The kid Freddie receives an excellent Christmas gift. |
“Jingle be-e-ells, jingle be-e-ells”, sang our goats in bleating sopranos. I did not join, but sometimes made easy thumpings with my right hoof to keep up the rhythm. Frankly, Christmas does not suit me perfectly - as far as I know some lamb was born on this day, so sheep seem to have stronger claims on the festivity than anybody else. We, goats, must have our own festival apart - something like the nativity of Pan, who is a goat after all. Still, the magnificence of the Christmas tree appealed to me - the cabbage- and cauliflower-shaped baubles of various hues: green, yellow and purple were illumined gorgeously by the multicolored lights, and the carrots which were really MARZIPANS hung from the branches, smelling sweetly and resinously. “Merry Christmas”, said I to myself, picking one of the marzipans. O, it tasted like ambrosia! I picked another one... “Freddie!” Belinda’s voice was heard. “I’ve found you by these “um, um” sounds. Don’t eat up all the marzipans, have the decency! Look, here’s a package for you”. She was holding out to me a parcel tied up with a pink ribbon. It matched cosily the blue ribbon that adorned Belinda’s little horns. The parcel was inscribed with “To the kid Freddie from Hollywood”. “Hm”, I nodded approvingly, “the guys are not overslow in answering”. The parcel contained a letter and a stack of paper sheets. The letter read: “Dear Freddie! We have received your request concerning our worst scenario and we must admit that it took us by surprise. We have a great many bad scenarios here, in Hollywood, but which is the worst one? We discovered to our dismay that we did not possess such a vital information! Oh, it was so bad, Freddie! But no so bad luckily as many of our scenarios are. So we rolled up our sleeves, searched hard and persistently and at last found a really precious item. We send it to you absolutely for free and as a Christmas gift and ask about only one favour: please, do not send it back! Merry Christmas, Freddie!” “And to you, men, too” said I, nodding in the direction of Hollywood, took up the stack of paper-sheets and got immediately absorbed in reading... |