CHAPTER XI
The Christmas Holidays
"Stir-up Sunday" seemed to come almost directly after Sylvia's birthday, and the girls began to count the weeks eagerly until the holidays. There were many ingenious devices for marking the passage of time. Hazel Prestbury cut notches on her ruler, Connie Camden put twenty-two stones on her mantelpiece and threw one out of the window every morning, and Nina Forster scored the calendar hanging in her bedroom each evening with a very black lead pencil.
"I live only ten miles away," said Linda, "so I haven't a long journey, have I? The first term I used to go home for weekends, but Miss Kaye said it unsettled me, and she asked Mother to let me stay at school like the other girls. I don't mind it now; it's rather nice here on Saturdays and Sundays."
There still seemed a good deal to be done before the end of the term arrived. All the girls had been working in the evenings at dressing dolls and making other presents for a Christmas tree that was to be given to the poor children attending a ragged school at Aberglyn. They liked the employment, especially as Miss Kaye would come sometimes and read aloud to them while they sewed.
"And there isn't anybody in the world who can read so beautifully as Miss Kaye," said Linda.
"When I was at Mrs. Harper's school," said Hazel, "we were helped to make Christmas presents to take home, instead of doing things for ragged schools. I worked a most lovely afternoon-tea cloth; Mother's quite proud of it still. I wish we did that here."
"I don't," said Marian. "I suppose you only like doing things for yourself."
"It wasn't for myself. It was for my mother. How nasty you always are, Marian!"
"It was for home, at any rate," retorted Marian. "Miss Kaye says we can be quite as selfish for our families as for ourselves, and we ought to remember outside people at Christmas, who don't get any presents, and who won't give us nice things back."