“You kids were all right, but I didn’t care for all that singing. I wish they’d have something lively like fencing. Carol said he saw a man over at Mattoon, the time he went with his father, who was a wonder. Wish I could learn.”
“I don’t believe Father would let you, but I’ll help tease if you want me to.”
“Frank knows how a little—he showed me.”
“Frank and Marian are coming over for breakfast in the morning, so we can have our presents all together. Say, let’s hang our stockings up.”
“Pshaw, we’re too old for that—we never get anything in them but candy or oranges—and I don’t think Mother wants us to any more.”
“I don’t care—it’s fun. Come on!”
Jane got one of Ernest’s socks and her own longest stocking. They were busy fastening them to the ends of the marble mantel when Alice came in.
Alice had not returned with the others, Dick Harding having undertaken to see her safely home.
“Oh, children,” she exclaimed, distressed, “I’ve lost one of my brown gloves. I wish you’d look for it for me first thing in the morning—it must be near the gate somewhere. And it’s time for you to go to bed now. I guess your mother didn’t hear you come in or she would have called you.”
“Bet I beat you up in the morning,” teased Ernest as they started upstairs.