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    A LITTLE BOOK OF CHRISTMAS: Children's Classic - Humorous Stories & Poems for the Holiday Season
    A LITTLE BOOK OF CHRISTMAS: Children's Classic - Humorous Stories & Poems for the Holiday Season
    A LITTLE BOOK OF CHRISTMAS: Children's Classic - Humorous Stories & Poems for the Holiday Season
    Ebook71 pages1 hour

    A LITTLE BOOK OF CHRISTMAS: Children's Classic - Humorous Stories & Poems for the Holiday Season

    By John Kendrick Bangs

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    About this ebook

    This eBook edition of "A LITTLE BOOK OF CHRISTMAS" has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices.

    Table of Contents:

    A Toast To Santa Clause

    The Conversion of Hetherington

    A Merry Christmas Pie

    The Child Who Had Everything But

    A Holiday Wish

    Santa Clause and Little Billee

    Christmas Eve

    The House of the Seven Santas

    Extract:

    "He was only a little bit of a chap, and so, when for the first time in his life he came into close contact with the endless current of human things, it was as hard for him to "stay put" as for some wayward little atom of flotsam and jetsam to keep from tossing about in the surging tides of the sea. His mother had left him there in the big toy-shop, with instructions not to move until she came back, while she went off to do some mysterious errand. She thought, no doubt, that with so many beautiful things on every side to delight his eye and hold his attention, strict obedience to her commands would not be hard."

    John Kendrick Bangs (1862-1922) was an American author, editor and satirist.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMusaicum Books
    Release dateJul 6, 2017
    ISBN9788075839275
    A LITTLE BOOK OF CHRISTMAS: Children's Classic - Humorous Stories & Poems for the Holiday Season
    Author

    John Kendrick Bangs

    John Kendrick Bangs (May 27, 1862 – January 21, 1922) was an American author, humorist, editor and satirist. (Wikipedia)

    Read more from John Kendrick Bangs

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      Book preview

      A LITTLE BOOK OF CHRISTMAS - John Kendrick Bangs

      John Kendrick Bangs

      A LITTLE BOOK OF CHRISTMAS

      Children's Classic - Humorous Stories & Poems for the Holiday Season

      Published by

      Books

      - Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting -

      musaicumbooks@okpublishing.info

      2017 OK Publishing

      ISBN 978-80-7583-927-5

      Reading suggestions

      Table of Contents

      A Toast to Santa Clause

      The Conversion of Hetherington

      A Merry Christmas Pie

      The Child Who Had Everything But

      A Holiday Wish

      Santa Clause and Little Billee

      Christmas Eve

      The House of the Seven Santas

      A Toast to Santa Clause

      Table of Contents

      The Conversion of Hetherington

      Table of Contents

      I

      Hetherington wasn't half a bad sort of a fellow, but he had his peculiarities, most of which were the natural defects of a lack of imagination. He didn't believe in ghosts, or Santa Claus, or any of the thousands of other things that he hadn't seen with his own eyes, and as he walked home that rather chilly afternoon just before Christmas and found nearly every corner of the highway decorated with bogus Saints, wearing the shoddy regalia of Kris-Kringle, the sight made him a trifle irritable. He had had a fairly good luncheon that day, one indeed that ought to have mellowed his disposition materially, but which somehow or other had not so resulted. In fact, Hetherington was in a state of raspy petulance that boded ill for his digestion, and when he had reached the corner of Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue, the constant iteration and reiteration of these shivering figures of the god of the Yule had got on his nerves to such an extent as to make him aggressively quarrelsome. He had controlled the asperities of his soul tolerably well on the way uptown, but the remark of a small child on the highway, made to a hurrying mother, as they passed a stalwart-looking replica of the idol of his Christmas dreams, banging away on a tambourine to attract attention to the iron pot before him, placed there to catch the pennies of the charitably inclined wayfarer—Oh, mar, there's Sandy Claus now!—was too much for him.

      Tush! Nonsense! ejaculated Hetherington, glowering at the shivering figure in the turkey-red robe. The idea of filling children's minds up with such balderdash! Santa Claus, indeed! There isn't a genuine Santa Claus in the whole bogus bunch.

      The Saint on the corner banged his tambourine just under Hetherington's ear with just enough force to jar loose the accumulated irascibility of the well-fed gentleman.

      This is a fine job for an able-bodied man like you! said Hetherington with a sneer. Why don't you go to work instead of helping to perpetuate this annual fake?

      The Saint looked at him for a moment before replying.

      Speakin' to me? he said.

      Yes. I'm speaking to you, said Hetherington. Here's the whole country perishing for the lack of labor, and in spite of that fact this town has broken out into a veritable rash of fake Santa Clauses—

      That'll do for you! retorted Santa Claus. It's easy enough for a feller with a stomach full o' victuals and plenty of warm clothes on his back to jump on a hard-workin' feller like me—

      Hard-working? echoed Hetherington. I like that! You don't call loafing on a street corner this way all day long hard work, do you?

      He rather liked the man's spirit, despite his objection to his occupation.

      Suppose you try it once and find out, retorted Santa Claus, blowing on his bluish fingers in an effort to restore their clogged-up circulation. I guess if you tried a job like this just once, standin' out in the cold from eight in the mornin' to ten at night, with nothin' but a cup o' coffee and a ham-sandwich inside o' you—

      What's that? cried Hetherington, aghast. Is that all you've had to eat to-day?

      That's all, said the Saint, as he turned to his work with the tambourine. Try it once, mister, and maybe you won't feel so cock-sure about its not bein' work. If you're half the sport you think you are just take my place for a couple of hours.

      An appeal to his sporting instinct was never lost on Hetherington.

      By George! he cried. I'll go you. I'll swap coats with you, and while you're filling your stomach up I'll take your place, all right.

      What'll I fill me stomach up with? demanded the man. I don't look like a feller with a meal-ticket in his pocket, do I?

      I'll take care of that, said Hetherington, taking out a roll of bills and peeling off a two-dollar note from the outside. "There—you take that and blow yourself, and I'll

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