About this ebook
This is an enchanting tale during 1914 in the Northern Rockies of America.
It answers the question of why we have Christmas Stockings during Christmas.
The charactes are absolutely charming and very funny.
In additon to the charactors they are magical and as Grammy Terre discribes
"They just are what they are!"
This is a story for all ages and is made to be read aloud for those that need be and
ready for Beddy-by time.
It is trully endering story and will leave you misty eyed happpily with its ending.
A story that will be a delight for years to come.
Season Greeting to you all!
Ross D. Clay
Ross D. Clay
Mr. Ross D. Clay is season professional in the Entertainment Industry for some 40 years. He brings his expriences and passions as well has his love for fur bearing critters to his writtings. The story, 'The Toe Mittens Christmas' will bring you good tidings and joy for years to come. Happy Holidays to you all!
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The Toe Mittens Christmas - Ross D. Clay
The Toe Mittens Christmas
Ross D. Clay
Published by Ross D. Clay, 2022.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
THE TOE MITTENS CHRISTMAS
First edition. November 27, 2022.
Copyright © 2022 Ross D. Clay.
ISBN: 979-8363391019
Written by Ross D. Clay.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
The Toe Mittens Christmas
About the Author
The Toe Mittens Christmas
Ross D. Clay
It is the time of winter in 1914, in the mountain state of Montana. Up in the north, there is a little town called Grumble, and just outside of town, there lives a sage of sages, Grammy-Terre Madrigal. But everyone knows her as Grammy-Terre.
Grammy-Terre is no ordinary person; some say she's an enchanted sage healer. She is magnificent Black woman and is modest about her age of over one hundred years old. Often she tells the tale of her mother, a Senegalese slave who ran away from a plantation in southern Georgia and fell into the arms of a northern Georgia Cherokee medicine chief, Standing Owl. Of their union, Grammy says, My mother and father were forced to relocate to the Oklahoma territory. It was there that I came into this world. When I was about eighteen, both my parents died from an illness and I had to leave. Out of desperation and need, I fled up into the northern Montana territory to my freedom. I settled here in this tiny trading post that became the town of Grumble, Montana.
Oh, Grammy as a healer is remarkable. She cares for the sick of all living things, including both big and small animals. One of Grammy's gifts is she can stop blood circulation and she can cause it to start again with just the touch of her hand.
She speaks many languages and can sing in those languages. English is easy, but she prefers her native Cherokee, and Wolof – one of the languages spoken in Senegal. But, as Grammy says, not many speak those tongues up here in the mountain lands of Montana.
She makes her living at weaving. Grammy-Terre is a master weaver. She makes the most miraculous stockings or 'Toe Mittens' as she calls them, and they are in demand always. And come Christmas time, from far and wide, everyone demands her toe mittens to wear and celebrate Christmas.
Everyone with the exception of, being the most dastardly, contemptible couple in town, Mr. Judah and Mrs. Medea Grumble. These two hate the very idea of Christmas, toe mittens, and Grammy-Terre.
The town of Grumble was forced to use the name because of the Grumble family. For they make pencils, and lots of them. Mr. and Mrs. Grumble inherited the business from Judah's father, none other than the wicked Mr. Ebenezer Grumble. It was he who put the town on the map with the small factory’s success. But it is the orphan children that give the family their success.
Through the children's sweat and toil, they do all the work morning, noon, and night and do it all over again six days a week.
The Grumbles like to think they are pious because they use Sunday as a day of 'righteous-accounting.' On that day Mrs. Medea Grumble accounts for whatever monies the children have made and then takes that money as fees owed to the Grumbles. The fees being charged are for food, clothing, and lodging.
The children are housed in the basement. Some of the children are stacked in small quarters, and some are stuffed in cages to sleep and all of them are enslaved, chained as they are to their worktables. Buckets are put under their tables so they can relieve themselves. The very worst job is the hardship of making graphite for the pencil cores. It is made in a separate shed where it is mixed with a soft clay base, and formed into small rods for the pencils. The rods are fired in an oven that is constantly burning hot. These children suffer from overheating and also from the deadly 'graphite lung.'
You can tell by the dark smudges on their little faces that they work in the 'Shed of the Black Death.' The factory gets the graphite from a mine that is near to town. The Chinese mine it. It is a hell on earth there. Originally, children did the mining, but too many died from cave-ins and graphite lung. So the Grumbles recruited the Chinese.
The Grumbles are in cahoots with very evil, corrupt orphanages out of the city of New York. Their directors are gangsters that run the orphanages and traffic the children – they send them on a one-way ticket through the mail everywhere and even to Grumble, Montana. They arrive on the mail train to work until they can’t any more. When they can't, they are replaced cheaply and quickly by the Grumbles. It is a child's worst and most terrible nightmare. Grammy-Terre has vowed to stop the Grumbles and the horrible things that happen in the factory and the mine.
Grammy-Terre resides in her weaver’s cabin, and you can find it easily, just by listening for the songs that she sings, and by the multitude of dream catchers, bells, and wind chimes that hang all around the outside of the cabin. They all make a wonderful symphony of sounds that echoes throughout the valley.
The Christmas holiday is coming, and it is Grammy’s favorite time of year. She often speaks of Christmas as at least one day of joyful peace that reigns throughout the world. Inside the cabin are multitudes of sensational things.
There are books of all kinds, shelved and stacked from floor to ceiling. And in the central part, there is a magnificent round table with beautifully carved dinner chairs where dinners are served; she also does some of her hand weaving there.
But it is in the basement that the wonderful toe mittens are created. Grammy has invented round cylindrical weaving looms. There are several different kinds of them, and that way there are sizes for one and all. The looms are in the basement to keep a consistent temperature for the wool when weaving. All of this is her pride and joy. She makes many different designs on the toe mittens – some with different colors woven throughout, some have Native designs, and some have animals such as eagles, bison, wolves, bears, coyotes, whales, and horses. But, if asked which is her favorite, she would say: all of the toe mittens are her favorites.
Grammy mostly lives alone during the year. Oh, she has a cat that she calls Crumpet, which comes and goes in and out of the cabin as it pleases. But, every year and only once a year, Grammy has a visitor that comes and only stays till the day after Christmas. This friend is very special – he is enchanted, and even more mystical than Grammy could ever be. By day and most of the year, he is known as Mr. Antoine Nicholas. But, as it comes closer, and on the Christmas holiday itself, he is known by another name. And on that special day, he does wondrous things...
Mr. Antoine Nicholas always shows up on the first snowfall of late October, and knocks politely upon Grammy's weaving cabin door. He arrives upon his not very large, but beautiful and very elegant dog sled. It is splendidly and ornately carved. The sled is pulled by three very large bull elks,that have sleigh bells around their necks. Packed and inside the sled is his suitcase, and