"I remember grandpa now, but I didn't use to.
It wasn't grandpa I dreamed about--it was Santa Claus." Grandma smiled, and raised her spectacles to the top of her forehead.
"We never talked about fairies in my day," said she.

"I never heard of a Santa Claus when I was young." "Well, grandma, he came down the chimney in a coach that looked like a Quaker bonnet on wheels--but he was all a-dazzle with gold buttons; and what do you think he said ?" "Something very foolish, I presume." "He said, 'Miss Prudy, I'm going to be married.' Only think! and he such a very old bachelor." "Did thee dream out the bride ?" "It was Mother Goose." "Very well," said Mrs.Read, smiling.

"I should think that was a very good match." "She did look so funny, grandma, with a great hump on her nose, and one on her back! Santa Claus kissed her; and what do you think she said ?" "I am sure I can't tell; I am not acquainted with thy fairy folks." "Why, she shook her sides, and, said she, 'Sing a song o' sixpence.'" "That was as sensible a speech as thee could expect from that quarter." "O, grandma, you don't care anything about my dream, or I could go on and describe the wedding-cake; how she put sage in it, and pepper, and mustard, and baked it on top of one of our registers.

What do you suppose made me dream such a queer thing ?" "Thee was probably thinking of thy mother's wedding." "O, Christmas is going to be splendided than ever, this year," said Dotty; "isn't it grandma?
Did you have any Christmases when you were young ?" "O, yes; but we didn't make much account of Christmas in those days." "Why, grandma! I knew you lived on bean porridge, but I s'posed you had something to eat Christmas!" "O, sometimes I had a little saucer-pie, sweetened with molasses, and the crust made of raised dough." "Poor, dear grandma!" "I remember my father used to put a great backlog on the fire Christmas morning, as large as the fireplace would hold; and that was all the celebration we ever had." "Didn't you have Christmas presents ?" "No, Alice; not so much as a brass thimble." "Poor grandma! I shouldn't think you would have wanted to live! Didn't anybody love you ?" said Dotty, putting her fingers under Mrs.Read's cap, and smoothing her soft gray hair; "why, I love every hair of your head." "I am glad thee does, child; but that doesn't take much love, for thee knows I haven't a great deal of hair." "But, grandma, how could you live without Christmas trees and things ?" "I was happy enough, Alice." "But you'd have been a great deal happier, grandma, if you'd had a Santa Claus! It's so nice to believe what isn't true!" "Ah! does thee think so?
There was one thing I believed when I was a very little girl, and it was not true.

I believed the cattle knelt at midnight on Christmas eve." "Knelt, grandma?
For what ?" "Because our blessed Lord was born in a manger." "But they didn't know that.