Jessica was wishing it would snow. She was walking down the road, and the wind was swirling dust into her eyes. It's hard to feel really Christmassy with dust stinging your eyes, but Jessica was doing her best; she was singing a little Christmas song as she walked: "Deck the halls with bows of holly, Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la. Tis, the season to be jolly, Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-la-la..." Tucked under her right arm was a brown paper parcel. In the parcel was a hunk of ham that Mom would bake for Christmas dinner along with some potatoes and the last of the carrots from the root cellar. They'd had to trade off Dad's old parrot to get the ham. Dad was in a blue funk about that, but he agreed that there wasn't enough meat on one sixty-year old parrot to feed two grown people and three kids. Dickie Halls, the farmer who lived down the road, had always admired Johann - that was the parrot's name - and Dickie Halls had butchered a pig a few weeks ago.

Jessica squinched up her eyes and put her head down, and on she went watching her feet and singing that little Christmas song: "Tis, the season to be jolly, Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la. Don we now our gay apparel, Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-la-la..."

When she looked up she was nearly at the Hanging Tree. It was the only tree around for as far as the eye could see, and it was called the Hanging Tree not because anybody'd ever been hung from it, but because all the other trees that had ever grown around that country had died from lack of water or from blight, but this one was still hanging in there. A big yellow dog was sitting at the bottom of the Hanging Tree looking up. Jessica looked up too and saw a ragged black bundle tangled in the branches. When she got up a bit closer, though, she saw that the big black bundle was actually an old woman.

Jessica picked up a rock and hucked it at the dog.

"Go on home!" she yelled. "You leave that old woman alone! Hear!"

The dog loped off a ways down the road and sat watching Jessica.

"Thank you, dear," said the old woman. "Could you give me a hand climbing down?"

Jessica put down her package and went to help the old woman. When she'd got the old woman safely to the ground, she looked around for her package and saw the big yellow dog running off down the road with her Christmas ham in his jaws.

"That yellow dog stole our ham!" she cried. "That was our Christmas dinner."

"Oh, my!" said the old woman. "I'm very sorry. It was my fault."

Jessica looked at the old woman. She was a strange one - shiny little eyes, the biggest ears Jessica had ever seen and stringy blue hair streaming in the wind. She wasn't much taller than Jessica's sister, Cassie. Cassie was seven, but this old woman looked to be about seven hundred. "Nah!" said Jessica. "It was just bad luck. Me and my family have been having a lot of bad luck lately. Don't fret about it."

"You are too kind," said the old woman. "What is your name, child? My name is Carole."

"I'm Jessica," said Jessica. "You going my way? Here let me carry that bundle for you."

"Thank you, Jessica," said the old woman.

They set their faces to the wind. Jessica started singing and Carole sang along with her: "Don we now our gay apparel, Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la. Troll the ancient Yuletide carol, Fa-la-la-la, La-la-la-la..."

They fa-la-la-la'ed along, until, by and by, they got to the crossroads. The old woman took her bundle from the girl.

"Thank you again for your kindness," she said. "Merry Christmas to you and your family. And keep singing. Perhaps your luck will change." When Jessica told her mom about the dog running off with the ham, the poor woman just sat down at the table and started to weep. Jessica's dad was sitting at the other end of the table, and he'd been weeping all morning thinking about how he'd never hear Johann recite THE RHYME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER ever again. Cassie was weeping because she didn't have an angel costume for the school Christmas pageant. And Martin was weeping because he knew he wasn't going to get a bicycle for Christmas again this year.

"Cheer up everybody," said Jessica. "We're luckier than a lot of folks. We got each other!"

Everybody - except Martin - sniffed and blew their noses and tried to smile. Martin kept on weeping.

"That's better!" said Jessica. "I'll boil up some cabbage for lunch."

As she worked Jessica kept singing: "See the blazing Yule before us, Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-la-la. Strike the harp and join the chorus, Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-la-la..." She was just putting the bowl of cabbage and a plate of stale bread on the table when the there was a knock at the door. When Jessica opened the door she was surprised to see two odd looking men standing there. They were both swarthy of skin and heavily bearded. They both wore black patches over their right eyes and gold rings in their left ears. They both had bright red bandanas tied around their heads. And both of them had a parrot perched on each shoulder and another on the top of his head.

"Merry Christmas to you, lass!" they said in unison.

"And to you," said Jessica.

"My name is Striker Harper," said the man on the left, "and this is my friend Johnny Coarse. We're pirates both of us, and we're a long way from the sea. We were wondering if you could spare a crust and point us toward the Pacific Ocean." Jessica invited the two lost pirates to join them for their midday meal. Over lunch the two pirates, turn and turn again, regaled the family with stories of their seafaring adventures. They exclaimed over the boiled cabbage and managed to eat the lion's share between them. When it was time for them to take their leave, they each insisted on presenting the family with a parrot by way of saying thank you.

