Of course it couldn't be Milo Barrus, so it _must_ be Santa Claus.

Was Clytie certain some presents would be there in the morning?
If he went directly to sleep, she was.
Hereupon the larger boy on the cot, who had for some moments listened in forgetful silence, became again virtuously asleep in a public manner.
But the littler boy must yet have talk.

Could the bells of Santa Claus be heard when he came?
Clytie had known some children, of exceptional merit, it was true, who claimed to have heard his bells on certain nights when they had gone early to sleep.
_Why_ would he never leave anything for a child that got up out of bed and caught him at it?
Suppose one had to get up for a drink.
Because it broke the charm.
But if a very, _very_ good child just _happened_ to wake up while he was in the room, and didn't pay the least attention to him, or even look sidewise or anything-- Even this were hazardous, it seemed; though if the child were indeed very good all might not yet be lost.
"Well, won't you leave the light for me?
The dark gets in my eyes." But this was another adverse condition, making everything impossible.

So she chided and reassured him, tucked the covers once more about his neck, and left him, with a final comment on the advantage of sleeping at once.
When the room was dark and Clytie's footsteps had sounded down the hall, he called softly to his brother; but that wise child was now truly asleep.
So the littler boy lay musing, having resolved to stay awake and solve the mystery once for all.
From wondering what he might receive he came to wondering if he were good.
His last meditation was upon the Sunday-school book his dear mother had helped him read before they took her away with a new little baby that had never amounted to much; before he and Allan came to Grandfather Delcher's to live--where there was a great deal to eat.

The name of the book was "Ben Holt." He remembered this especially because a text often quoted in the story said "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches." He had often wondered why Ben Holt should be considered an especially good name; and why Ben Holt came to choose it instead of the goldpiece he found and returned to the schoolmaster, before he fell sick and was sent away to the country where the merry haymakers were.