“I thought somebody had kidnapped you,” said Snythergen when Sancho Wing returned. “Why were you gone so long?” “I was visiting Santa Claus. He invited us all to dinner, and the door-man will now let us in. Follow me,” said Sancho.
“Is it the three wise men?” bellowed the flunky through the keyhole when they knocked.
“It is,” said Sancho Wing.
[124]
The large door swung open and the flunky prepared to make his best bow. But he could hardly welcome three such different beings with one salute, so he greeted each one separately. To Snythergen he leaned back, pointed his face toward the ceiling, and bobbed down and up by bending and straightening his knees. Sancho Wing, like most little people, wished to appear important, and when it came his turn to bow he raised himself on tip claws and stretched up to make his body as tall as he could; then leaning forward stiffly he flapped his left wing. Puzzled to know just how to respond to this, the door-man got down on his knees, and turning his head sideways wiggled his left ear. Squeaky had a habit of tossing his head when he bowed, and the flunky merely gave him a toss of the head in return.
[125]
 
The door-man turning his head sideways wiggled his left ear
 
[126]
In the hall the housekeeper welcomed them very kindly, offering to show them about while Santa Claus dressed for dinner. When she learned that they were the “three wise men” she treated them with great respect. Inside, the house seemed even larger than it had from without, and Snythergen was thankful for ceilings so high that he could stand up comfortably. So enormous were the rooms each one might have been used as a public hall. There was[127] little furniture—mostly vast spaces with a background of oriental carpets and cathedral windows.
“What is this?” asked Snythergen, as they came into an odd little room in the basement with circular wall and a spotless aluminum floor. To cross it they walked on a bridge, raised several feet above the floor.
“This is the pie room,” said the housekeeper. “The crust is rolled out on the pie pan floor and the work of putting in the filling is managed from the bridge. When it is ready, we light the gas under the floor and the pie is cooked.”
“But who could ever eat such a big one?” asked Sancho Wing.
“Oh, the bear eats most of it,” said the housekeeper.
“The bear!” cried they in great alarm. “Is there a bear?”
“Yes,” said the housekeeper.
Snythergen turned pale and looked for the door. Squeaky had already started to run and Sancho Wing flew up to the ceiling.
“Stay right here—there’s nothing to fear,” said the housekeeper, calling them back.
“The bear arrived about a week ago,” she continued when they were able to listen. “We[128] did not want to let him in but Santa Claus telephoned the keeper at the zoological gardens and asked if bears were safe.”
“‘They are,’ said he, ‘if you feed them olives and custard pie.’
“We tried it and it worked, and now there is not a quieter member of our family than the bear after he is fed. When he is hungry is the only time he is quarrelsome. But at such times we keep food between ourselves and him.”
“We had a bear too,” said Snythergen, “but he always stole away as soon as he had eaten, and never came near except when he was hungry.”
“That’s just like our bear,” said the housekeeper, “forever trying to hide when he is not at his best. But Santa Claus has him sit around and visit after dinner, though he makes a very sorry figure.”
“Why, what does he do?” asked Squeaky.
“As soon as he is fed his spirit is gone,” replied the housekeeper. “He becomes as timid as a mouse, and trembles if you look at him; jumps if you speak to him; blushes if you pay him any attention.”
“How does a bear blush?” asked Snythergen.
 
“Bears should not talk when their mouths are full of food,” said Santa Claus kindly
 
“He does it with his lips. They change color back and forth very rapidly from pink to red. But Santa Claus is coming and it is time for[129] dinner.” As she spoke they entered a dining room so large, the huge table and ancestral chairs seemed like dolls’ furniture in its vast interior.
And now Santa Claus entered smiling blandly. He was attired in gorgeous evening clothes—a flaming swallowtail coat lined with crimson, ............