78 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
78 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
TWAS THE NOCTURNAL SEGMENT OF THE DIURNAL PERIOD
|
|
|
|
Twas the nocturnal segment of the diurnal period preceding the annual
|
|
yuletide celebration. And throughout our place of residence, kinetic activity
|
|
was not in evidence among the possessors of this potential, including that
|
|
species of domestic rodent known as mus musclus. Hosiery was meticulously
|
|
suspended from the forward edge of the wood-burning caloric apparatus, pursuant
|
|
to our anticipatory pleasure regarding an eminent visitation from an eccentric
|
|
philanthropist among whose folkloric appellations is the honorific title of St.
|
|
Nicholas.
|
|
|
|
The prepubescent siblings, comfortably ensconced in their respective
|
|
accommodations or repose, were experiencing subconscious visual hallucinations
|
|
of variegated fruit confections moving rhythmically through their cerebrums.
|
|
My conjugal partner and I, attired in our nocturnal head coverings, were about
|
|
to take slumberous advantage of the hibernal darkness when upon the avenaceous
|
|
exterior portion of the grounds there ascended such a cacophony of dissonance
|
|
that I felt compelled to arise with alactrity from my place of repose for the
|
|
purpose of ascertaining the precise source thereof.
|
|
|
|
Fastening to the casement, I forthwith opened the barriers sealing this
|
|
fenestration, noting thereupon that the lunar brilliance without, reflected as
|
|
it was on the surface of a recent crystalline precipitation, might be said to
|
|
rival that of the solar merdidan itself; thus permitting my incredulous optical
|
|
sensory organs to behold a miniature airborne runnered conveyance drawn by
|
|
eight diminutive specimens of the genus ragifer. Piloted by a minuscule aged
|
|
chauffeur so ebullient and nimble that it became instantly apparent to me that
|
|
he was indeed our anticipated caller. With his ungulate motive power traveling
|
|
at what may have been more vertigiuous velocity than patriotionalar predators,
|
|
he vodiferated loudly, exuelled breath musically through contracted lasia, and
|
|
addressed each of the octet by his or her respected cognonen; Now Dasher, now
|
|
Dancer, et al. Guiding them to the uppermost exterior level of our abode,
|
|
through which structured could readily distinguish the concatenations of each
|
|
of the 32 cloven pedal extremities.
|
|
|
|
As I retracted my cranium from its erstwhile location, and was performing a
|
|
180-degree pivot, our distinguished visitant achieved, with utmost celerity in
|
|
animal pelts soiled by the ebon residue from oxidations of carboniferous fuels
|
|
which had accumulated on the walls thereof. His resemblance to a street vendor
|
|
I attributed largely to the planthora of assorted playthings which he bore
|
|
exorsally in commodious cloth receptacle.
|
|
|
|
His orbs were scintillant with reflected luminosity, while his submaxillary
|
|
dermal indentations gave every evidence of exgaging amiability. The
|
|
capillaries of his molar regions and nasal appurtenance were engorged with
|
|
blood which suffused the suboutaneous layers, the former approximating the
|
|
coloration of albion's floral embelem, the latter that of the prunus avium, or
|
|
sweet cherry. His amusing sub- and superalabials resembled nothing so much as
|
|
a common loop knot, and their amdent hirscule facial adornment appeared like
|
|
small, tabular and columnar crystals of frozen water.
|
|
|
|
Clenched firmly between his incisors was smokingpiece whose gray fumes,
|
|
forming a tenuous ellipse about his occiput, were suggestive of a decorative
|
|
seasonal circlet of holly. His visage was wider than it was high, and when he
|
|
waxed audibly mirthful, his corpulent abdominal region undulated in the manner
|
|
of impectinated fruit syrup in a hemispherical container. He was as short,
|
|
neither more nor less than an obese, jocund, multigenarian gnome, the optical
|
|
perception of whom rendered me visible frolicsome despite every effort to
|
|
refrain from so being. By rapidly lowering and then elevating one eyelid and
|
|
rotating his head slightly to one side he indicated that trepidation on my part
|
|
was groundless.
|
|
|
|
Without utterance and with dispatch, he commenced filling the aforementioned
|
|
hosiery with various of the aforementioned articles of merchandise extracted
|
|
from his aforementioned previously dorsally transported cloth receptacle. Upon
|
|
completion of his task, he executed an abrupt aboutface, placed a singular
|
|
manual digit in lateral juxtaposition to his olfactory organ, inclined his
|
|
cranium forward in a gesture of leave taking, and forthwith effected his egress
|
|
by renegotiating (in reverse) the smoke passage. He then propelled himself in
|
|
a short vector onto his conveyance, directed a musical expulsion of air through
|
|
his contracted oral sphincter to the antlered quadrupeds among the seed-bearing
|
|
portions of a common weed. But I overheard his parting exclamation, audible
|
|
immediately prior to his vehiculation beyond the limits of visibility:
|
|
|
|
ESTATIC YULETIDE TO THE PLANETARY CONSTITUENCY, AND TO THAT SELFSAME
|
|
ASSEMBLAGE, MY SINCEREST WISHES FOR A SALUBRIOUSLY BENEFICIAL AND GRATIFYINGLY
|
|
PLEASURABLE PERIOD BETWEEN SUNSET AND DAWN.
|
|
|