Jennifer Jane and the snowman Part2

She wasn’t going to miss an opportunity like that, so she quickly dressed up in her warm outdoor clothes and then went over to her window to ask the snowman where they were going. For the second time that night she had a big surprise. Standing on the lawn, was Father Christmas and his sleigh, drawn by two reindeer.

He was talking to her snowman. "Jump out of the window," said Father Christmas. "I'll catch you.”

Soon Jennifer Jane, Father Christmas and the snowman, were going faster than the wind and flying higher and higher in the magic sleigh.

Father Christmas seemed to know all the answers to the questions Jennifer Jane was longing to ask.

"It's been a long time since we've had a new snowman brought to life by a fairy wish," he said. "You're a lucky little girl, you know. How did the fairies come to give you the power to make wishes come true?"

Jennifer Jane told him about the time the fairy cobbler had mended her red shoes. “Don’t forget I’m a fairy cobbler” he’d said, although she hadn't known what he'd meant at the time, now that she did understand, she thought it was going to be really exciting.

Father Christmas told her, that as well as making toys for all the children at Christmas time, he was also responsible for supplying the Clerk of the Weather with snow. It was such a cold job making it, that only snowmen, who enjoy feeling cold in just the same way that ordinary humans like to feel warm, were able to do the job. So, whenever a snowman was brought to life, Father Christmas came and found him to help with the snow making.

Just then, the sleigh, which had been flying higher and higher, flew right through the clouds and slowly glided to a stop. The sleigh had landed on the flat top of a large cloud, where lots of snowmen were at work. They were shovelling up large pieces of fluffy white cloud and putting them into sacks.

Jennifer Jane's snowman got off the sleigh and quickly ran to join them.

"Don't mind his rudeness,” Father Christmas explained to Jennifer Jane. “I'm afraid snowmen just can't wait to get nice and cold making more snow to drop on people, although they do have other jobs to do in the summer. When they’ve dug up enough for this order, it’ll all be taken off to the Clerk of the Weather."

Although she wished her snowman had been more talkative, she was very pleased to know that he was going to be happy.

"What happens to the sacks full of snow when the Clerk of the Weather gets them?" she said.

"Oh, he puts them through a machine rather like a large mincer to turn it into flakes," replied Father Christmas "and then he sends the sacks full of flakes off on the next cloud which is going to the place where it has to be dropped. When he arrives, the snowman digs a hole right through his cloud and empties the sack of flakes through the hole."

'That's interesting,' thought Jennifer Jane. 'Now I not only know how snow is made, but I've actually seen it being made as well!'

"Now," said Father Christmas, "I think it is time to magic you back home before your mother comes to wake you up in the morning, so just close your eyes and I'll send you back to your bed".

She waved goodbye to her snowman, who was digging away happily with his new friends and then shut her eyes.

"Wake up," said her mother, "it's a lovely sunny morning and all the snow is melting fast. In fact," she said, as she opened Jennifer Jane's curtains, "your snowman seems to have melted away already".

Jennifer Jane just smiled quietly to herself.

‘Now I know how to make wishes come true,’ she thought, ‘I must try and remember to go and see the Clerk of the Weather some time. It sounds as though he must have a very interesting job’.