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Show (Copyright.) 'M GOING to-write 4i-pj- Santa Claus a Iet-( Iet-( I ter asking him to A I I J bring me the , j J. things for Christ-mas Christ-mas Wllnt," said Bobby Sawyer. "M a m m a says feJpsF J that because papa rs? won't ever come iZ&'AilW home any more kwV Ave cfn't have any tM;. Christmas gift. I don't see why, be- cause papa v-ns lost at sea, Santa Claus won't come as lie used to. I hear of children writing to Santa for what they want and I'm going to write to him, too." So Bobby sat down and wrote his etter. He spelled bugle, bugel, and Christmas, Crismus, and some of the words were so bungled that the old fellow must have had a hard time deciphering de-ciphering them ; but all the thing's Bob wanted were named in the letter and he did not doubt for a moment that Santa Claus would respond generously. gen-erously. One morning shortly before Christmas, Christ-mas, Peter the postman left a letter at the door addressed to Robert Sawyer. Saw-yer. Peter who had long delivered the letters of the Sawyer family would not J Wrote His Letter. give it to anybody but Bobby, saying that Santa Claus required him to give any letters marked "from Kris Krin-gle" Krin-gle" to the child to whom It was addressed ad-dressed and to no one else. Bobby opened it and read: "Dear Bobby : "I have received your letter and will bring you the finest Christmas present you ever received in your lif-.. "SA'NTA T.AI"S." Bob of course wr.s delighted with this, and he noticed that from the time of its receipt everything about the house seemed to take on a certain cheeriness. Bobby laid in wait for Peter Pe-ter when he came again and asked him a lot of questions as to how and where Santa Claus gave him the letter. Peter Pe-ter said that lie was not permitted to tell children anything about Santa Claus. They must hang up their stockings stock-ings and wait for him to fill them. T.'.'s was three days before Christmas. Christ-mas. Bobby who was very watchful detect, -1 h.j mother smuggling in cer tain packages. This puzzled him, for ; his mamma had told him there would 1 be no gifts this year and he did not J expect any except what Santa Clans would bring. Bobby asked his moth- j er if what she brought in was intend- ' ed for Christmas, hut she gave him no satisfaction, though she took him in her arms and gave him a bear hug and a dozen kisses. She seemed as happy as if she expected Santa Claus to bring everything she wanted fur Christmas. The day before Christmas a messenger mes-senger boy came with a telegram for Mrs. Sawyer. She tore off the envelope envel-ope and read it, and looked very happy, hap-py, giving the messenger a half dollar. dol-lar. Bobby asked what the telegram was about. She told him it was about a Christmas gift she and all the rest of the family were to receive, and when Bobby kept asking again and again "What is it mamma?" she gave him another bear hug and smothered him with kisses. Bobby had a sister, Edith, twelve years old, and a brother Jim, ten. Both of them were too old to sympathize with Bc bby in his faith in Santa Claus bringing him the gift he had promised him in his letter. Indeed they didn't believe Santa Claus really wrote letters let-ters to children. Bobby tried his best to get out of Edith or Jim what made their mother so happy, but they would not tell. Indeed they seemed almost as happy as she. Having failed with them Bobby tried Peter the postman. Peter said he suspected Santa Claus had something to do with the family happiness, but he was not sure. So poor Bobby was obliged to swallow his ctiriosity and wait for Christmas morning. morn-ing. Bobby went to bed on Christmas eve determined to resist the sandman and lceep his "eye9 open all night, so that he might get a glimpse of Santa Claus and see what his remarkable gift was. But the sandman soon began to drop sand in Bobby's lids, and he was asleep in ten minutes after his head struck the pillow. When Bobby awoke the sun was quite high in the heavens. He heard the word "Bobby !" shouted in his ears and at the same time felt himself gently gent-ly shaken. He did not awaken by degrees, de-grees, but nil at once. And there standing before him and looking down upon him, smiling, was his papa. "Why, papa !" he exclaimed, "I thought you were never going to come home any more." "Santa Claus told me that he was to bring me home to my little boy for a Christmas gift." Bobby threw his arms around his father's fa-ther's neck and hugged and hugged, and it seemed that he would never liiS "Why, Papa!" He Exclaimed. let go. Mamma, and Edith and Jim came in and so great was the excitement excite-ment that Bobby forgot to look for what was In his stocking.' That was certainly the happiest Christinas the Sawyer family ever spent or ever would spend. Bobby was too young to have it all explained to him, but when he is older his mother intends to tell him that his father was on a vessel that was torpedoed and sunk. Mr. Sawyer was reported missing, miss-ing, but he was picked up out of the water by au American cruiser and in time managed to get home. After word came that he was saved the letter was written to Bobby by his sister as from Santa Claus, and afterwards a telegram tele-gram came saying that his father would be home on Christmas morning |