At once, they all leave their games, and gather around him.
Oh, Santa Claus, cries WALTER, have you come to play with us?
How can I play with you? answers SANTA CLAUS. I'm far too big, and
far, far too old. One of the fairies has gone to the table, and
gotten a plate of plum pudding, which she now offers to Santa Claus.
What's this? he asks. Plum pudding? Well, I never could resist that.
He begins to eat it. This surely is a first-class pudding. He takes
another spoonful. Why, what's this? A nut in the pudding? A
hazel-nut! He stops short, and holds the plate away from him. A
hazel nut! he exclaims again. I declare, I'd clean forgotten all
about that. And now I've gone and eaten one. Goodness! Is it going to
work, I wonder. He puts the plate down on the table. Yes, I feel it
coming. Yes, it's come. I've just got to crawl under that table. Get
out of the way there. I've got to do it. It's no use trying not to.
The children, the brownies, and the fairies are all delighted, and
laugh, and dance up and down, and clap their hands.
WALTER cries out, Go on, Santa. You'll make a jolly boy.
Down goes Santa Claus on his hands and knees, and crawls under the
table. When he comes out on the other end, he is a little roley poley
boy, smaller and fatter than any of the others, and dressed in white
with red trimmings. All the others join hands with him in a circle,
and they swing around gleefully.
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