“Gather
‘round, you little lovelies -- how’d you like your Grampa to tell you a bit of
a Christmas story?”
“Tell
us, Grampa! Tell us!”
“Well,
I think I just might then. Have you ever heard the tale of Nelson the
Hard-Nosed Reindeer?”
“You
mean Rudolph!”
“And
his nose wasn’t hard, Grampa -- it was red!”
“Not
so fast, my lovelies -- you can’t know what you haven’t been told, can you?
Now, Rudolph’s a perfectly fine reindeer. And you’re certainly right about his
wonderful old nose -- quite the piece of work it was!”
“That’s
why the reindeer loved him, Grampa!”
“Well,
if that’s the way you heard it, I won’t quibble with you. But come settle down,
and I’ll tell you a story I’ll bet you’ve never heard, not a one of you. This
is the story of a different reindeer, name of Nelson.”