Walter the Water Sprite and Christmas

Once upon a time, Walter the water sprite was sitting at the bottom of the pond. He was carefully polishing his collection of mugs while the carp merrily swam around him. Walter picked up the things that people dropped into the water, and after all these years he had built up quite a collection! All sorts of forks, mugs and even thermos flasks that inattentive fishermen had lost. Walter only kept shiny things, mind you. And he didn’t keep anything dirty or broken, he threw those straight out of the water! Rubbish does not belong in the pond.

Walter was just polishing the handle of one of his favourite mugs when he heard some voices from above the surface. People!

Since Walter was a curious water sprite, he quickly swam out of the water without making a sound, and hid in the reeds. You could hardly see him, because he was all green.

A boy and his father were watching the surface of the pond. They had no idea who was hiding just nearby.

"In a few days we will come here to fish for a carp," said the boy’s dad.

"Will it already be Christmas?" the little boy said. You could tell from his voice that he was very excited.

"It will, Wally. Even though it doesn’t look very Christmassy yet, does it?" his dad replied a little sadly. "It’s not snowing, and there's not even a speck of ice on the pond."

Walter couldn't stand it any longer: "Oh yes, that’s just what we need, for the pond to freeze over! Who’d want to be stuck there under the ice?” a voice suddenly piped up from the reeds.

The boy jumped in fright as a head full of green hair popped up next …