First Chapter
Stanley's Christmas Adventure
Chapter One
Sarah
It was two nights before Christmas, and all through the house not a Lambchop was stirring, but something was.
Stanley Lambchop sat up in his bed. "Listen! Someone said 'Rat.'"
"It was more like 'grat,'" said his younger brother Arthur, from his bed. "In the living room, I think."
The brothers tiptoed down the stairs.
For a moment all was silence in the darkened living room. Then came a thump. "Ouch!" said a small voice. "Drat again!"
"Are you a burglar?" Arthur called. "Did you hurt yourself?"
"I am not a burglar!" said the voice. "Where's the -- Ah!" The lights came on. The brothers stared.
Before the fireplace, by the Christmas tree, stood a slender, dark-haired little girl wearing a red jacket and skirt, both trimmed with white fur.
"I banged it twice," she said, rubbing her knee. "Coming down the chimney, and just now."
"We do have a front door, you know," said Stanley.
"Well, so does my house. But, you know, this time of year . . . ?" The girl sounded a bit nervous. "Actually, I've never done this before. Let's see . . . Ha, ha, ha! Season's Greetings! Ha, ha, ha!"
"'Ha, ha!' to you," said Arthur. "What's so funny?"
"Funny?" said the girl. "Oh! 'Ho, ho, ho!'
I meant. I'm Sarah Christmas. Who are you?"
"Arthur Lambchop," said Arthur. "That's my brother Stanley."
"It is? But he's not flat."
"He was, but I blew him up," Arthur explained. "With a bicycle pump."
"Oh, no! I wish you hadn't." Sarah Christmas sank into a chair. "Drat! It's all going wrong! Perhaps I shouldn't have come. But that's how I am. Headstrong, my mother says. She -- "
"Excuse me," Stanley said. "But where are you from?"
"And why did you come?" said Arthur.
Sarah told them.
Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop were reading in bed.
A tap came at the door, and then Stanley's voice. "Hey! Can I come in?"
Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop cared greatly for proper speech. "Hay is for horses, Stanley," she said. "And not 'can' dear. You may come in."
Stanley came in.
"What is the explanation, my boy, of this late call?" said Mr. Lambchop, remembering past surprises. "You have not, I see, become flat again. Has a genie come to visit? Or perhaps the President of the United States has called?"
Mrs. Lambchop smiled. "You are very amusing, George."
"Arthur and I were in bed," said Stanley. "But we heard a noise and went to see. It was a girl called Sarah Christmas, from Snow City. She talks a lot. She says her father says he won't come this year, but Sarah thinks he might change his mind if I ask him to. Because I wrote him a letter once that he liked. She wants me to go with her to Snow City. In her father's sleigh. It's at the North Pole, I think." Stanley caught his breath. "I said I'd have to ask you first."
"Quite right," said Mrs. Lambchop.
Mr. Lambchop went to the bathroom and drank a glass of water to calm himself. "Now then, Stanley," he said, returning. "You have greatly startled us. Surely -- "
"Put on your robe, George," said Mrs. Lambchop. "Let us hear for ourselves what this visitor has to say."
Stanley's Christmas Adventure. Copyright © by Jeff Brown. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
