Promptly at the moment when Lucy waved for him, little Sky-High came into the parlors fanning slowly with his great ceremonial fan, as if entering some languid pagoda garden of his native land.  Every guest leaned forward to gaze at the gorgeous stranger.  His silk stockings were white, over black shoes with silver buckles and whitened soles.  His robe sparkled gaily with the dragon and lotus, and the butterfly on his gold-banded cap shook its jeweled wings with every step.  He wore a sash of gems which the family had not seen before.  He moved before the company like a figure of sunshine.

Little Lucy had come to his side.  “I have the great felicity,” she began—­she had got the fine word from Sky-High—­“to have a celestial Santa Claus, a wang from China, to serve you the gifts from the Good Will tree.”

The glittering wang bowed to the four corners of the earth, then to all, turning round and round in dazzling circles.

No, Mrs. Van Buren’s Christmas guests had never seen a Santa Claus like this one!  All eyes were wide with pleased wonder.

“Isn’t he perfectly splendid?” whispered Lucy, tripping over to the wife of the rector.

“He is indeed, dear,” said the rector’s wife; and added low to her neighbor, “Is it not their wonderful house-boy?”

No one was certain.  And no one, excepting Lucy and the Santa Claus, knew what were the gifts on the Good Will tree.  Lucy and little Sky-High had bought them in Boston.  All those for the guests were blue-and-white mandarin plates, wrapped in squares of gay silk crape, and tied with a profusion of soft gold cord.  As the packages were alike, the celestial Santa Claus could present them without mistakes.

But there were some packages in red-and-gold crape still on the tree, not large ones—­not magic plates, certainly.

The Santa Claus unwrapped the three which he next took from the green branches.  The presents were amulets.  When unfolded they revealed bells and gems; the bells looked like gold; the gems like pure pearls, opals, and crystals.  One was a necklace for Mrs. Van Buren; one a bracelet for Lucy; and the other a charm for Charles.

The amulets awakened a great surprise.  The little golden bells burned with the red lusters of rubies, and tinkled as though they were dream-bells.

“They keep evil spirits away,” said Sky-High, with sparkling eyes.  “They ring warnings.”

Mrs. Van Buren rose and put one of the other packages in little Sky-High’s hand.  The wrappings revealed a four-fold case of gold, which some curious mechanism permitted to open into leaves, and stand us a tablet, or half-closed.  Each leaf held a small and perfect portrait—­the four were of the little serving-man’s mistress and her children and the master; and it is impossible to describe the blissful expression in Sky-High’s eyes when he first looked upon the familiar faces.

And there was still another package.  That one the little Chinaman had put on the Good Will tree for Nora.