once quite as popular with the little girls as with the little boys of
his native village; for he was so generous that he gave away all these
pretty things as fast as he made them.

Claus seemed to know by instinct every language. As he grew older he
would ramble off into the woods and talk with the trees, the rocks,
and the beasts of the greenwood; or he would sit on the cliffs
overlooking the fiord, and listen to the stories that the waves of the
sea loved to tell him; then, too, he knew the haunts of the elves and
the stille-volk, and many a pretty tale he learned from these little
people. When night came, old Jans told him the quaint legends of the
North, and his mother sang to him the lullabies she had heard when a
little child herself in the far-distant East. And every night his
mother held out to him the symbol in the similitude of the cross, and
bade him kiss it ere he went to sleep.

So Claus grew to manhood, increasing each day in knowledge and in
wisdom. His works increased too; and his liberality dispensed
everywhere the beauteous things which his fancy conceived and his
skill executed. Jans, being now a very old man, and having no son of
his own, gave to Claus his forge and workshop, and taught him those
secret arts which he in youth had learned from cunning masters. Right
joyous now was Claus; and many, many times the Northern sky glowed
with the flames that danced singing from the forge while Claus moulded
his pretty toys. Every color of the rainbow were these flames; for
they reflected the bright colors of the beauteous things strewn round
that wonderful workshop. Just as of old he had dispensed to all
children alike the homelier toys of his youth, so now he gave to all
children alike these more beautiful and more curious gifts. So little
children everywhere loved Claus, because he gave them pretty toys, and