Page:Christmas stories (IA christmasstories00faul).pdf/67

 Christmas tree, they asked Mother Santa Claus to help them. “Have everything ready,” said Mother Santa Claus, “and, after Father has gone on his long journey, we will go out to the forest and trim the tree, and have everything in place before he comes home again. We will keep it as a great secret, for if he hears of it all our fun and surprise will be gone.”

“We will never let him hear a whisper from us,” said the fairies. “We will work and will wait patiently until Christmas Eve.”

Then the fairies, true to their promise, worked and worked helping Father and Mother Santa Claus to make the Christmas gifts, and they were all very busy. Some of these dear little fairies helped Mother Santa Claus to make doll clothes and to furnish dolls’ houses, hemming tiny table-cloths,