught more honest shame about
+certain things than I often see in little boys and girls now.  We were
+ashamed of boasting, or being greedy, or selfish; we were ashamed of
+asking for anything that was not offered to us, and of interrupting
+grown-up people, or talking about ourselves.  Why, papas and mammas
+now-a-days seem quite proud to let their friends see how bold and greedy
+and talkative their children can be!  A lady said to me the other day,
+`You wouldn't believe, Mr Garbel, how forward dear little Harry is for
+his age.  He has his word in everything, and is not a bit shy! and his
+papa never comes home from town but Harry runs to ask if he's brought
+him a present.  Papa says he'll be the ruin of him!'
+
+"`Madam,' said I, `even without your word for it, I am quite aware that
+your child is forward.  He is forward and greedy and intrusive, as you
+justly point out, and I wish you joy of him when those qualities are
+fully developed.  I think his father's fears are well founded.'
+
+"But, bless me! now-a-days, it's `Come and tell Mr Smith what a fine
+boy you are, and how many houses you can build with your bricks,' or,
+`The dear child wants everything he sees,' or `Little pet never lets
+Mamma alone for a minute; does she, love?'  But in my young days it was,
+`Self praise is no recommendation' (as Kitty used to tell me), or,
+`You're knocking too hard at Number One' (as my father said when we
+talked about ourselves), or, `Little boys should be seen but not heard'
+(as a rule of conduct `in company'), or, `Don't ask for what you want,
+but take what's given you and be thankful.'
+
+"And so you see, young people, Patty and I felt a delicacy in asking Old
+Father Christmas about the tree.  It was not till we had had tea three
+times round, with tasters and wasters to match, that Patty said very
+gently, `It's quite dark now.'  And then she heaved a deep sigh.
+
+"Burning anxiety overcame me.  I leant towards Father Christmas, and
+shouted--I had found out that it was needful to shout, `I suppose the
+candles are on the tree now?'
+
+"`Just about putting of 'em on,' said Father Christmas.
+
+"`And the presents, too?' said Patty.
+
+"`Ay, ay, _to_ be sure,' said Father Christmas, and he smiled
+delightfully.
+
+"I was thinking what farther questions I might venture upon, when he
+pushed his cup towards Patty, saying, `Since you are so pressing, miss,
+I'll take another dish.'
+
+"And Kitty, swooping on us from the oven, cried, `Make yourself at home,
+sir; there's more where these came from.  Make a long arm, Miss Patty,
+and hand them cakes.'
+
+"So we had to devote ourselves to the duties of the table; and Patty,
+holding the lid with one hand and pouring with the other, supplied
+Father Christmas's wants with a heavy heart.
+
+"At last he was satisfied.  I said grace, during which he stood, and
+indeed he stood for some time afterwards with his eyes shut--I fancy
+under the impression that I was still speaking.  He had just said a
+fervent `Amen,' and reseated himself, when my father put his head into
+the kitchen, and made this remarkable statement,--
+
+"`Old Father Christmas has sent a tree to the young people.'
+
+"Patty and I uttered a cry of delight, and we forthwith danced round the
+old man, saying, `Oh, how nice!  Oh, how kind of you!' which I think
+must have bewildered him, but he only smiled and nodded.
+
+"`Come along,' said my father.  `Come children.  Come Reuben.  Come
+Kitty.'
+
+"And he went into the parlour, and we all followed him.
+
+"My godmother's picture of a Christmas-tree was very pretty; and the
+flames of the candles were so naturally done in red and yellow, that I
+always wondered that they did not shine at night.  But the picture was
+nothing to the reality.  We had been sitting almost in the dark, for, as
+Kitty said, `Firelight was quite enough to burn at meal-times.'  And
+when the parlour door was thrown open, and the tree, with lighted tapers
+on all the branches, burst upon our view, the blaze was dazzling, and
+threw such a glory round the little gifts, and the bags of coloured
+muslin with acid drops, and pink rose drops, and comfits inside, as I
+shall never forget.  We all got something; and Patty and I, at any rate,
+believed that the things came from the stores of Old Father Christmas.
+We were not undeceived even by his gratefully accepting a bundle of old
+clothes which had been hastily put together to form his present.
+
+"We were all very happy; even Kitty, I think, though she kept her
+sleeves rolled up, and seemed rather to grudge enjoying herself (a weak
+point in some energetic characters).  She went back to her oven before
+the lights were out, and the angel on the top of the tree taken down.
+She locked up her present (a little work-box) at once.  She often showed
+it off afterwards, but it was kept in the same bit of tissue paper till
+she died.  Our presents certainly did not last so long!
+
+"The old man died about a week afterwards, so we never made his
+acquaintance as a common personage.  When he was buried, his little dog
+came to us.  I suppose he remembered the hospitality he had received.
+Patty adopted him, and he was very faithful.  Puss always looked on him
+with favour.  I hoped during our rambles together in the following
+summer that he would lead us at last to the cave where Christmas-trees
+are dressed.  But he never did.
+
+"Our parents often spoke of his late master as `old Reuben,' but
+children are not easily disabused of a favourite fancy, and in Patty's
+thoughts and in mine the old man was long gratefully remembered as Old
+Father Christmas."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The End.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Snap-Dragons, by J.H. Ewing
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43763 ***