his bed, Grandfather showed Nathan the cover and this is what it said: Santa’s Secrets, The Story That Can; Never Be Read.
“Nathan”, grandpa said, “I am willing to bet that you and just about everyone in the whole world has heard the story of ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.’ You know how it goes, the way he helped Santa’s delivery of toys and such, on one of the worst nights of the year. “Well”, Grandfather said, as he opened up the book, this is what he read.
Grandpa’s Story
Bobby’s Uncle Bill was an over-the-road truck driver, and over the years he had been driving there wasn’t a place he hadn’t been. Uncle Bill would come to town and visit whenever he could and sometimes he would stay overnight. He would stay and play and tickle and he would tell Bobby stories of where he had been. Because he was always gone a lot and no one ever knew just when, Bobby’s mother would set a place at the table each holiday, in case he did stop in.
As Bobby sat and listened to those stories of far away, he would close his eyes and dream about going with him someday. Sometimes he would stop his uncle and ask, “If it would be alright, could I please come along?” And Uncle Bill would say, “Someday you might!”
It was the week of Thanksgiving Day, and because of the teachers’ convention, school officials had let out all the classes for three days. Well, Thanksgiving Day was on a Thursday and Friday was also a day off. So that meant Bobby didn’t have to go to school for a whole week.
Bobby was outside playing on the first day off from school, when his uncle drove up the street. As Uncle Bill parked the truck in the driveway he looked out the window with a grin, and said, “I hear you have no school today. That’s the reason I’ve stopped in. I’m wondering just what you’re going to do. I have to leave today for a very special trip that will take nearly a week. And I was hoping that you could go too.”
Bobby was very excited. After packing a small bag of his clothes for the journey, they got under way. The first thing that Uncle Bill and Bobby had to do was pick up the load. Bobby wasn’t too sure where they went. Because he was just so excited to be going that he didn’t pay attention. After they had been driving for quite a while, Uncle Bill made a turn onto a long driveway with a high fence on both sides, finally stopping at what looked like a guardhouse and a gate.
As Uncle Bill talked to the guard, Bobby noticed a lot of Army men all around so he figured it must be a military base or something. There was a great big building that Uncle Bill called a warehouse. It was so big that he drove the whole truck right inside and there were lots of other trucks in there too! He backed the rig up to a loading platform and went to talk to the foreman.
Bobby thought it was a sergeant who told him that it would be all right to look around and see what a young boy might. Men and women were hurrying all about on fork-trucks with what appeared to be bales of hay. As the workers were loading his uncle’s big truck with those large bales, a fork-truck came from around a corner and had to turn really sharp to avoid hitting Bobby. As the fork-truck veered to miss him, one of the bales it was carrying fell to the floor and broke open all over the place.
Workers came from all around to help with the cleanup, and Bobby helped too! Bales of green grass aren’t dangerous so Bobby was using his bare hands to help pick it up. While he was helping, Bobby happened to notice something very peculiar about that bale of hay. It wasn’t a bale of hay at all. It was really a bale of-- Four-leaf clovers!
As Bobby looked around the big warehouse, he realized it was full of those huge bales of four-leaf clovers. Wondering how and why all this clover was here, Bobby asked a worker about it. The man said it was food for thought to be used for Christmas Day. Bobby didn’t understand him, and tried to ask in another way. But the man would only answer, “Maybe you will someday.”
When Uncle Bill’s truck was all loaded from front to back and top to bottom, Bobby helped the men close the big doors and put a lock on them. The foreman attached a device called a government seal. When Bobby asked his uncle why, he replied “This is a very important load, with a ‘Priority One’ routing,” which meant that they wouldn’t have to stop at any of the inspection stations like the other trucks do. They could go as fast as possible, or as fast as Uncle Bill could safely do. Uncle Bill and Bobby got in the truck and started on their way.
