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"No, indeed!" replied Glossie; "we enjoyed the trip very much." "And we tried to get home by daybreak," added Flossie, "but were unfortunately a minute too late." "A minute lost at daybreak doesn't matter," said Ak. "You are forgiven for that delay." "Provided it does not happen again," said the Prince of the Knooks, sternly.
"These will please Glossie and Flossie," said Claus, as he jingled the bells and listened to their merry sound. "But I should have two strings of bells, one for each deer." "Bring me another trumpet and a toy cat," replied the King, "and you shall have a second string of bells like the first." "It is a bargain!" cried Claus, and he went home again for the toys.
Presently Flossie asked: "What is that gray streak in the sky?" "It is the coming dawn of day," answered Claus, surprised to find that it was so late. "Good gracious!" exclaimed Glossie; "then we shall not be home by daybreak, and the Knooks will punish us and never let us come again." "We must race for the Laughing Valley and make our best speed," returned Flossie; "so hold fast, friend Claus!"
Will Knook, the chief guardian of the deer, came to him, surly and ill-tempered, to complain that he had kept Glossie and Flossie beyond daybreak, in opposition to his orders. "Yet it could not have been very long after daybreak," said Claus. "It was one minute after," answered Will Knook, "and that is as bad as one hour.
It was certainly a handsome sledge, and big and roomy. Claus painted it in bright colors, although no one was likely to see it during his midnight journeys, and when all was finished he sent for Glossie and Flossie to come and look at it. The deer admired the sledge, but gravely declared it was too big and heavy for them to draw.
"We might pull it over the snow, to be sure," said Glossie; "but we would not pull it fast enough to enable us to visit the far-away cities and villages and return to the Forest by daybreak." "Then I must add two more deer to my team," declared Claus, after a moment's thought. "The Knook Prince allowed you as many as ten. Why not use them all?" asked Flossie.
I shall set the stinging gnats on Glossie and Flossie, and they will thus suffer terribly for their disobedience." "Don't do that!" begged Claus. "It was my fault." But Will Knook would listen to no excuses, and went away grumbling and growling in his ill-natured way. For this reason Claus entered the Forest to consult Necile about rescuing the good deer from punishment.
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