



Produced by Al Haines










[Illustration: Cover art]





[Frontispiece: "Bearing her awful cross in the footprints of the
Nazarene."]





THE MOTHER OF ST. NICHOLAS.

(SANTA CLAUS)

A Story of Duty and Peril.


BY

GRANT BALFOUR,

Author of "The Fairy School of Castle Frank."





TORONTO:

THE POOLE PRINTING COMPANY, LIMITED,

PUBLISHERS.




Entered, according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one
thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine by A. BALFOUR GRANT, in the
office of the Minister of Agriculture.




CONTENTS


Chapter

    I.  Watching for the Prey
   II.  A Ministering Angel
  III.  Still on the Watch
   IV.  The Amphitheatre
    V.  The Influence Working
   VI.  The Indignation of Tharsos
  VII.  The Perplexity of Carnion
 VIII.  Waiting for the Victim
   IX.  In the Arena
    X.  The Lion
   XI.  The Man with the Dagger
  XII.  Discipline
 XIII.  Night
  XIV.  Day
   XV.  Saint Nicholas




THE MOTHER OF ST. NICHOLAS

(SANTA CLAUS).



CHAPTER I.

WATCHING FOR THE PREY.

Go back into the third century after Christ, travel east into the
famous Mediterranean Sea, survey the beautiful south-west coast of Asia
Minor, and let your eyes rest on the city of Patara.  Look at it well.
Full of life then, dead and desolate now, the city has wonderful
associations in sacred and legendary lore--it saw the great reformer of
the Gentiles, and gave birth to the white-haired man of Christmas joy.

