HICKORY HOG AND THE CHRISTMAS RASCAL, part 9

PART 9, December 9

"THE WHO?" exclaimed the hog, worm and bird.

"You know," said the-little old man. "The Christmas Rascal, See it says all about him in the paper here."

He held up a copy of the POTATOTOWN PRESS which he had just pulled out of his inside coat pocket, There in the headlines were these words: CHRISTMAS RASCAL LOOSE IN THE AREA. There was a blank area under the headline filled up by a big question mark. Apparently nobody knew what he looked like, even though it was plainly evident that he had been around.

Hickory Hog took the paper in his hooves and began to read, "It says here, 'Once again the Christmas Rascal has been heard from. Residents all over the area have been sending in complaints of the things he has done. It is a common mode of operation of his to take things which people prize and thus rob them of their Christmas joy» He feels that since people are so attached to their things and since he wants to upset them, the perfect way to do it is through their possessions.

"'Mrs. Prister Pontsworthy places a great deal of pride in her silver service for 73. Every year she entertains her friends of the Potatotown Potato Peelers Club for a special Christmas Party, There are only always 73 members in the club, no more, no less. Last night the Christmas Rascal came in and took away service for one. There is not enough time to get another setting of silver for tomorrow night’s gala affair and Mrs. Pontsworthy is seriously considering, for the first time, canceling her Christmas party. She told this reporter, "I just don't know what to do, I can't take anyone off the list, because every one of our members always comes to all our meetings, and I can’t serve with anything else, and I can't give someone a set that doesn't match, I guess I'll just have to close down for the first time in the 54 years we've been meeting at our house."'"

"That's terrible," said Whizzer Worm.

"But there's more here," said Hickory. "'He took all the chrome off 17 year old Stevie Thinklebine's 1957 Chevie. It took his preacher a long time to persuade him that life was still worth living. He took a baby's pacifier right in the middle of a department store, and there was nothing the parents could do to quiet it down. Everything he does seems devoted to destroying people's joy.”

"That's still not all. It says here that he sent a note to the paper saying that he was going to do everything that he could to keep it from snowing at Christmas, so that nobody would have fun!"

© 1989 Kevin Don Levellie