A nutcracker and a gingerbread boy were walking home after a long day’s work. They both worked at Santa’s bake Shoppe. The nutcracker was little Tim, and the gingerbread boy was cousin Sam. They were apprenticed to Mister Simm, Santa’s baker who was the best. “Gosh I am tired, oh I just want to sleep,” Sid Tim to his friend.
“Yes me too,” Said Sam in reply. “I am so tired I think I will just go to bed.” And so when they came to the fork in the road, time went left and Sam to the right. “I will see you in the morn, and maybe one day we will get to sleep in,” Sam did say as he waved goodnight to his friend.
“Oh that will be the day,” little Tim did say as he thought of his chores. When he got home he had kindling to split, and the wood box to fill, and the goats, cows and chickens to feed. For Tim and his mother did live alone, and his mother was laid up with a sciatic nerve.
When he got home, he the scraps in his pocket to his mother he did give, and then he did his chores start. But when he tried to fork down some hay, that rotten old loft did fall on him. And Tim was buried within the hay.
“Tim my little Tim, where art though,” his mother did yell, as she was stuck in her bed. “Tim, answer me, for I am hungry and the stove needs coal.” But no answer did she hear, for poor Tim was stuck in the hay.
The rotten beam had conked Tim on the head, and off to dreamland he had gone. Dreaming and being so warm, dreaming good things he did in every way. Well the night wore on and still no Tim. His mother got tired of hollering and did eat the scraps Tim had brought.
So the next morning when Tim did not show up, Sam was sent to wake him up. His mother told Sam, “Tim went out to do his chores, and did not come back the whole night. Soon Sam did find his little friend, sound asleep all covered in hay.
“Oh what a good sleep I did have, and oh what grand dreams I had. Oh Sam, it was so neat, for I did have warm clothes and plenty to eat, and my mother was fit as a fiddle.” For little Tim did have stars in his eyes.
Quickly Sam and Tim went back to work, and the baker had nothing bad to say. So they worked and worked hard all day. But when it came time for the workday to end, Mister Simm did to each boy hand, a large basket covered with a cloth. “Do not open these till you get home, and there let your mother open them up. For if you do something bad will happen to you, but if you obey, you will smile.”
And the two boys walked rapidly home.
When they reached the fork in the road, and each went toward their own home, Sam did make it around the bend, and then he did pull the cover from the large basket.
But Tim did walk as fast as he could, and gave his basket to his mother. “Mr. Simm said for me not to open it, and if I did something good would happen.”
“Oh Tim you are such a good boy,” his mother did say as she pulled off the cloth. “Oh my oh my my,” she did say as she looked inside. For there were foods, lots of foods you see, and warm clothes for Tim and mother. And then when they went to the stove, the coal buckets were full as could be. And such a nice and happy Christmas the two did have.
But what of Sam who disobeyed? Oh the basket was found by the side of the road, with a small mouse quivering inside, a mouse, which answered to the name of Sam.