The Cottle Saga will return in January - Meanwhile, while looking for more Cottle family history I found the following: A poem written by a member of the Cottle family. Read it! Enjoy it! And then take a guess at the identity of the author

From the Writings of ????? ?????? (age ??)

Year

The Boy who didn't believe in Santa Claus (SIC)

Over the mountains, the forest, and plain

From Quebec, to Alberta, To Utah, to Maine

From New York, to Paris, to London or Rome

Across all great oceans, white capped with foam

From all places only one such boy survived

He was mean and was cruel to my surprise

Bluebeard and the Mafia couldn't compare

To him - all badness was just and fair

The meanest boy that ever did live

He could be cured by no medicine doctors could give

For the things he did would make you heart pause

But worst of all, HE DIDN'T BELIEVE IN SANTA CLAUS

He used to boast "he'd spit in his eye,"

If he ever met the "rotten guy"

"He's a fake and a phony," he used to complain,

"His sleigh is a junk heap, his clothes have soup stains"

But now he has changed from all of that

No longer he thinks Santa looks like a bat

Why he changed no one knows

For he has told none of his friends, not even his foes

But Santa's his hero, and that's a fact

"Santa's the best," on his wall he has tacked

So I questioned him and asked him to explain

He said, "It's simple and plain"

You see it all happened seven winters ago

I set a trap in fireplace for my foe

And I watch in the corner, on my face was a frown

And to my surprise! Santa still came down

And what's more, he had a smile on his face

And walked over to me with wisdom and grace

Non believer, come with me

And you will see my fantasy.

And we climbed on his sleigh and were off like a shot.

And in all that sky we were just a small dot

And we landed at the North Pole

It was desolate and ugly and wouldn't support a sole

but in all that whiteness something appeared

A small little workshop, and elf's so queer.

and with a gesture he invited me in

And tiny elf's worked on toys, balls and scuba fins.

He showed me all the workings of his shop

But then all at once, something made him stop

It was the clock on the wall striking twelve gongs

Signaling Christmas Eve was along

Santa said it is time for me to go

And in a twinkling of an eye we were up in the snow

He dropped me off at my place of abode

And jumped on his sleigh and away he rode

but I heard him exclaim as he flew out of sight

"Always believe and I'll visit you on Christmas eve night"

"But disbelieve and you will find to your shock

A lump of coal in your very own sock!"

MERRY CHRISTMAS

WHO WROTE THIS MASTERPIECE?