Meredith Nicholson

A Reversible Santa Claus Meredith Nicholson

Mr. William B. Aikins, alias "Softy" Hubbard, alias Billy The Hopper, paused for breathbehind a hedge that bordered a quiet lane and peered out into the highway at a roadsterwhose tail light advertised its presence to his felonious gaze. It was Christmas Eve, andafter a day of unseasonable warmth a slow, drizzling rain was whimsically changing tosnow. The Hopper was blowing from two hours' hard travel over rough country. He had stumbledthrough woodlands, flattened himself in fence corners to avoid the eyes of curiousmotorists speeding homeward or flying about distributing Christmas gifts, and he was nowbent upon committing himself to an inter-urban trolley line that would afford comfortabletransportation for the remainder of his journey. Twenty miles, he estimated, still laybetween him and his domicile.