HICKORY HOG AND THE CHRISTMAS RASCAL, part 23

PART 23, December 23

"You Did What?!" every voice in the lair exclaimed.

"I unseeded the clouds. Now it won't snow at all."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know how sometimes when it doesn't rain people will go up in the air and seed the clouds to get them to release the water in them. I put exactly the opposite in the air to unseed them. I only got to send. up four of my ten rockets, but that should be enough. There will be no snow in Potatotown this Christmas."

That statement left everyone in a quandary. What could they do? They had the Christmas Rascal at last, but what could they do to him. Anything mean would just make them mean and thus take away more of their joy.

"You mean there's no way it will snow at all?"

"That's right. I fixed that but good. Once the clouds are unseeded that's that."

"Well, there's got to be something we can do."

"Oh, I expect there is, but you couldn't do it in time."

"What's that?"

"You could reseed the clouds."

"But how?"

"Wouldn't you like to know. Ha, ha, ha!"

Hickory Hog called his friends aside. "This calls for action," he said. "I want you all to go outside and wait for me, I'm going to persuade the Christmas Rascal to fix things."

"How are you going to do that?" asked Whizzer Worm. "Sit on him?"

"No, I'm going to tell him something that will make him fix everything up. Now go on outside. I'll call you when I'm ready."

© 1989 Kevin Don Levellie