A Reversible Santa Claus by Meredith Nicholson

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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

_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

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 himself in fence corners to avoid the eyes of curious motorists speeding homeward or flying about distributing Christmas gifts, and he was now bent upon committing himself to an inter-urban trolley line that would afford comfortable transportation for the remainder of his journey. Twenty miles, he estimated, still lay between him and his domicile.

The rain had penetrated his clothing and vigorous exercise had not greatly diminished the chill in his blood. His heart knocked violently against his ribs and he was dismayed by his shortness of wind. The Hopper was not so young as in the days when his agility and genius for effecting a quick "get-away" had earned for him his sobriquet. The last time his Bertillon measurements were checked (he was subjected to this humiliating experience in Omaha during the Ak-Sar-Ben carnival three years earlier) official note was taken of the fact that The Hopper's hair, long carried in the records as black, was rapidly whitening.

At forty-eight a crook--even so resourceful and versatile a member of the fraternity

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