Free How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas by Jeff Guinn Page A

fierce tribes in the north and west constantly assaulting the people of the central and southern regions. At the same time, Saxons from across the sea often sailed over to conduct raids. Why, we kept asking each other, couldn’t everyone stop fighting and begin enjoying the wonderful world given to them by God? Then Attila would remind us that too many people measured themselves by how much they could take from others.
    â€œI was like that,” he would always point out. “Though I’m pleased to have learned giving gifts is more satisfying than owning things myself, it was a hard-earned lesson. But if I can learn it from you, then others can, too.”

    Attila
    Almost everyone in Britain was desperately poor. Though we’d arrived with plenty of money, very little food or clothing was for sale. What we did find in sad marketplaces were old, stringy vegetables, and sandals and blankets so filthy and tattered that beggars in other parts of the world would have disdained them. So we had to arrange to buy proper gifts like cheeses and dried fruits and well-made blankets from markets in Europe, and have these shipped by boat over to Britain. Then we paid English farmers to let us store these things in their barns. So long as we paid in advance, no one ever asked us why we were doing this. They were just grateful for the few extra coins.
    And yet, with the awful fighting and nearly universal poverty, there was still something special about this country. If the people were poor, they were also hopeful, certain that somehow, some way, they would eventually live in peace. Instead of moping in times of trouble, they made up songs and stories about wonderful heroes who would one day come to their rescue. For fifty years we wandered among them, leaving our gifts when we could, trying to avoid battlefields and hoping along with all the ordinary folk that better times for them would soon be coming.
    Around the year 500, a British war chief named Arthur won several spectacular victories against Saxon invaders. Many people in Britain believed he must be the longed-for hero who would save the land, but Attila told us that there was no chance Arthur could hold off the Saxons for very long.

    Arthur
    â€œThere are too many of them,” he said, looking rather sad. “This Arthur is a brave man and a great leader, but anyone who fights constantly must eventually lose to someone stronger. This is true now, and will be throughout history. I only hope he escapes with his life.”
    With our help, Arthur did. One day we found him lying badly wounded in a barn, with his Saxon enemies all around. Obviously, we couldn’t leave him there, and he became our sixth member. After he recovered, Arthur proved to be a very good addition to the group. He was brave, as Attila had guessed, and quite resourceful, too. He could carve wood book covers even better than Felix, and his love for his country despite its terrible wars was sincere.
    I believe it was because of Arthur that Britain remained so important to us all. For the next six hundred years we divided our time between that island nation, Europe, and Asia Minor, meeting people and giving gifts and trying always to bring a little joy and comfort to children who most desperately needed reminding that the world was not entirely a cruel, dangerous place. All of us were happy anywhere we went, but it was during our visits to Britain that Arthur seemed the most content.
    â€œThough battles and invasions continue—the Saxons who conquered my people are now being challenged in their turn by the Normans sailing in from France—I know that the English people themselves are especially noble in spirit,” Arthur said one night as we gathered around a campfire in the hills outside the town of London, which had originally been built by the Romans a thousand years earlier. “If peace ever comes to this land, the rest of the world will look to Britain for inspiration and