I am tired, answers father.  He lifts the lid of the wood-box, and throws in the wood with a great clatter.  Then, while he takes off his cap and gloves and muffler, he says:  The snow is so deep that it’s hard to walk in it, especially carrying a load as heavy as that wood was.  He sits down.

Children, says grandmother, go, tell your mother that father is here.  She’ll want to give us supper at once and hurry you both off to bed.

But when are we to hang up our stockings? asks Walter.

We’ll do that right after supper, answers father.  Run along now, and tell mother that I’m here.  The children go, and father continues speaking.  Is everything all ready for tomorrow? he asks.

Yes, answers grandmother, Mary finished everything quite a while ago.  Or almost everything.  She didn’t get the paper caps made for the children, but she was just too tired to do it after all the other work.

I don’t wonder, says father.  When there is so much to be done, some things simply have to be left.  Perhaps there will be time tomorrow morning.  I’m leaving some things for tomorrow myself.  For instance, I promised Mary I’d sweep out the kitchen here, after I’d brought in the wood; and it needs it, sure enough, for I see I’ve tracked in a lot of dirt.  But I’m going to beg off for tonight.  I’ll do it first thing in the morning.  I only hope that Santa Claus won’t notice it, and think we’re an untidy household.  But we leave such a dim light in the kitchen at night, that I don’t believe he’ll be able to tell whether the room is broom-clean or not.  And any way, I guess he must get tired himself sometimes.  So he’ll know how it is, and won’t lay it up against us.

    And that is the end of the First Scene.

The Interlude

Again before the Second Scene begins, mother goose comes out in front of the Curtain, and this is what she says: 

Children, do you want to know what has happened in that Kitchen since the curtain closed?  Well, I’ve come to tell you all about it.  The first thing was that they all had supper; not a very hearty supper, because they all wanted to save up their appetites for the Christmas dinner the next day.  But they had as much as they needed.  And then the two children went and got their stockings, one for each member of the family, and then they all hung up their own stockings.  Gertrude hung up her stocking, and Walter hung up his stocking, and Mother hung up her stocking, and Father hung up his stocking, and Grandmother hung up her stocking, and—­and—­and—­now, I declare, I’ve left somebody out.  Who can it be, I wonder?  Why, to be sure—­Grandfather.  Yes, Grandfather hung up his stocking; and there they were, all six stockings hanging in a row.  You look for them there, when the curtain opens.  I think you’ll see them.  Well, then of course the children went to bed, and by this time I think they are both asleep.  And now the rest of the family are beginning to feel sleepy, and in just a moment, I think one of them is going to say, “It’s time we all went to bed.”  What happens after that you can see for yourselves, for now it’s going to begin.