Explore "What "Old Santa" Overheard" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
_'Tis said old Santa Claus one time_ / _Told this joke on himself in rhyme: _ / One Christmas, in the early din / That ever leads the morning in, / I heard the happy children shout / In rapture at the toys turned out / Of bulging little socks and shoes -- / A joy at which I could but choose / To listen enviously, because / I'm always just "Old Santa Claus," -- / But ere my rising sigh had got / To its first quaver at the thought, / It broke in laughter, as I heard / A little voice chirp like a bird, --
"Old Santa's mighty good, I know. / And awful rich -- and he can go / Down ever' chimbly anywhere / In all the world! -- But I don't care, / _I_ wouldn't trade with _him_, and be / Old Santa Clause, and him be me, / Fer all his toys and things! -- and _I_ / Know why, and bet you _he_ knows why! -- / They _wuz_ no Santa Clause when _he_ / Wuz ist a little boy like me! "