"I think the Pacific Ocean is that way," Jessica told them, pointing along the dusty road.

"Thank you for your wonderful gift. You have made my father very happy."

"It's our pleasure," said the pirates. And with a friendly wave Striker Harper and Johnny Coarse went off down the road singing in their hearty pirate voices: "Strike the harp and join the chorus, Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-la-la. Follow me in merry measure, Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-la-la..." "I think our luck is changing," said Jessica's dad. "This green parrot can say THE RHYME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER even better than Johann could. Martin, I want you to take that red parrot down the road to Dickie Halls' place and trade him for another hunk of ham. And be sure to watch out for that yellow dog on your way home, hear."

Martin went off grumbling about how he'd be able to go a lot faster if he had a bicycle.

He hadn't been gone long when there was another knock at the door. Jessica opened the door to a young woman dressed in frills and flounces and fancy ribbons.

"Merry Christmas," said the young woman. "My name is Mary Measure, and I seem to be having a bit of trouble with my automobile..."

Jessica's mom fixed a pot of tea for Mary Measure while Jessica and her dad went out to deal with the car. It turned out to be a simple enough problem - the carburetor was clogged with dust - and in less than two hours Jessica and her dad had it cleaned out and the engine running again.

As they came back to the house, they heard Cassie's merry laughter tumbling out to meet them. When they went in, Jessica's mom was all aglow.

"The luckiest thing!" she said. "Mary here is a fine seamstress, and while you were gone, she took that old table cloth and a bit of ribbon, and... well, see for yourself."

And at that moment, a tiny bright angel stepped into the room, and it was little Cassie dressed in the prettiest Christmas pageant costume that Jessica had ever seen.

With profuse thanks all around, Mary Measure drove away.

That evening, Jessica and her family went to hear their angel sing in the school Christmas pageant. And Cassie sang beautifully. Martin, still sulking about not getting a bicycle, sat with his fingers in his ears and a scowl on his face.

After the concert, as the family was preparing to leave, two women approached them and spoke to Jessica's mom.

"Good evening," said the older woman. "My name is Blaise Deforest, and this is my sister, Jewel."

She handed Jessica's mom a card on which was written the words: "Blaise and Jewel Deforest - Talent Agents."

"Was that little angel standing behind the goat your daughter?"

Jessica's mom nodded.

"Well, we'd like to sign her to a ten thousand dollar contract..."

Jessica's mom fainted.

The family's luck certainly was changing! The next morning was Christmas Eve morning, and everyone was in fine spirits - except Martin. Martin was mad because HE wasn't going to get to act in the movies. All the family - except Martin - were going around the house singing: "Follow me in merry measure, Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-la-la. While I tell of Christmas treasure, Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-la-la!" Martin was growling and kicking the furniture.

And then good luck struck again.

A young man stopped at the house. The man's name was Don Apparel, and he was a travelling bicycle salesman.

"If I sell just one more bicycle," he told Jessica and her family, "I'll win a trip for two to Hawaii. Gay - that's my wife - she'd be thrilled to pieces if I was to give her a trip to Hawaii for Christmas..."

Cassie tugged at her mom's sleeve, and when her mom looked down, she said in her best angel voice: "Mom, can we buy that bicycle for Martin? We could use some of my movie money... "

Well, the bicycle was a bright red Hiawatha Arrow with balloon tires, and it was exactly the right size for Martin. Don Apparel got in his truck and drove away singing a song about pineapples, and Martin jumped on his new bicycle and pedalled off down the road with a little tornado of dust spinning behind him.

That afternoon it started to snow, and that evening Jessica's family had a party to celebrate their new good luck. They invited all the neighbours from miles around - which was Dickie Halls and his wife, Holly. They had a gay time sitting at the table eating short bread cookies, drinking cocoa and singing: "Deck the halls with boughs of holly, Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-la-la. 'Tis the season to be jolly, Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-la-la..."

The last of the short bread had been eaten and the last drop of cocoa had been drunk when a knock came at the door.

Jessica opened the door and was amazed to see Carole, the old woman from the tree, standing there on the doorstep. Her little eyes were dancing with merriment, her blue hair was blowing in the wind and her arms were piled high with brightly wrapped parcels. She pushed boldly past Jessica and put the parcels on the table.

"For you and your family," she said. "Merry Christmas to you all. Keep singing." And with those words, she turned and went out into the night singing to herself: "Don we now our gay apparel, Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-la-la. Troll the ancient Yuletide carol, Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-la-la!"

"What was that all about?" asked Dickie Halls.

Jessica recounted for Dickie and his wife her story of the old woman in the tree, the yellow dog and the lost ham.

"Well, no wonder your luck has changed!" declared Halls. "Do you know who that old woman was! That was Carole, the ancient Yuletide troll!"

RICHARD THOMPSONTHE STORY VINE