i found this on tumblr and holy crap i love it
(written as if someone from newsies who was educated was reading it)
"Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."
It's hard to get these boys to keep still, especially with all four hundred and seven in one room on Christmas Eve, but this story will do it. –At least, it'll do a darn good job of trying.
"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there."
They have theirs on their bedposts, all colors, ripped, worn, darned, and mended. Even most of the older boys put one out. They can't say no when a younger boy asks, and besides—Santa Claus has been known to leave a penny candy or coin for even the oldest, if they've been very good.
"The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads."
"What's a sugar-plum?" asks Ten-Pin.
"It's a dried plum with sugar on it," says Cowboy, completely making it up.
"How would you know? You ever ate one?" Skittery challenges.
"Well, what else would it be?"
"It's a type of candy," I tell them, "and that's the important thing."
Tumbler, sitting between the two, mumbles, "I wish I had a sugar-plum."
I frown. "Maybe Santa Claus'll bring you one, but not if all of you don't let me finish so you can go to sleep!"
They shut up.
"And mamma in her kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap."
Racetrack leans forward to tug on Cowboy's bandanna. "'Mama in her 'kerchief,'" he says, and Jack leans back to shove him without turning around. Racetrack's been making that same joke for years. (He tells me it's the only reason he came back to the lodginghouse on Christmas Eve instead of just for tomorrow's dinner, and I wouldn't put that past him, but I'm not sure it's true.) In the bunk below all of them, Snipeshooter's got his cap pulled down over his face like he's sleeping, but he's not. There's enough of a gap for him to see out of, and the lamplight reflects on his open eye.
"When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter—"
Mush topples the shoes he'd piled on the foot of his bunk.
"I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter."
(And not knowing what Mush had planned, some of the boys do.)
"Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash;
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below."
It really is bright outside, and not just from the streetlamps. It's a clear, sparkling cold, but the wind that's been rattling the building all day's finally settled down.
Not unlike these kids. And this isn't the first time I've thought that.
"When, what to my wondering eyes should appear—"
YOU ARE READING
oh the thinks you can think {mb/s}
Random"think of something horrible and hairy, something sinister and scary, something that you've never dared to think of before!"
