So off they went shopping, and came back feeling as grand as kings and queens, all dressed up in their new things! Peggy looked fine in a blue coat and skirt with a little blue hat. Nora wore red, and the two boys had suits and overcoats of dark blue.
Jack felt queer in his. It was the first time in his life he had ever had anything new of his own to wear, for he had always gone about in somebody’s old things before! He felt very grand indeed.
The children looked at one another and burst out laughing.
“How different we look now!” said Mike. “Think of our dirty old rags on the island! But it’s good to be really properly dressed again - and the girls do look nice!”
It was strange at first to sleep in a proper bed again. The girls slept in a pretty room and had a little white bed each. The boys slept in the next room, and had two brown beds. At first they all wondered where they were when they awoke in the morning, but after a few days they got used to it.
Christmas drew near. They all went out to buy presents for one another. It was most exciting. They went to London and marvelled at the great shops there. They watched all kinds of ships and boats sailing along in a big tank. They saw clockwork trains tearing round and round a little countryside, going through tunnels, stopping at stations, just like a real train. It was all very exciting after living such a peaceful life on the island.
Christmas was lovely. They hung up their stockings at the ends of their beds - and in the morning what fun they had finding the things packed tightly in the long stockings! Tiny dolls in the girls’ stockings, oranges, sweets, nuts, needle-books and balls - and in the boys’ were all kinds of things, too. Bigger presents were at the foot of the bed, and how excited all the children were unpacking them!
“This is better than Christmas in the cave!” said Nora, unpacking a great big smiling doll with curly golden hair. “Oh, Jack! Did you really buy this for me? Oh, how lovely, lovely, lovely!”
Soon the bedrooms were full of dolls, books, trains, balls, aeroplanes and motor-cars! It was the loveliest Christmas morning the children had ever had - and certainly Jack had never in his life known one like it! He just simply couldn’t believe his luck.
“You deserve it all, Jack,” said Nora. “You were a good friend to us when we were unhappy - and now you can share with us when we are happy.”