It was getting pretty late in the day when Uncle Bill pulled into a truck stop so they both could get something to eat. As Bobby was waiting for his meal, he asked his Uncle about all those great big bales, and what was meant by “food for thought”, as the warehouse man had said. Uncle Bill replied to his nephew that he need not worry, and that they were in a bit of a hurry. “I will explain it all to you later, but right now it’s time to eat.”
After they finished eating, Bobby climbed back into the truck and Uncle Bill suggested that he go in the back of the tractor and try to get some sleep. He said that after getting up so early and with all the excitement Bobby had, that Bobby looked pretty tired and would probably sleep a week. His uncle said that, when Bobby’s nap was over he would tell him about the clover.
Well, Bobby must have been pretty tired, because he fell fast asleep. Uncle Bill was only kidding, though, when he said that Bobby would probably sleep a week. When his nephew awoke and crawled up front to see what he could see, there wasn’t anything in front of them, not even a single tree. The sky was blue and the sun was out. Bobby turned to Uncle Bill and asked, “Just where are we anyway? Where are we, about?”
His uncle looked at him and laughingly said, “My sakes! You’ve really grown! I would have thought that you could tell that it has been snowing. We have gone pretty far and we don’t have far to go. And if you’d like, I’ll tell you now about that clover we’re hauling across the snow.”
Now, everybody has heard about four-leaf clovers you know, and about how they bring you good luck. Well, the reason is because they are very hard to find, so if you do, you must be lucky. Did you ever find one? Bobby said that he remembered finding one a long time ago in his back yard. And that it was the only one! “Well, tell me boy, do you believe in Santa Claus?” Bobby replied that he wasn’t sure, and nowadays, it’s kind of tough. “Well,” his uncle said, “if you don’t, then this is going to be a little rough.”
Uncle Bill asked his nephew, “You know Santa’s got reindeer, right?” Then he asked Bobby to name them. And this is what Bobby said; “There’s Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen.” And he added that they fly all around the world on Christmas Eve. Uncle Bill looked over at his nephew and said, “You just about got them all right.”
Well, reindeer are like any other deer. They eat; sleep and play just like all the rest. Many years ago, when there were a lot less people in the world and before people came to America, Santa Claus used to deliver all his presents overnight, just like a trucker does now. He would guide those reindeer over the rivers and through the woods and on into the night.
Then one summer, while the reindeer were out eating in the pasture, they happened across some clover. Not just any clover, but a whole big patch of four-leaf clovers. That is very rare. Well, Santa noticed a big difference in the way they would play afterwords. They all seemed to be lighter on their feet when hopping and skipping and jumping. And as Santa sat there watching, he got an idea. He wondered what would happen if the reindeer were put on a controlled four-leaf clover diet. Not knowing where to get so many four-leaf clovers, though, he pleaded to all the parents of the world to help.
“Whatever happened to that four-leaf clover you found? I mean, where is it now?” Uncle Bill asked. Bobby just shook his head and said he didn’t know. “Well, I do,” his uncle said. “Your parents waited until you were bored with it, then they sent it to Santa.”
The experiment went very well. Santa managed to get quite a few pounds of clover in a little while and put the reindeer on the diet for about a week. The reindeer got so light-footed from eating that clover; they started to float around the air. At first, i
t was very hard to control themselves, but after a while they learned how.
But it takes a great deal of clover to get reindeer to float, or fly if you will, all night and all around the world, while Santa is trying to keep the sleigh still. Every year, there are more and more people, and they live everywhere, so that makes it even harder to do. But more and more people mean more and more eyes to help find four-leaf clovers, too.
Now there is a central distributing place; sometimes people call it a warehouse. That’s where the clover is accumulated all through the year. Workers collect it from people all around the whole world. Then they bale it up and truck it to Santa Claus at the North Pole. “Wait a minute!” Bobby said. “Do you mean; we are going to the North Pole? Like in Santa’s North Pole?” Uncle Bill nodded and said, “Yes!”
Bobby looked at his Uncle Bill in complete amazement; he noticed that the truck was starting to slow down. And when Bobby looked out the window, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He saw a sign on a pole that looked like a barbershop pole--you know; the