A/N: I must admit I am using bits and pieces from "A Visit From St. Nicholas" by Clement Moore, as well.
….oOo….
With a flick of the reins, his team gave a chuff
And away they all went like that darned cotton fluff!
John drove the horses in the direction of Princeton, where most of his employees resided. It was well after midnight. While the moon might be up on this Christmas Eve, the smog of Milton's factories allowed for no lustre of midday to fall on the objects below tonight. All the better for him to slink through the alleys and into the houses.
John spent the next few hours prowling about Princeton, gathering all the hands' Christmas presents as well as the food for their feasts. Finally, he found himself at the home of the Higgins'.
"I definitely need Higgins to not be distracted and show up to work so we can get this order completed," he said to himself.
He came to their house behind the Goulden Dragon
Tied up the old horses and made room in his wagon.
All their windows were dark. Choking smog filled the air.
All the Higgins' dreaming sweet dreams without care.
Thornton snuck in the house, found the hearth all aglow
Where the little Bouchers' stockings all hung in a row.
"These stockings," he grinned. "are the first things to go!"
The bundle of toys he flung up on his back,
And he looked like a burglar sneaking out with his pack.
When Thornton thought he had every last smidgen
He heard a small sound like the coo of a pigeon
He turned around fast and he saw a small girl
Little Cindy Lou Boucher whose hair was in curls.
Thornton'd been caught by Higgins' adopted daughter,
Who'd gotten out of bed for a cup of cold water.
She stared at Mr. Thornton and said, "Santy Claus why?
Why are you taking our Christmas things why?"
But, you know, Mr. Thornton was so smart and so slick
He thought up a lie, and he thought it up quick!
"Why, my sweet little tot," the fake Santy Claus lied,
"The toys were all broken when I brought them inside,
"So I'm taking them home to my workshop, my dear.
"I'll fix them up there. Then I'll bring them back here."
And his fib fooled the child. Then he patted her head
And he got her a drink and he sent her to bed.
When Cindy Lou Boucher went to bed with her cup,
He went to his wagon and packed the stuff up.
Packed it up with their presents! The ribbons! The wrappings!
The tags! And the tinsel! The trimmings! The trappings!
It was quarter past dawn, all the hands still a-bed,
All the hands still a-snooze when he got in his bed.
"Pooh-pooh to this Christmas!" he was gloatingly humming.
"They're finding out now that no Christmas is coming!
"They're just waking up! I know just what they'll do!
"Their mouths will hang open a minute or two
"Then the hands down in Princeton will give up on their frills
"And they'll come back to work at ol' Marlborough Mills."
Thornton laid down figuring he might get a half hour's rest before the hands started showing up for work.
….oOo….
Margaret stood inside the door of her family's home in Crampton. They were still a family she supposed, her and her father (Dixon too!) even though her mother had passed and Frederick was gone (likely for good). This thought made her melancholy but she quickly snapped out of it. It was Christmas after all!
"Papa!" she called, "Are you coming? We are going to be late!"
"I'm coming. What's all the rush?" her father enquired as he descended the stairs.
"Remember," she told him as she helped him into his coat, "we are going to the Higgins' to help get all the children to church this Christmas morn and I want to get there in time to give them all the mufflers I knitted for them so they can keep warm on the walk there."
When Margaret and her father arrived at the Higgins' the whole of Princeton was in an uproar. They found Nicholas talking with some of his neighbors. It seemed all of their homes had been burglarized and their Christmas presents and feasts were stolen.
Margaret went to console the children while her father spoke to the crowd. Between the two of them they reminded the crowd that Christmas was not about toys and feasts but about the incarnation of God in our world and the peace our savior brings.
After attending Christmas service at the church, the Hale's led the people in Christmas songs and groups peeled off to go spread Christmas joy all throughout Milton.