Be a good boy now, and don't forget to close the doah tight when you go in." When Ivy was safely tucked away among the pillows, the two boys sat down on the door-step to wait once more for the birthday Santa Claus.

John Jay repeated what the thoughtless fellow had said: "If I don't get there by noon, it'll be because something has happened; anyway, somebody'll be prancing along about sundown." In the week just passed, Bud had come to believe in the birthday Santa Claus as firmly as John Jay.
"Wondah wot he's doin' now ?" he said, after a long pause and an anxious glance down the darkening road.
Ah, well for those two trusting little hearts that they could not know! He was sitting on the steps of the porch at Rosehaven with a guitar on his knee, and smiling tenderly into Sally Lou's blue eyes as he sang, "Oh, yes, I ever will be true!" It grew darker and darker.

The katydids began their endless quarrel in the trees.

A night-owl hooted dismally over in the woods.

The children stopped talking, and sat in anxious silence.