Emily stared at him. Mrs. Barnes uttered a groan. Santa Claus smiled
feebly.
"Hello, Thankful," he said. "I--I cal'late you're surprised to see me,
ain't you?"
Thankful's lips moved.
"Are--are you livin' or--or dead?" she gasped.
"Me--Oh, I'm alive, but that's about all. Hey? It's Emily, ain't it?
Why--why, Emily, don't you know me?"
Miss Howes put the lamp down upon the table. Then she leaned heavily
upon a chair back.
"Cousin Jedediah!" she exclaimed. "It can't be--it--Auntie--"
But Thankful interrupted. She turned to Georgie.
"Is--is THIS your Santa Claus?" she faltered.
"Yes'm," answered Georgie.
"Jedediah Cahoon!" cried Thankful. "Jedediah Cahoon!"
For Georgie's "Santa Claus" was her brother, the brother who had run
away from her home so long ago to seek his fortune in the Klondike;
whose letter, written in San Francisco and posted in Omaha, had reached
her the month before; whom the police of several cities were looking for
at her behest.
"Auntie!" cried Emily again.
Thankful shook her head. "Help me to a chair, Emily," she begged weakly.
"This--this is--my soul and body! Jedediah come alive again!"
The returned gold-hunter swallowed several times.
"Thankful," he faltered, "I know you must feel pretty hard agin me,
but--but, you see--"
"Hush! hush! Don't speak to me for a minute. Let me get my bearin's, for
mercy sakes, if I can. . . . Jedediah--HERE!"
"Yes--yes, I'm here. I am, honest. I--"
"Sshh! You're here now, but--but where have you been all this time? For
a man that is, I presume likely, loaded down with money--I presume you
must be loaded down with it; you remember you'd said you'd never come
back until you was--for that kind of a man I must say you look pretty
down at the heel.
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