Things began early in the morning.
"Get up, lazy bones!" Janet shook Phyllis, deaf to her protests. "You can't lie in bed this morning," she admonished.
Phyllis sat up and opened two sleepy eyes and yawned, then, memory asserting itself, she jumped out of bed with one spring.
"Of course I can't," she cried. "We have to go and get the Christmas tree. I was forgetting."
"Look out of the window," Janet directed.
Phyllis looked. The ground was covered with snow, and the world, as far as she could see anyway, was decked in its Yuletide white.
They hurried with their dressing and, much to Martha's concern, with their breakfasts as well.
"Here they come!" Phyllis cried, "and, oh, Jan, they are in a sleigh. I can hear the bells."
"Oh, I hoped the snow would be deep enough!" Janet exclaimed; "and it must be. Three cheers for old Jack Frost!"
They answered Peter's whistle by appearing at the door, and he and Jack Belding jumped down from the sleigh to greet them. Jack Belding was a school friend of Peter's. He had come to Old Chester several days before. He was a tall, lanky youth with nondescript hair and eyes, but a sense of humor that would have assured him a welcome in any company.