“One,” I answered, “the sweetest boy in all the world.”
“I’ll be bound he is!” said Father Christmas and he broke now into a merry laugh that did one’s heart good to hear. “They all are! Lord bless me! The number that I have seen, and each and every one—and quite right too—the sweetest child in all the world. And how old, do you say? Two and a half all but two months except a week? The very sweetest age of all, I’ll bet you say, eh, what? They all do!”
And the old man broke again into such a jolly chuckling of laughter that his snow-white locks shook upon his head.
“But stop a bit,” he added. “This horse is broken. Tut, tut, a hind leg nearly off. This won’t do!”
He had the toy in his lap in a moment, mending it. It was wonderful to see, for all his age, how deft his fingers were.
“Time,” he said, and it was amusing to note that his voice had assumed almost an authoritative tone, “reach me that piece of string. That’s right. Here, hold your finger across the knot. There! Now, then, a bit of beeswax. What? No beeswax? Tut, tut, how ill-supplied your houses are to-day. How can you mend toys, sir, without beeswax? Still, it will stand up now.”
236
