As Mr. Hogson was getting out of his warm bed, he heard a loud crash which sounded as if ten trees had been knocked over. He wondered what made that sound since no animal or animals could knock over even one tree. At least no animal from around here, thought Mr. Hogson.

Mr. Hogson was forty three years old. His grandfather had been from England and had been stranded on this tiny island many years ago. Mr. Hogson limped a bit because his right foot had been bitten by a longtail ten years ago.

"What's going on?" yawned Mrs. Hogson as she got out of her bed.

"Nothing," lied Mr. Hogson, who did not want to worry his wife on the morning before Christmas.

Mrs. Hogson was also forty three years old. Mrs Hogson had been married to Mr. Hogson for fifteen years and was very excited about Christmas.

Later that morning, as Mr. Hogson was thinking about the loud crash he heard earlier and Mrs. Hogson was making breakfast, Joshua came into the room. Joshua was eleven years old. He was a fast swimmer and, unlike most of his family, he could climb trees.

"Morning," he yawned as he trotted to the kitchen table.

As he sat down at the table, he saw Maggie come in. Maggie was Joshua's baby sister and was a year old. She couldn't really speak yet but she spoke a language that the rest of the family called "Maggineez".

"Uuu bah bah na," she said which meant something like "good morning mother, father and brother. It is a wonderful morning to be alive and are those pancakes I smell", or maybe it was just "hello".

"Look at the time! I need to get your sister, Mary, if we are going to get a Christmas tree today." cried Mrs. Hogson and with that she went to Mary's room.

Mary was thirteen years old and was impatient, lazy and loved to gossip with her friends. To get Mary out of bed was a hard task. You had to pull her out of bed with your own hands and sometimes you would even have to pull her by her pig tails. But that day Mrs. Hogson was surprised to see Mary already out of bed and humming Christmas songs.

As the Hogson family was getting ready to go out and find a Christmas tree, Mary, Joshua and Maggie were, as usual, fighting.

"I get to pick the tree." said Mary.

"You picked it last year! It's my turn!" yelled Joshua.

"Bab wha!" cried Maggie, which meant "I believe that because you two have picked them in the past several years that I should pick the tree" or maybe "I want to pick the tree." "I want to!" "I want to!" "Bab wha!"

"Children!" shouted Mrs. Hogson "Tomorrow is Christmas. It is a time of peace, love and harmony. Try to get along please." The kids looked at their mom and back at each other.

"Your mother is right you can choose a tree together without fighting." said Mr. Hogson.

"Without fighting?" "Where's the fun in that?" "Bee Bee Wei?" Later the family walked toward the shore. On their way, they talked about the huge, beautiful cedar tree they found last year. But when they got to the wooded area near the beach all the trees were gone.

"Where are all the trees?" grunted Joshua.

Just then a two legged creature with white skin wearing cloth on his legs, arms and body came out of the bushes. It was a human being.

It stared at the Hogson family and they starred at it. The creature licked his lips as drool dripped from his mouth on to the ground.

"Gross!" cried Mary.

"Mmm pigs!" murmured the human as he ran toward the Hogson family.

"Run!" yelled Mr. Hogson.

The family ran on their four legs as fast as they could. They could hear the human running after them. I hope we are not going to be his Christmas dinner thought Mr. Hogson. As the family of hogs arrived at their home with no human behind them, they thought their troubles were over. But they were just about to begin.

"That was close!" panted Mary.

"Hey, where's Maggie?" asked Mr. Hogson.

"I thought you had her!" said Mrs. Hogson.

"I thought you had her!" replied Mr. Hogson.

Everyone looked at the path that leads to the shore, imagining the worst.

The Hogson family quietly ran back to the wooded area. They heard talking and the sound of wood being chopped. They looked through the bushes.

"O' my god!" said Mary as she looked through the trees.

Many humans were along the shore. There was a half built boat on the shore. The words THE DELIVERANCE were painted on one side.

The Hogsons saw dozens of chopped up cedar trees and a fire. Around the fire were a dozen humans and nearby was a large tree. On one of the branches was a cage and in the cage was Maggie! "How are we going to save her?" whispered Mrs. Hogson.

"Well we're going to need someone that can climb trees." replied Mary.

Everyone turned to Joshua.

"Why is everyone looking me?" Joshua said.

@EDITRULE:

Joshua scuttled to the huge tree. He checked to see if any humans saw him. He scaled the tree. Joshua reached for the branch that the cage was tied to. He grabbed it and pulled himself up.

He leaned over to the cage and started to chew on the rope that kept the cage up. The rope snapped and Joshua caught it. He climbed down the tree holding the cage and when he got to the ground he started to drag it.

"Look the hogs are trying to run away!" cried a human, pointing at Maggie and Joshua. "Get them!"

Joshua ran while dragging the cage that Maggie was in. He couldn't run very fast with the cage, but he couldn't get Maggie out of the cage and he wouldn't leave her.

Then, one human threw a dagger at Joshua. The dagger missed him but cut through the top of the cage, making a hole big enough for Maggie to jump through. Maggie quickly jumped out and ran after Joshua. They ran home as fast as they could! When they got home, the family was anxiously waiting for them. Mrs. Hogson ran up to Maggie and Joshua and burst into tears of joy. She was extremely happy to see her children safe, and she knew that no matter what presents she got the next day, they wouldn't be as special as this. Joshua and Maggie told the rest of the family about how Joshua had saved Maggie and how they outran the humans.

When the family woke up the next day it was Christmas. They exchanged gifts and even though they didn't have a Christmas tree they had a great Christmas. But they all knew, with humans on their lovely little island, Christmas would never be the same.