superstition and awe.

It was reported that during the year St. Nick, as he was commonly called,
was busy manufacturing and preparing wonderful toys to be distributed
throughout the country among the children who were deserving. In order to
know to whom the presents were to go, he sent out his elves into the homes
to take an inventory of the lives of die children. These reports were to be
returned just before Christmas eve so that he could use them as a guide in
distributing his gifts. For all the children who were not entitled to
presents tortures of many kinds were invented. These were to be inflicted
when the annual tours were made.

All this and much more Edwin had heard in his former home at each
Christmas-tide, and as the tortures had always been his lot, he did not
like to think about the great mountain any more than he could help. It was
little wonder that he felt this dread, for to him St. Nick was a fierce and
terrible monster. But it was a great mystery to him why St. Nick had never
found out about Elmer's misdeeds.

Even at the age of ten Edwin was very small, and his ignorance concerning
the ordinary things of life was really painful. A dread of not being
understood seemed constantly to hover over him, and as he had been taught
to feel himself inferior and in the way, there was no opportunity for him
to improve. When company came to the house, he was ordered to remain in the
kitchen or in the yard, but never in hearing-distance, and he was always
too busy to visit had he been permitted to do so. A few times he had been
sent to school to help the smaller children through the snow or mud, but it
was only occasionally and with no explanation as to the meaning of school
or the value of learning.