Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the eighteenth chapter of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus.

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Today we'll be continuing the life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L.

Frank Baum.

Eleven how the first stalkings were hung by the chimneys.

When you remember that no child until Santa Claus began his travels had ever known the pleasure of possessing a toy.

You will understand how joy crept into the homes of those who had been favored with a visit from the good man and how they talked of him day by day in loving tones and were honestly grateful for his kindly deeds.

It is true that great warriors and mighty kings and clever scholars of that day were often spoken of by the people, but no one of them was so greatly beloved as Santa Claus, because none other was so unselfish as to devote himself to making others happy.

Regenerate deed lives longer than a great battle or a king's decree of a scholar's essay, because it spreads and leaves its mark on all nature and endures through many generations.

The bargain made with the nook prince changed the plans of claws for all future time, for being able to use the reindeer on but one night of each year.

He decided to devote all the other days to the manufacture of playthings, and on Christmas Eve to carry them to the children of the world.

But a year's work would, he knew, result in a vast accumulation of toys.

So he resolved to build a new sledge that would be larger and stronger and better fitted for swift travel than the old and clumsy one.

His first act was to visit the gnome king, with whom he made a bargain to exchange three drums, a trumpet and two dolls for a pair of fine steel runners curled beautifully at the ends.

For the gnome king had children of his own, who, living in the hollows under the earth, in mines and caverns, needed something to amuse them.

In three days the steel runners were ready, and when Claus brought the playthings to the Gnome King, his Majesty was so greatly pleased with them that he presented Claws with a string of sweet toned sleigh bells in addition to the runners.

These will please Glossy and Flossy, said Claus as he jingled the bells and listened to their merry sound.

But I should have two strings of bells, one for each deer.

Bring me another trumpet and a toy cat, replied the king, and you shall have a second string of bells like the first.

It's a bargain.

Cried Claws, and he went home again for the toys.

The new sledge was carefully built, the nooks bringing plenty of strong but thin boards to youth in its construction.

Claus made a high rounding dashboard to keep off the snow cast behind by the fleet hooves of the deer, and he made high sides to the platform so that many toys could be carried.

And finally he mounted the sledge upon the slender still runners made by the gnome King.

It was certainly a handsome sledge, and big and roomy.

Claus painted it in bright colors, although no one was likely to see it during his midnight journeys.

And when all was finished, he sent for Glossy and Flossy to come and look at it.

The deer admired the sledge, but gravely declared it was too big and heavy for them to draw.

We might pull it over the snow to be sure, said Glossy, but we would not pull it fast enough to enable us to visit the faraway cities and villages and return to the forest by daybreak.

Then I must add two more deer to my team, declared Claus after a moment's thought.

The Nook prince allowed you as many as ten.

Why not use them all?

Asked Flossy.

Then we could speed up like the lightning and leap to the highest roofs with ease.

A team of ten reindeer.

Cried claus delightedly.

Thou will be splendid.

Please return to the forest at once and select eight other deer as like yourselves as possible.

And you must all eat of the Casa plant to become strong, and of the Groal plant to become fleet afoot, and of the Marbon plant that you may live long to accompany me on my journeys.

Likewise, it will be well for you to bathe in the pool of Nerries, which the lovely Queen Zirlin declares will render you rarely beautiful should you perform these duties faithfully.

There's no doubt that on next Christmas Eve my ten reindeer will be the most powerful and beautiful steeds the world has ever seen.

So Glossy and Flossy went to the forest to choose their mates, and Claus began to consider the question of a harness for them all.

In the end, he called upon Peter Nook for assistance, and Peter's heart is as kind, as his body is crooked, and he's remarkably shrewd as well, and Peter agreed to furnish strips of tough leather for the harness.

This leather was cut from the skins of lions that had reached such an advanced age that they died naturally, and on one side was tawny hair, while the other side was cured to the softness of velvet by the deft nooks.

When Claus received these strips of leather, he sewed them neatly into a harness for the ten reindeer, and it proved strong and serviceable and lasted him for many years.

The harness and sledge were prepared at odd times, for Claudes devoted most of his days to the making of toys.

