don’t you love to watch the fire?” said dorothy.

“yes, i do,” answered ray. “just see that little fireman in the coals!”

“but do look at that lovely tree in the coals!” exclaimed dorothy.

the children were sitting before a large open fire. it was two days before christmas, and dorothy was on a visit to cousin ray.

the screen girl had been listening to them, and after a few minutes she whispered softly:—“stand close together, children, then draw the screen around you and i’ll take you far away, where you will see wonderful sights.”

ray drew the screen around himself and dorothy, and in a few seconds they were moving softly somewhere, but of course as the screen was around them they could not see where they were going.

after a long time they stopped moving, the screen opened and the children looked about them. they were in a beautiful country. the ground was covered with snow that gleamed and glistened like diamonds, while all the trees looked just like christmas trees.

“put on these jackets,” said the screen girl, “so you won’t catch cold,” and she wrapped them up in white woolly suits that covered them from head to foot. “now, children, you can take a walk in santa claus land,” and they started off, hand in hand, to see the sights.

the first thing they came to was a lake all frozen over, and the ice was a pale yellow color. “o see,” said ray, stooping down to find two little pairs of skates right on the edge of the lake.

“let’s put ’em on,” said dorothy, “and skate around.”

the children put on the skates, and never before did they have such glorious skating.

“it’s as smooth as glass,” said ray; “you can just fly over it.”

just as he said the words dorothy fell. it did not hurt her, as it was only a jolly tumble, but it broke a little piece of the ice.

ray helped dorothy up and at the same time took up the broken piece of ice and put it in his mouth. “o dorothy,” said ray, taking it out again, “take a suck of this ice, it’s perfectly lovely.”

when dorothy had tasted, she exclaimed, “why, ray, it isn’t ice at all, it’s lovely lemon candy!” it was true; they were skating on a pond of the most delicious lemon candy in the world.

“let’s not skate any longer,” said dorothy, “let’s just sit down and eat it.”

down they sat and broke off pieces of the ice, and enjoyed themselves until they couldn’t209 eat any more. they arose from the pond, and when they had taken off their skates, they started to walk over the glistening snow. they passed several ponds of different-colored ice and every one of them was a pond of candy. they walked on the ponds to sample each kind and found orange, peppermint, checkerberry and many other flavors.

as they walked towards the beautiful trees, they came to a very large one.

“isn’t it the most beautiful tree you ever saw?” exclaimed dorothy.

“yes, it is,” said ray. “i wonder who santa claus means it for!”

“i don’t know,” replied dorothy, “perhaps we’ll find out.”

“just see that lovely red sled up there!” cried ray, clapping his hands. “it’s just what i want,” he said with glee. “o dorothy, do look, it says on the side of it ‘dart.’”

“yes, yes,” answered dorothy, dancing about,210 “but look at that beautiful doll near the top; isn’t she lovely?”

“o dorothy, look quick; there’s a little horse and wagon.”

“i see it,” said the little girl, “it’s right near the gingerbread man. and, ray, just look at the noah’s ark.”

“did you ever see such big gingerbread hearts?” exclaimed ray. “i’d like to have one to eat, wouldn’t you?”

“yes,” replied dorothy, “but i wonder what is in the boxes and packages that are all tied up with ribbon?”

“presents,” answered ray, who was a year older and that much wiser than his little cousin.

for a long time the children gazed at the beautiful tree, with all its precious burden, and every moment new treasures were discovered. then they walked to the next christmas tree and looked at that. when they had seen many211 of the trees they thought that they would walk on and see the other sights. after walking a short distance they came to a beautiful snow castle. they opened the door, peeped in, and what do you suppose they saw? a long row of boxes the whole length of the room. the first box was very large, the one next to it was a little smaller, the next still smaller, and so on until they dwindled down to a tiny box on the end.

“i wonder what is in them?” said ray with curiosity.

“open one and see,” replied dorothy quickly.

ray just touched the lid of the large box, when up it flew and there jumped out the largest jack-in-the-box the children had ever seen.

the minute he jumped he grinned at them and said “rubber.”

it was so sudden that the children started back, but when he disappeared in the box again, they laughed loudly and clapped their hands.

