KinSource - Tale of the Week

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The Glencoe Enterprise, December 19, 1895, p. 2

TWO BRIGHT BOYS.

They Lay a Deep Plot to Capture Santa Claus.

Last night was bleak and dark and drear,
And the merry old saint had left his deer;
Obliged to harness a mule to a cart,
Saying, "I'll make it with an early start."
So he started out on his yearly round
With a list of places where children abound.
His load was heavy and he missed the snow,
Which formerly brightened the ruddy glow

Of his face - but he thought, and smiled,
What his mission was sacred to many a child,
So, he chirked to the mule and rattled his toys,
And sang of his love for girls and boys.

Arranging the Trap.

But Tommy and Dick had it in for Nick
And conspired to play him a dirty trick,
Forgetting the work the saint had done,
In the many years since his task begun.
Says Tommy, "I'm tired of lying still
And letting old Santa my stockings fill
With things that I don't want at all;
Let's capture St. Nicholas, toys and all."
They danced with glee and then to the door
Of papa's room, whence a sonorous snore
Told them at once that the coast was clear,
Then to the parlor, and in the firelight there
Were hanging the stockings, empty as though
There was no saint with gifts to bestow.
And then for an hour the sprites that stare

Santa Claus Strikes the Album.

From the glowing coals did nought but stare.
At two of the busiest boys on earth
Who, with stifled laughter and quiet mirth,
Arranged the details of a villainous plan,
For bagging the little, brisk old man.
A gunny sack, capacious and strong,
With nails they spiked the mantel along;
Its mouth was stretched by aid of a stick,
And all made ready to catch Saint Nick.
And to be dead sure they added a charm
In the shape of a livery burglar alarm.
Then to the corners, each behind a chair,
Tom and Dick went and waited there.

And all unmindful of his coming fate
The saint puffed along, the hour was late,

The Boys Capture Santa Claus.

He was making his way to every home,
Climbing down chimney with never a groan;
Though his work was hard, it was gladsome toil,
And he cared not a snap for the clothes he'd soil.

Thus it was with the saint and at last he got
To the place where he was down for another lot;
Where Tommy and Dick had the bag prepared,
All was ready and Saint Nick was snared.

With a rush he descended the chimney black,
And into the sack he went ker-smack.
Then Tommy with padlock and Dick with key,
Made fast their prize with boyish glee.
And reveled in toys, for Santa's stock
Fell into their hands - and they made mock
Of the prayers of Nick from within the sack,
As he begged to be given his liberty back.

L'Envoi.

To-morrow old Santa will sit on a chair
In a dime museum, and people will stare
At a real live saint too mad to speak,
And Tommy and Dick draw a hundred a week.

St. Paul Pioneer Press.

The Mistletoe.

"Kissing under the mistletoe" has been thus explained by a Notes and Queries correspondent: "One would suppose, from the part played by the mistletoe in Scandinavian mythology, that this custom was common to all northern peoples. Baldus was slain by a mistletoe dart at the instigation of Loki, and in reparation for the injury the plant was afterwards dedicated to his mother, Frigg, so long as it did not touch earth, Loki's empire. On this account it is hung from the ceilings of the houses, and the kiss given under it signifies that it is no longer an instrument of mischief. The fetes held in commemoration of the sacred mistletoe survived in some parts of France into the sixteenth century. The plant was credited with many talismanic properties and its festival attracted immense gatherings of people."