The Christmas Bicycle
This story was published in the Detroit Free Press on Christmas 1921:
The Christmas Bicycle By Dorr Wiltse, Age 10, Caro, Michigan.
The manager of a large factory was walking around the machines. He said to one man, “Make that well because it is a Christmas bicycle.”
At last the bicycle was finished, a fine one too. It came on the train to a nice little town. A truck brought it to a shop. When the shopkeeper saw it he said, “This is a fine bicycle. I will sell it for Christmas.”
But, alas, nobody bought it. So it had to stay in the shop. The time flew by till it was nearly Christmas. The shopkeeper said to himself, “I will go away for Christmas myself.”
It was Christmas eve and when the man came to lock up the shop he went in the back room to get something and he left the door opern.
The bicycle said, “Now is my chance.”
So out of the door he softly slipped and down the street he went a flying. When he came to the edge of the town he saw a little house. He looked in the window and saw a Christmas tree. The door was standing open. So the bicycle went in and leaned up against the tree.
When the children got up the next morning they cried, “Oh mother, Santa Claus has not forgotten us.”
The bicycle shook with joy.
They had many rides on him and the bicycle enjoyed every one of them.
Dorr became very involved in the local history of Caro. He helped found their historical society and wrote a few books. He died in 1989.
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Tags: Christmas, Dorr Wiltse, fiction