A Newfangled Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page A

Slippery Slope, where
the Elves test ride sleds and toboggans. Nobody there, either.
    “Don’t have time to stand out here all
morning just gawking,” I muttered in the frosty air. I went inside
the workshop and got busy making bears.
    When I got the first one finished, I took it
over to put it on the stack of bears I’d already made. Even though
I’d lost count of how many I had put together, I was proud of
everyone of them. I was beginning to feel like a first class techie
myself.
    But when I got to the spot where the bears
should have been, they were all gone! Missing! Not one single
Hug-A-Bear was there!
    “A thief hit the workshop!” I gasped. Panic
was setting in. “Who would do such a terrible thing?” My scalp
started to tingle. It felt like spiders were dancing in my hair. My
legs got wobbly.
    I peered around the shadowy workshop. With
the Elves away, I hadn’t turned on all the lights. Could the thief
be lurking in a dark corner? I wondered.
    I tiptoed around the workshop. I peered into
dusky corners. I looked under the skate board assembly-line. Behind
Barbie’s Dream House and behind her Grand Hotel. Over the rows of
bikes waiting for their wheels. I looked everywhere, but I didn’t
find the thief.
    Finally I sat down beside a sewing machine
and sobbed. Who would do a thing like this? Who could possibly ruin
Christmas for all the boys and girls? I didn’t have a clue.
    Or did I?
    I remembered the footprints around the
workshop door. Dozens of them. Did they belong to the thieves who
stole all the Hug-A-Bears?
    Slowly I got to my feet. I’d follow those
footprints and catch the thieves, by golly. I’d get those low down,
dadblasted criminals if it was the last thing I ever did. They were
not going to spoil Christmas. Not if I had anything to say about
it.
    I threw open the door and started to step
outside. But instead, I stopped stone cold in my tracks.
    There stood the Elves--all seven-hundred
twenty-two of them--with huge grins on their faces. But that’s not
all.
    They were holding seven-hundred twenty-two
Hug-A-Bears in their arms.
     

Chapter 11
     
    MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
     
    “Santa, we’re so sorry we went on strike,”
Edgar began. “But you see, in all the years that we’ve been making
toys, no one ever told us we couldn’t make toys that children
wanted. It really hurt out feelings...at first.” He paused.
    I could see tears in his eyes. But I kept
quiet. I knew he had more to say.
    ”Please forgive us,” he went on. “We want to
come back to work!”
    The Elves were crowding closer. Each one held
up a bear.
    “We’ve been watching you make these cuddly
bears that give hugs all by themselves, and we think they’re cool,”
added Elvis, one of the younger Elves.
    “We decided making electronic toys didn’t
look as hard as we had thought,” said Rufus.
    “Or as scary,” said Climo.
    “So last night each one of us borrowed a bear
and took it home,” chimed in Charlie Chin, the only Elf who had no
hair.
    By now all the Elves were trying to talk
above each other. I held up my hand for silence.
    “Edgar, will you please tell me what’s going
on?” I asked when they had gotten quiet. “Why did you...er...borrow
the bears?”
    “To take them apart and see if we could put
them back together so that they worked again. And we could!” Edgar
said excitedly.
    Then every single one of those Elves put the
Hug-A-Bear he was holding up to his neck. And right before my eyes
every single one of those bears gave a big old hug.
    “And now we know we can make any kind of
toys,” said Clayton. His face was beaming. “Even newfangled ones
like these.”
    “Please ask the techie to come back and teach
us how to make more toys,” said Elmo. “Ask him to come today. We’ve
got to get started right away to get all of them made in time for
Christmas.”
    “I want to make robot crocodiles,” shouted
someone in the back of the crowd.
    “Heather Hoolas!” yelled another Elf.
    The