W. H. D. Rouse
speaker
684 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2026
last heard 1 Aug
W. H. D. Rouse’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
ada was there and right behind her edwy's friend appeared on the scene all trim and fine her eyes full of love and before they knew it she had made a pounce upon edwy and the next moment had him in her arms
she said nothing about a wire-covered box that stood in the hall but seeing it accidentally after he had given her a good hug a real bear hug he said oh you've brought down one of my box traps is it one of them but we don't need any box traps here for there's nothing to catch
but willard by this time had torn off the cover the box was opened wide at last and oh wonder of wonders here was the little white cat their beautiful zephyr looking up at them with questioning eyes the shout that went up ended suddenly with the peculiarly happy screech of an indian war-whoop a sound they had not heard from edwy's lips for many a month
instead of jumping out of her box at once zephyr sat up on her cushion and began to wash her face with her velvet paw and when she saw edwy she began at once that high-toned purr as if to show her gratitude that after her long journey she had found her friends
her next act was to jump out of her box after one look at their glad faces and another glance from floor to ceiling and from ceiling to floor she started on a wild chase after one of the christmas apples that had rolled out on the floor
the boy and the cat now had their race of pure delight from room to room while the grace of her motions seemed the most wonderful in the world making all the people laugh the rapt happy look on edwy's face was a greater joy it was a marvel of expression zephyr was his very own to keep always
part eleven of a christmas miscellany twenty twenty three by various authors the dilemma of santa claus by lloyd castle douglas
among the many articles of my faith which have demanded revision from time to time none has experienced more radical changes than my conception of santa claus as a small child i was more sure of santa claus than of god of course i believed in god upon the advice of my elders and betters in whose unbroken word i trusted but i had never tried him out
such requests as i made of him in the reverential rumble of my twilight supplications were extremely vague a hazy sense of undefined need dissolved in a thin solution of rhythmic jingle nor do i recall any definite reactions thus obtained except the pleasurable sensation produced by the word amen
indeed unto this day amen is to my taste one of the most euphonious words in our language on occasions i have fairly yearned to hear it doubtless this constitutes a confession of serious moral lack on my part but if my thesis is to have merit its conspicuous virtue must be truth
pardoned by this resolution to be entirely honest come what may let me further add concerning the memorized prayer of my early childhood that it had an unpleasant trick of gouging into the most sensitive tissues of my subconscious
if i should die before i wake was one of the least enjoyable probabilities offered by the subjunctive mood whither we commonly resort for our brightest prospects and make me a good boy frankly invited one's memory to push into active consciousness certain hideous and humiliating defections perhaps painfully fresh and recent for which one had suffered much psychical shock
and mayhap physical also for in the period to which i allude solomon's exhortations on parental disciplines were as apples of gold in pictures of silver in most respectable households
the depression however produced by fushidy and make me a good boy was fleeting the words of the solemn rite skidded over the surface of thought without gripping the road to one's serious reflections so much for that too much perhaps
now santa claus to the child mind no less mysterious than god as to his nature attributes manner of life and place of abode was a scientific fact based upon experimental knowledge opinions might differ regarding minor dogmatic points
as to the exact process by which he entered the house on christmas eve for example the ultra-conservative insisting that the chimney tradition simply must be adhered to even in homes which boasted no such thing as a fireplace they would have it that santa claus came down the stovepipe
some of the most stiffly orthodox even believed he arrived through the valve in the steam radiator though this was purely academic no house where we lived was thus equipped again there were certain conservatives who maintained
that reindeer and sled constituted the only vehicular possibilities of santa claus going so far as to defend the idea in green seasons when any sane mind would have repudiated such transportation as being hopelessly impracticable
but however we may have differed over the adiaphora we were all agreed that santa claus came on christmas eve and contrived to effect an entrance after all that was the important consideration nothing else mattered much even if the disputants had arrived at a decision which so far as i know they never did
perhaps the debate is still brewing among the persons who know to-day that santa claus is real not very many of them did i hear you say not very many persons who believe that santa claus is real there are at least forty five hundred thousand people in this country alone who would stake their hobby horses and doll shoes that santa claus is the very realest of all known realities
Showing 601–620 of 684 · page 31 of 35
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