Short Story – The Wigglynoses

Written by Elsa Wolf – Circa 1972

To my rabbits with love-

Once upon a time, long ago, there was a family of rabbits named the Wigglynoses. They had six children; Inky, Winky, Pinky, Percy, Molly, and Olly. They lived in a churchyard under a statue of the Virgin Mary. It was near Christmas now, and all the Wigglynoses were being very good except for Percy. He was a mischievous boy who often disobeyed his mother and snuck into the church when she said he shouldn’t. When it was time for the children to go to see Santa, all the children were very happy. They told Santa what they wanted and if they were good or not, and to everyone’s surprise, Percy told the truth.

As soon as they got home, they went out into the churchyard and found their Christmas tree. Everyone helped decorate the tree except for Percy. After the good little bunnies hung items on the tree, Percy would pull them off and throw them on the floor where they would break into pieces. A half-hour later almost everything was ruined. His father was so angry that he spanked Percy and told him to go back outside and find pretty things for the tree to replace the ones he’d broken. Percy returned and hung the new decorations up while his brothers and sisters put presents under the tree for each other before going to bed.

Percy couldn’t sleep. He went to the doorway of the bedroom and stood by watching Santa put the presents out, but Santa caught him and picked a few presents up and took them away. Percy was sure they were his gifts. Santa didn’t give things to naughty children.

In the morning, everybody woke up and ran out into the living room. Gasping and shouting with delight over the presents they saw; trains and trikes and everything they could ever want. Each thing had a tag attached with their names from Santa, except there were none for Percy. He burst into tears and ran as fast as he could, and Mama ran after him. She said that she was sorry to say that she didn’t think he should get any presents because he’d been a naughty boy. She continued to tell him if he behaved better he would get lots of gifts next Christmas.

Percy screamed in a shrill rabbit voice, “I can’t wait until next year! I must have them now!”

“But Percy, if you’re going to act this way, you’ll never get any presents, and you will be unhappy all your life. You must do what Daddy and I say. It was wrong of you to break our things and wander off when we tell you to stay home. Now, wash your little furry face and go play nicely with your brothers and sisters. Go on.”

“Oh, all right. I’m sorry.” Percy left the room with his ears unnaturally drooping down the side of his face.