Dont' forget to look at Santa's favourite toy.
When Nicholas was about fifty years old, and his hair and beard were becoming as white as the snow, a strange family came to live in the village. Not much of a family you may think, just one small old man, brown and wrinkled like a nut and a skinny little girl who drew back shyly from the crowd of villagers, who had gathered as they always did when someone new came to live.
“His name is Carl Dinsler.” one woman whispered. “The old squire’s housekeeper told me about him. She said that he was very rich. He must be rich to be able to buy the big old house up on the hill.”
“He may be rich but he doesn’t look it.” remarked another. “Did you notice that poor little child he had with him? She looks as though she needs a good square meal. Who is she anyway?”
“She’s his grand-daughter. Her parents died a little while ago and they say the old man bought the house on the hill so that they could be alone.”
“Do you know what he has done?” asked one little boy of the interested crowd. “He’s nailed up all the gates and left only the front one open and that one he keeps locked with a bolt as large as this.” He spread out his hands to show the size. “And that’s not all. I don’t know how you would get into the house any way because he’s put up boards over the windows and the front and side doors. There’s not a sign of life anywhere in the old house now. You would think that it was disserted.”
“Why, the old man must be crazy.” they all said. “He must be afraid of somebody.”
“Afraid nothing.” one man remarked, “The only thing he’s afraid of is that someone will steal his money.”
“I’m sure Nicholas the wood carver will be interested in this news,” said another. “One more child in the village, and such a lovely one too.”
“Nicholas already knows about her.” they heard a deep voice say and the villagers turned to see it was the wood carver himself who had joined the group unnoticed.
“Her name is Kathy. I once knew a girl with that name.” he went on with a sad faraway look in his usually merry blue eyes as he remembered his little sister. “I’d like to do something special for the poor little girl.”
“How did you find out her name, Nicholas?”
“She was wandering around in her yard just like a forlorn puppy who had been locked in,” Nicholas answered. “I was passing that way and stopped at the gate so that I could talk to her. She says that she’s not allowed outside the fence and can only play in the yard for one hour a day. She also told me that her grandfather doesn’t want her to play with the other children from the village in case she talks about his gold and where he keeps it.”
“As if we’d touch his money,” the villagers said angrily. “He’s a nasty old man. Why I’ll bet he won’t even let her put out a stocking on Christmas Eve.”
“That’s a safe bet,” laughed Nicholas, “he wouldn’t open the front door even to let in something that was free!”
The crowd broke up and Nicholas went back to his work but over the following months he often thought of lonely little Kathy. He saw her several times and she told him she wouldn't be allowed to hang out her stocking at Christmas. The last time he visited her, old Dinsler shook his stick at him and told him to keep away from his house. After that, Kathy wasn’t seen again but Nicholas still made a few toys for her and packed them away, just in case.
A few days before Christmas, Nicholas took a walk around the big boarded up house. He looked up at the covered doors and windows and his eyes brightened as he noticed the huge stone chimney on the roof. He chuckled to himself, “I’ll try it! I might get stuck but it’s worth the try.”
Christmas Eve was dark and moonless with the wind whistling through the streets and the light snow stung Nicholas’s face and covered the sleigh and reindeer with a shining coat of ice.
“Come on,” he encouraged the reindeer, “Only the house on the hill left.”
He shivered in his red coat and must have looked like a giant snowman with the snow forming icicles on his white beard. He tied the reindeer to the front gate, took his sack from the back of the sleigh and climbed from his high seat to the top bar of the fence and jumped into the yard. He stopped to listen but could only hear the banging of shutters in the wind. He crept over to the side of the house where a vine covered one door and this made an ideal ladder to the roof. Being so fat and bulky and with the sack on his back it was hard work, but finally he puffed his way to the roof. This was the dangerous part as it was slippery with the snow and ice, and he had to hack away with his knife to make footholds. Finally a large shape loomed up above him. It was the chimney. Nicholas stopped and rested for a moment, then leaned over the edge and looked down the chimney into the inky blackness.
“Just as I thought,” he murmured, “the old miser lets the fire go out at nights.... even on such a bitter cold one as tonight.” He climbed over the edge and began his dangerous decent, feeling carefully with his feet for the jutting bricks, pressing his hands flat on the sides and bracing his back against the wall. Slowly he inched his way down until he felt solid earth beneath his feet. He stepped out of the fireplace into a room almost as dark as the chimney. Gradually as his eyes became accustomed to the dark, he could make out a table and by groping in the darkness eventually found a stub of a candle, which he soon had lit. He drew out from the sack a bright blue woollen stocking, and filled it up to the brim with toys. Also he left nuts and lollies as he thought the hungry little girl wouldn’t have had treats like this for some time. Nicholas the hung the stocking on the mantelpiece, weighed it down with a heavy candlestick and stood back to admire the good job he had done. Just as he was about to blow out the candle Nicholas was startled by the sudden opening of a door and old Dinsler rushing into the room.
“Sneaking into my house, are you? After my gold I suppose? I’ll show you what I do with thieves, I’ll show you!” The old man picked up a poker and swung it at Nicholas, who jumped to one side so that the table was between them.
“Don’t be so foolish,” he said quickly, realising that Dinsler was in a rage and dangerous. “I haven’t come after your gold. Look...”
“Haven’t you. Well then what brings you into my house in the middle of the night.”
“I’ll tell you what! Look behind you at that stocking. The other children in the village leave their stockings outside their front doors, but you have so frightened your grandchild that she is afraid to ask you for anything. I only wanted to make her feel wanted like other children, and that she should get gifts the same as they do on Christmas morning.”
“Gifts!” exclaimed the old man, bewildered and lowering the poker. “You mean you give things away?” He looked at Nicholas with a very strange look.
“Yes,” replied Nicholas, relieved to see the poker being put away. “I’ll even give you a Christmas gift, you mean old man.” He reached inside his deep pocket and poured a stream of bright gold coins onto the table in front of Dinsler. “Here, if gold is all you care about, take this.. and more... and more to add to your hoard! And now,” Nicholas said with an air of authority as he brushed some soot from one eye, “Will you please show me to your front door. If I have to climb back up the chimney I’ll never get this suit clean again.”
With that he marched from the room, in some ways a ridiculous stout figure covered in soot, yet he looked very impressive to old Dinsler, as he hurried ahead to open the door for Nicholas to return out into the cold black night.
The next week the village buzzed with excitement. Something was happening up on the hill. The old miser had ripped the boards off the windows and doors. He had bought a horse and cart and had been down to the village to buy huge quantities of food. He had also spoken to the school teacher and within a few days Kathy and her grandfather were seen on the road leading to the school, the little girl’s face beaming up at the old man, her feet skipping along to keep up with him and her warm little hand tucked into his fist. All this because Nicholas had climbed down a chimney to fill ONE stocking!
Dont' forget to look at Santa's favourite toy.