"Yet why were you frightened at seeing it?" he asked. "It is only a
toy to play with!"

"It's bad!" said Mayrie, decidedly, "an'--an'--just horrid, an' not a
bit nice, like tats!"

"Perhaps you are right," returned Claus, thoughtfully. "But if you
will return with me to the house I will soon make you a pretty cat."

So they timidly entered the house again, having faith in their
friend's words; and afterward they had the joy of watching Claus carve
out a cat from a bit of wood and paint it in natural colors. It did
not take him long to do this, for he had become skillful with his knife
by this time, and Mayrie loved her toy the more dearly because she had
seen it made.

After his little visitors had trotted away on their journey homeward
Claus sat long in deep thought. And he then decided that such fierce
creatures as his friend the lioness would never do as models from
which to fashion his toys.

"There must be nothing to frighten the dear babies," he reflected;
"and while I know Shiegra well, and am not afraid of her, it is but
natural that children should look upon her image with terror.
Hereafter I will choose such mild-mannered animals as squirrels and
rabbits and deer and lambkins from which to carve my toys, for then
the little ones will love rather than fear them."

He began his work that very day, and before bedtime had made a wooden
rabbit and a lamb. They were not quite so lifelike as the cats had