Just before the child happens in some way
or other to lose the sweet and winsome Santa
Claus superstition, he is a wonderfully interesting
study, in his combination of the actual
and the legendary. The Santa Claus story is
one that the world will not willingly let die.
Whether the enterprising little fellow represented
as indulging in the following reflections,
knows the whole truth, in Santa Claus
lore, or a part of it, or none of it, may be
left to the imagination of the reader—who
probably can remember at about what time
he himself (or she herself) learned the real
state of such matters. Of course we all wish
it were true.