These were now much better than the first ones had been, for the immortals often came to his house to watch him work and to offer suggestions.

It was Nicil's idea to make some of the dolls say Papa and Mama.

It was a thought of the nooks to put a squeak inside the lambs, so that when a child squeezed them, they would say.

And the fairy queen advised Claws to put whistles in the birds so they could be made to sing, and wheels on the horses so children could draw them around.

Many animals perished in the forest from one cause or another, and their fur was brought to Claus that he might cover with it the small images of beasts he made for playthings.

A Mary real suggested that Claus make a donkey with a nodding head, which he did, and afterward found that it amused the little ones immensely.

And so the toys grew in beauty and attractiveness every day until they were the wonder of even the immortals.

When another Christmas Eve drew near, there was a monster load of beautiful gifts for the children, ready to be loaded upon the big sledge.

Claus filled three sacks to the brim and tucked every corner of the sledge box full of toys besides.

Then, at twilight, the ten reindeer appeared, and Flossy introduced them all to Claws.

They were racer and pacer, reckless and speckless, fearless and peerless and ready and steady, who, with Glossy and Flossy, made up the ten who've traversed the world these hundreds of years with their generous master.

They were all exceedingly beautiful, with slender limbs, spreading antlers, velvety dark eyes, and smooth coats of fawn colors spotted with white.

Claus loved them at once, and has loved them ever since, for they are loyal friends and have rendered him priceless service.

The new harness fitted them nicely, and soon they were all fastened to the sledge by twos, with Glossy and Flossy in the lead.

They had swore the strings of sleigh bells and were so delighted with the music they made that they kept prancing up and down to make the bells ring.

Clause, now seated himself in the sledge, drew a warm robe over his knees and his fur cap over his ears, and cracked his long whip as a signal to start.

Instantly the Ten leapt forward and were away like the wind while Jolly Claws laughed gleefully to see them run and shouted a song in his big hearty voice with a ho, ho, ho and a ha, ha, ha and a ho, ho he.

Now away we go or the frozen snow as merry as we can be there are many joys in our load of toys as many a child will know we'll scatter them wide on our wild night ride or the crisp and sparkling snow.

Now, it was on this same Christmas Eve that little Margot and her brother D*** and her cousin's Ned and Sarah, who were visiting at Margot's house came in from making a snowman with their clothes damp, their mittens dripping and their shoes and stockings wet through and through.

They were not scolded, for Margot's mother knew the snow was melting but they were sent early to bed that their clothes might be hung over chairs to dry.

The shoes were placed on the red tiles of the hearth where the heat from the hot embers would strike them and the stockings were carefully hung in a row by the chimney directly over the fireplace.

That was the reason Santa Claus noticed them when he came down the chimney that night and all the household were fast asleep.

He was in a tremendous hurry and seeing the stockings all belong to children he quickly stuffed his toys into them and dashed up the chimney again appearing on the roof so suddenly that the reindeer were astonished at his agility.

I wish they would all hang up their stockings, he thought as he drove to the next chimney.

It would save me a lot of time and I could then visit more children before daybreak.

When Margot and D*** and Ned and Sarah jumped out of bed next morning and ran downstairs to get their stockings from the fireplace they were filled with delight to find the toys from Santa Claus inside them in face.

I think they found more presence in their stockings than any other children of that city had received for Santa Claus was in a hurry and did not stop to count the toys.

Of course, they all told their little friends about it and of course, every one of them decided to hang his own stockings by the fireplace the next Christmas Eve.

Even Bessie Blithsome, who made a visit to the city with her father, the Great Lord of Laird heard the story from the children and hung her own pretty stockings by the chimney when she returned home at Christmastime.

On his next trip, Santa Claus found so many stockings hung up in anticipation of his visit that he could fill them in a jiffy and be away again in half the time required to hunt the children up and place the toys by their bedsides.

The custom grew year after year and has always been a great help to Santa Claus and with so many children to visit, he surely needs all the help we are able to give him.

Thank you for joining Bite at a Time Books today while we read a bite of one of your favorite classics.

Again, my name is Brie Carlyle and I hope you come back tomorrow for the next bite of the life and adventures of Santa Claus.

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