STORY x__

FLOPPY AND THE STOCKINGS

"Flop Ear," said Mrs. Twistytail, the pig lady, to her son one
afternoon, "I think you will have to go to the store for me now."

"All right, I'm ready to go," said Flop Ear, "only I thought Curly
Tail just went, and that I could stay home and read my picture
book."

"He did go," said the pig lady, "but after I sent him for the
cocoanut to make the Christmas cake, I happened to remember that I
needed some chocolate to make a chocolate cake, so I think you will
have to go for that. I could send Baby Pinky, only she is over at
Jennie Chipmunk's, playing with her dolls."

"Oh, I'll go!" said Flop Ear, and he laid aside his book, and got
ready to go to the store. It was getting nearer and nearer to
Christmas every day, and, though the piggie boys hadn't seen Santa
Claus himself since that one time in the woods, they had seen a lot
of people dressed up like him.

You know jolly old St. Nicholas lets folks do that so he won't be
bothered so much when he is so busy. He has so much to do, arranging
about the presents that are to go in the stockings and down the
chimneys, that if he was interfered with, or talked to too much,
he'd never get done.

So he allows a lot of make-believe Santa Clauses to go around the
streets and in stores, making the children as happy as they can. But
they are not the real ones, only make-believes, though some of them
are very nice. Then the real Santa Claus has his time to himself.

And Floppy and Curly were not a bit sad that they had given up their
two chief toys, as I told you in the story last night, to the poor
boy and the lame boy.

Well, in a little while, not so very long, Flop Ear got to the
store, and he bought the cake of chocolate for his mother.

"And here is something for yourself," said the store man to the
piggie boy, and he gave him a cookie, with caraway seeds and little
candies on the top.

Then Flop Ear was glad he had gone to the store, and he was walking
along, nibbling on the cookie, and saving a bit for his brother and
Baby Pinky, his sister, when, all at once he heard a voice say:

"Here, little piggie boy, I want you!"

He looked all around, thinking it might be the fuzzy wolf or the bad
skillery-scalery alligator, but all he saw was good kind Nurse Jane
Fuzzy Wuzzy.

"Oh, I beg your pardon for thinking you were some one else," said
Flop Ear. "I took you for a wolf. What can I do for you?"

"I have dropped my ball of yarn, from which I was knitting a pair of
mittens for Sammie Littletail," said the kind muskrat. "The ball
dropped in the dirt and I can't find it. I wonder if you could?"

So Flop Ear hurried over to the rabbit house, where Nurse Jane
lived; she was the only one at home that day. And, by rooting around
in the dirt with his rubbery-ubbery nose, Flop Ear soon found the
ball of yarn.

"Oh, how smart you are!" exclaimed Nurse Jane. "And, as a little
present to you I am going to give you a pair of stockings that I
knitted myself. You can hang them up for Santa Claus on Christmas."

"Oh, thank you!" cried Flop Ear, as he took the stockings, which
were very big. Far too big they were for him, but he was too polite
to say so. And he thought, in case he couldn't wear them, that it
was all the better to have them big for Christmas, since Santa Claus
could put so much more in them.

Then Flop Ear, with the stockings, and the cake of chocolate, having
helped Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, started for home. And on the way he
passed a place where there were a lot of dried leaves, and he
thought to himself:

"I'll fill one of the stockings with dried leaves and take them
home. They will make a good bed for Baby Pinky's doll," and so he
did fill one of the big stockings with leaves.

Then he went on a little further, carrying the one empty stocking
and the one filled with leaves, which was almost as large as Flop
Ear himself.

All of a sudden, as the piggie boy was going along, he came to a
hole in the ground, and while he was wondering who lived there, all
at once out popped a big fox, with a tail as large as a dusting
brush.

"This is where I get you!" cried the fox, and he made a spring for
the piggie boy. But Flop Ear was too quick for him, and away he
sprang, with the big-tailed creature after him.

"Stop! Stop! Wait for me!" cried the fox.

"I can't--I haven't time," answered Flop, and on he went, faster
than before. But a fox is a good racer, and soon he was almost up to
the piggie. Just then Flop Ear dashed behind a big log, and there he
found a little mouse sitting.

"Why are you in such a hurry?" asked the mouse.

"Because the fox is after me," replied Flop Ear, "and he is right
behind me, ready to grab me."

"Squeak!" cried the mouse. "The only way to get clear from a fox is
to fool him. Now what have you there besides the cake of chocolate?"
asked the mouse, for he could see that plainly enough.

"A stocking full of leaves," answered Flop, "and one empty. Also
part of a cookie."

"Very well," spoke the mouse. "Give me the cookie, and I will tell
you how to fool the fox."

Well, Flop Ear did not want to give away his cookie, but he thought
it was better to do that than to be eaten himself, so he gave the
sweet little cake to the mouse, who said:

"Now, when the fox comes up here, just toss out over the log the
stocking filled with leaves. The fox will think it is you, and he
will carry it off to his den before he finds out his mistake. By
that time you can run off home."

"But I will lose the Christmas stocking," said the piggie boy.

"It is better to lose one stocking than your life," said the mouse.
"Besides, one of those stockings is big enough for any piggie boy
for Christmas."

Then Flop Ear did as he was told. Just as the fox came running
along, over the log the piggie boy tossed the stocking filled with
leaves. The fuzzy creature grabbed it, crying out:

"Ah, this is the time I have Floppy!" and he imagined the pig was in
the stocking. Without stopping to look, off to his den ran the fox
with the stocking filled with leaves, and when he found out his
mistake--oh wow! Wasn't he disappointed though!

But Floppy got safely home with the other stocking and the cake of
chocolate and nothing else happened that night, except that Mrs.
Twistytail sent the kind mouse a souvenir postal inviting him to
come to the Christmas dinner.

And on the next page, provided the p____ cat draws a pail of pink
lemonade from the white inkwell, and gives the rubber doll a drink,
I'll tell you about the Twistytails' Christmas.

See also:
JustSomeLyrics
75
75.87
Alison Krauss Get Me Through December 2 Lyrics
Stray Cats (Brian Setzer) Stray Cats Strut Lyrics