Christmas Comes But Once

For most of the U.S. it was Nov. 19, a crisp autumn Sunday. For a home in Cheyenne, Wyo. and a pale, three-year-old boy with a freshly barbered cowlick, it was Christmas. Ten doctors had agreed last month that young Forest ("Nubbins") Hoffman, 22 Ibs., bedridden for more than six weeks with incurable sarcoma of the bladder, would probably not live until Dec. 25.

Cheyenne found out about Nubbins when his father went looking for a Christmas tree. Within a week's time, newspaper readers across the land were looking at pictures of the...

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