Project Gutenberg's A Reversible Santa Claus, by Meredith Nicholson

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: A Reversible Santa Claus

Author: Meredith Nicholson

Release Date: February 14, 2005 [EBook #15044]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A REVERSIBLE SANTA CLAUS ***

Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the PG Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.(www.pgdp.net)

A
REVERSIBLE
SANTA CLAUS

BY
MEREDITH NICHOLSON

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
FLORENCE H. MINARD

BOSTON and NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

The Riverside Press, Cambridge

1917

COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

_Published October 1917_

By Meredeth Nicholson

A REVERSIBLE SANTA CLAUS. Illustrated.
THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING. Illustrated.
THE POET. Illustrated.
OTHERWISE PHYLLIS. With frontispiece in color.
THE PROVINCIAL AMERICAN AND OTHER PAPERS.
A HOOSIER CHRONICLE. With illustrations.
THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS. With illustrations.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

A Reversible Santa Claus

[Illustration: "DO YOU MIND TELLING ME JUST WHY YOU READ THAT NOTE?"
_(Page 78)_]

Illustrations

"DO YOU MIND TELLING ME JUST WHY YOU READ THAT NOTE?" _Frontispiece_

THE HOPPER GRINNED, PROUD OF HIS SUCCESS,
WHICH MARY AND HUMPY VIEWED WITH GRUDGING ADMIRATION 44

THE FAINT CLICK OF A LATCH MARKED THE PROWLER'S PROXIMITY TO A HEDGE 116

THE THREE MEN GATHERED ROUND THEM, STARING DULLY 150

_From Drawings by F. Minard_

* * * * *

[Illustration]

A Reversible Santa Claus

I

Mr. William B. Aikins, _alias_ "Softy" Hubbard, _alias_ Billy The Hopper,
paused for breath behind a hedge that bordered a quiet lane and peered out
into the highway at a roadster whose tail light advertised its presence to
his felonious gaze. It was Christmas Eve, and after a day of unseasonable
warmth a slow, drizzling rain was whimsically changing to snow.

The Hopper was blowing from two hours' hard travel over rough country. He
had stumbled through woodlands, flattened himsel