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			 And at night… ah, that’s the time, isn’t it? Outside it’s dark, 
			December dark, and we’re inside and warm and cocooned up. The cold 
			makes our world shrink, especially at night. 
 But we have our dreams.
 
 For Janice Thomas, our art teacher at the high school, it’s that 
			painting she’s planning. She makes starts at it, from time to time, 
			but she’s wise enough to know she isn’t good enough to paint it yet. 
			She paints other things well, but that one … it has to be perfect. 
			It will be the painting of a lifetime, she knows.
 
 Doc will drift off to sleep tonight thinking about that new fly rod. 
			He has half a dozen, of course, that will take about any weight 
			line, and let him catch anything from mouse to moose. But even the 
			most expensive rod isn’t what he dreams of. This year, for 
			Christmas, he’s giving himself a rod-builder’s jig, and he will make 
			his own rod from a Sage blank. That will be the one. It will have 
			his own wrappings and he’ll put the ferrules on it himself. He’ll be 
			able to feel the fish breathe with this one. It will be true and 
			wonderful and last forever.
 
			
			 
			
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			 For cowboy Steve, the December dream is always 
			the same: spending all his time at that little cabin up there in the 
			mountains. Sometimes he’ll sit by that stone fireplace downstairs 
			and sip coffee, and sometimes he’ll be up in the turret he built and 
			sip coffee. Ol’ Snort, his cowpony, will be out in his corral, of 
			course, except when the two of them are exploring the miles of 
			mountains behind the cabin. And in the cabin, while sipping coffee, 
			he’ll hear music on the radio and a breeze going through the pines 
			outside.
 There is a nighttime sweetness and hope that hovers over us this 
			time of year. Here’s to dreams.
 [Text from file received from 
			Slim Randles] 
			 
			 Ol' Jimmy Dollar 
			is Slim Randles' first children's book.  The book is for kids 
			K-3rd grades and is even better when parents read it with children. 
			Ol' Jimmy Dollar makes for sweet dreams and if you have a dog 
			even better.  Available now on Amazon. |