Tommy Trot's Visit to Santa Claus by Thomas Nelson Page

When they reached home Tommy, after warming his hands and telling his / mother about the sled, set to work to write a letter to Santa Claus on / behalf of Johnny, and as he wrote, a number of things came to him that / he thought Johnny would like to have. He remembered that he had no / gloves and that his hands were very red; that his cap was very old and / too small for him; that a real flexible flier would be a fine thing / for him. Then, as he had asked for a gun for himself to hunt polar / bears with and a fur coat to go out with in the snow, he added these / in Johnny's letter also; in fact, he asked for Johnny just the things / he had asked for himself, except the goats, and, as Johnny had two / goats, it was not necessary to ask for them for him. Instead of goats, / however, he asked that Santa Claus might give Johnny's mother a cow, / as good as one of their cows. As he was not a very rapid writer it / took him some time to write this letter, especially, as he did not / know how to spell a good many words, and had to ask his mother how to / spell them, for his father had gone out soon after their return from / taking the sled to Johnny, and immediately after showing him the / picture of the polar bear and the map of the North-pole region. Then / when the letter was all done, signed and sealed, Tommy carefully / dropped it in the fire in the library, and watched it as it first / twisted up, then burst into a blaze, and finally disappeared in flame / and smoke up the big chimney, hoping that it would blow away like the / wind to Santa Claus to catch him before he started out that night on / his round of visits.

By this time his supper was ready and he found that he was very / hungry. He had no sooner finished it than he drew up in a big chair by / the warm fire, and began to wonder whether Santa Claus would get his / letter in time, and, if so, what he would bring Johnny. The fire was / warm and his eyes soon began "to draw straws," but he did not wish to / go to bed quite yet and, indeed, had a lingering hope that when his / father returned he might coax him into letting him go out again and / slide with Johnny and then, perhaps, stand a chance of seeing Santa / Claus come up the long hill, with his reindeer flying like the wind / over the snow and taking the roofs of the houses with a single bound. / So he moved over to the sofa where he could see better, and where it / would not be likely his sleepiness would be observed.