Bedtime came too soon. But they went upstairs obediently when they were told.
Surely this was the most wonderful Christmas Day that they had ever seen!
The next morning Granny talked quietly about the change in front of them.
The Pirate was coming home to farm his own land. At first, Aunt Alice said she could not leave Granny and her nieces. That sent him away to France very sorrowful, for Granny did not see her way to come to the Towers too. She wanted to stay on in the Cottage with the little girls.
But when he wrote miserable letters saying what a gloomy, empty home he had, and how he longed to fill it with them all, Granny began to think she must give up her own will for his sake, and for Aunt Alice's, and when he arrived at the Cottage in the dark the night before, and Aunt Alice met him at the door, Granny came forward and said she was ready to do anything they wished.
The children listened to this account with the greatest interest.
"What I can't make out," said Charity, "is why you like living here in a tiny cottage better than a lovely house like the Towers, Granny."
"Ah, well," said Granny, smiling a little sadly, "you may understand one day when you are older."
And then she said no more.
A few days after Christmas, the Pirate had Aunt Alice and the children over to tea at the Towers.