WHY RUDOLPH'S NOSE IS RED

The Great North Wind is usually quite peaceful. He'll go his way and let you go yours. But very once in a while he gets totally fed up with the human race. He gets tired of sharing the air with airplanes and balloons and rockets and kites. "I'm going to get rid of them," he roars. "And I'm going to get rid of all the people who make them, too!"

When the Great North Wind gets like that, watch out! He'll blow and blow until he blows your brains out, if he can!

One year Santa and the elves were working hurriedly, trying to get ready for Christmas. It seemed that everything was going wrong-and Christmas Eve was getting closer and closer.

Then the bad got worse for them. One by one, they all got the flu--Santa, then the elves, then the reindeer. For a while Mrs. Santa treated them with her powerful home remedies. But the remedies weren't strong enough. And then she got the flu, too!

It was a sorry state of affairs. Here everything was behind schedule, and no one had the strength to work.

Then the worse got even more worse! Because about that time the Great North Wind decided to throw a tantrum. "I'm sick of it!" he bellowed. (The Great North Wind finds it impossible to talk nicely, even when he's in a good mood.) "I'm going to get them all!" he shouted. And he began to get ready to attack all of the men and women and children on earth.

The reindeer were in their stables when the Great North Wind roared out his threat, and they shivered with the power of it. "We must warn Santa," they whispered. "He must know about this!!"

So they went in to see Santa, and told him in sign language what they'd heard. "This is serious," Santa said, sitting feebly in his bed, "very serious indeed!" He stroked his beard, his hand pale. "We must warn the people of the world. Who can we send? I'm too sick. All the elves are sick. Are any of the reindeer will enough to fly?"

"Only one," was the answer. "Young Rudolph."

"Then we must send him," Santa said. "I'll write a message and he can deliver it to the people of the world."

That night Rudolph took off on his solitary flight. He had barely begun when the Grat North Wind saw him flying through the air. "Arrgh," the Great North Wind growled. "An enemy! I'll destroy him!" And he sent a bolt of lightning down onto Rudolph.

It was too much for the tiny deer to withstand. The electricity of the lightning passed through his body, causing his heart to stop. His body shuddered, then died, and he fell, down, down toward the earth.

"Arrgh!" the Great North Wind shouted. "I got him!" And he sent another lightning bolt after Rudolph's limp form.

Again the electrical current passed through his body-and it started his heart again! Rudolph came back to life, and quickly resumed his flight.

But a strange thing happened. The electrical charge remained in him, and his nose began to glow, brighter and brighter, until even the Great North Wind couldn't bear to look at its brilliance. With his nose shining the way before him, Rudolph safely made his way through the Great North Wind's terrible storm and warned the people of the world to stay indoors until the wind was gone.

When Rudolph returned the North Pole, some of the younger reindeer mocked him. "Hah, hah!" they said. "Red nose, red nose!" But Santa proclaimed Rudolph a hero, and let him retire from sleigh duty for life- except when the Great North Wind arises!