One December night, a child dreams of an old man who makes a secret thing in his workshop that he later brings to the child's house through the falling snow.
Ludlow, a big grump, has a dream one night--the funniest dream in the world-and laughs out loud. The neighbors hear and can't stop laughing. A local radio station puts him on the air, but one night he doesn't laugh and Ludlow changes.
Lifting the flap reveals the object that completes the rhyme such as "The matador is rather tense, he'll need a little luck. For after all he's up against a great and mighty--" underneath the flap is the picture of a duck.