“i wonder what he meant?” said ray, and just then he caught sight of a small rubber button, on the side of the box. ray pressed the button and lo! every jack in the long row of boxes bobbed up with a grin and disappeared in the twinkling of an eye. such a row of grinning faces made the children laugh harder than ever. they walked into another room in the castle and found that it was filled with toys of all sorts and sizes. the smallest thing was a tiny rooster on a monkey’s back, and the largest toy was a great horse with a real saddle.

they passed through the toy-room and came to a great closet; its shelves had stacks of cakes, pies and goodies piled high in flaky abundance. all sorts of sweets that boys and girls love made the little mouths water. the next room they entered was filled with picture-books. in the center of this picture-book room stood an object that looked something like a street hand-organ. over it was written in large letters these words:—

“machine for rhymes, turn crank and have one.”

“i like rhymes,” said dorothy, “let’s hear one.” ray turned the crank and got the following:—

said tommy tid

to johnny bid,

“let’s run away forever;

we’ll go to-day

so far away

that none will find us ever.”

so they took hands

for far-off lands,

they climbed the back fence over,

and never stayed

for man or maid,

but reached the field of clover.

said tommy tid

to johnny bid,

“we’ll sit and rest a minute;”

and out he took

his pocket-book—

there were two pennies in it.

then down they sat,

and in his hat

did tommy count them over.

until at last

these two were fast

asleep amid the clover.

“turn it again,” said dorothy, “and we’ll have another.”

the next rhyme was this:—

a little dog said, “bow-wow!

i guess that i know how

to bark and bite,

to growl and fight

and chase the spotted cow.”

the old cow said, “i knew

this naughty dog would rue.”

so she tossed him high

right up to the sky,

then the old cow said, “moo-oo-o.”

“the poor little dog,” exclaimed dorothy, “but he shouldn’t have teased the cow. let me turn the handle this time, and see what i can get.”

ray stepped aside, and when dorothy took the handle she turned out the following:—

a little maid was sitting on the very lowest stair

a-combing and a-braiding of her dollie’s golden hair;

her little brother bobbie was standing in his place

with a tub of soap and water to wash the dollie’s face.

but suddenly it happened that over went the tub,

and bobbie ran away with it and played “rub-dubby-dub.”

rub-dub-a-dub-a-dub, “come back here with my tub,”

his sister cried; but bobby hied

away and out with hurried feet

a soldier marching down the street

and playing on his sister’s tub,

rub—rub—rub—rub—rub-dub-a-dub.

“that will do for jingles,” said ray. “suppose we look in some other room.” they left the picture-books and the machine for rhymes and walked to another door. a large sign over it read:—

“office of santa claus.

no admittance except on business.

this is my busy day.”

“he must be terribly busy,” said ray, “we’d better not go in; he might not like it, you know.”

they turned away, and as they were a little tired of the castle they decided to go outside again. when their feet touched the sparkling snow ray pointed to a hill a short distance away saying, “we will climb that hill and see the view.”

“all ready,” said dorothy, and away they started.

as they were going up the hill ray took up a handful of the snow and put it in his mouth. what do you suppose it was? not snow at all, but ice-cream, a whole hill of it.

of course they had to rest right then and there, so down they sat and refreshed themselves with as much ice-cream as they could eat.

“what a wonderful place santa claus land is,” said dorothy, “the ponds are candy, the trees all christmas trees, and the hills made of ice-cream.”

“well, you know,” said ray, “santa needs so much of everything because he has to supply the world.”

“this is the sweetest ice-cream i’ve ever tasted, don’t you think so?”

“yes,” answered ray, “but i think i’ve had enough, haven’t you?”

“ye-es,” assented dorothy, taking one more delicious mouthful.

“now let us climb to the top of the hill,” said ray helping his little cousin to rise.

they reached the top of ice-cream hill and what do you think they found! a great! red! candy! double-runner!

“o!” said ray clapping his hands, “let us get on it and coast down-hill.”

he got in front to steer, while dorothy sat behind and held on with both hands. the double-runner started and away they went down ice-cream hill. when they reached the foot of the hill there was a candy pond (peppermint218 flavor) and right across the pond swift as a bird they sped to the other side. here the screen girl was waiting to take them home.

now comes the most wonderful part of this story.

on christmas morning, when dorothy and ray went into the parlor, what do you suppose they saw? the very christmas tree that they had seen away up in santa claus land. the lovely doll on top was for dorothy and the red sled “dart” was for ray.