There lived in a northern village a carpenter named Anderson, a skilled craftsman. One day, just before the New Year, while his wife and children were decorating the Christmas tree, Anderson quietly slipped out of the house. He had a bag of gifts, crackers, candies, and various toys prepared in his barn, and he wanted to dress up as Santa Claus, knock on the door and delight his Peter, Martha and Olaf with such an unexpected appearance.
The carpenter put the gifts on the sled and dragged them to the porch. The house stood on a hill, the slope was steep, Anderson was in a hurry and suddenly slipped, fell straight onto the sled and rolled down. And - bang! - he ran into a man who was walking along the road - and into a snowdrift, you can’t understand where his hands are now, where his legs are.
- Please excuse me! - Anderson said, getting out of the snow.
“It’s my fault,” the stranger justified himself, rising from a nearby snowdrift. Like Anderson, he was wearing a fur coat and a red hat, dressed as Santa Claus.
“I see you’re dressed up just like me!” - Anderson laughed. “Do you also want to play a prank on your kids, girls and boys?” - He extended his hand to the stranger:
- My name is Anderson. I'm a carpenter.
- And I'm Santa Claus.
Anderson laughed again.
- Well, New Year is the time for jokes, for all sorts of pranks and jokes.
“That’s what I thought,” said the stranger. “To make the joke even better, let’s switch: I’ll take the gifts to your children, and you’ll visit mine.” But just take off this suit.
Anderson was puzzled.
- How should I dress up?
- There is no need to dress up at all. My kids see Santa Claus every day, but they have never seen a real live carpenter. They will be so happy!
"So he really is Santa Claus!" - Anderson understood. Out loud he said:
“But I have nothing to give your children.”
- Present? - Santa Claus thought. - If you are a real carpenter, take with you pine logs, your chisels and drills. And the hammer too, and the rest will follow!
Anderson took the tools from the barn and went into the forest, to Santa Claus's house. How did he find his way? - there is nothing simpler - follow the tracks, to a birch grove and further to two pine trees in a clearing, and then to a fallen tree, under which there is a dugout. Because of the three stumps in the clearing, there are three baby noses. And above the noses are three red hats, like Santa Claus.
- Who are you? - asked the three little Santa Clauses.
“I am carpenter Anderson, and your father, Santa Claus, showed me the way to your house.”
The children were very happy:
- A real living carpenter!
Anderson had to bend almost in half to enter the dugout under a fallen tree. But it was spacious inside. The floor was earthen, there were hemp instead of chairs, there was moss on the beds - so soft that it was just oh! In the smallest crib lay the smallest Santa Claus, and in the corner sat grandfather Santa Claus, somewhat hard of hearing, and asked dully:
- Who came to us?
- This is Anderson, a real, living carpenter! - the children shouted loudly. They told Anderson that their grandfather was so old that he sat on a tree stump all the time and never got up.
The older boy tugged at Anderson's sleeve.
-Can you make a sled? Anderson laid out his tools and took out dried logs. And he made a sled, comfortable, light, very fast - beautiful work, neat, clean.
- And I need a bed for a doll! — the girl with red pigtails pulled the carpenter’s other sleeve. “I swaddle field mice or rock baby squirrels, put them to bed, they really love to play with dolls with me.”
The carpenter carved her a small doll's bed.
The younger boy stood aside, lowered his eyes to the ground, and didn’t ask for anything.
- What should I give you? Anderson asked him. The boy whispered:
- I don’t know.
Anderson made him a top from a pine stump.
- Be bold and be more fun!
And then Anderson found a long root with a hook at the end and began to plan it with a knife.
- What will it be, what are you making? - The children surrounded him, but he didn’t say anything until he finished his work. He made a crutch for the oldest Santa Claus!
- This is for you, grandfather! - the children brought the crutch to old Santa Claus. He groaned, coughed slightly and stood up from the stump!
And for the littlest Santa Claus, the carpenter quickly made a bird out of shavings - it looked like a titmouse.
- Thank you, carpenter Anderson! - the children shouted in unison. - We have never had such a good New Year - with gifts and a real, living carpenter!
When Anderson returned home, the first thing he asked was:
- Well, show me what gifts Santa Claus brought you.
- It's like you've never seen it! - Peter, Martha and the younger Olaf looked at each other slyly. - After all, it was you who dressed up as Santa Claus and brought us gifts on a sleigh.
- What do you say to this: today I met a real, living Santa Claus and was at his house, and made gifts for his children, and a real, living Santa Claus came to you.
The children laughed loudly.
- Dad, it was you, we guessed it. Even little Olaf knows that miracles don't happen!
Anderson got excited:
- It was a real, live Santa Claus!
But Peter, Martha and little Olaf still didn’t believe it, and then the carpenter Anderson came to me and asked me to write down his story on paper, with a quill pen and ink. When they tell stories, they sometimes lie, for the sake of saying something nice, but if it’s written on paper with a pen, it’s the pure truth, the point is clear!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru