These were the Christmas candles and they burned the whole evening. The hall was trimmed with holly and mistletoe. The holly had bright green leaves and red berries, and the mistletoe had white berries.
A big bunch of mistletoe hung down from the ceiling before the fire. If anyone happened to stand under the mistletoe, she was kissed.
How many times Betty was kissed! First her father caught her under the mistletoe, then Uncle Edward, and then Grandpa.
At eleven o’clock Nurse said that Betty and Percy must go to bed. They did not like to go one bit.
There was a fire in the fireplace in Betty’s bedroom, but it was very cold. In Great-Great-Grandma’s time there were no such things as stoves and furnaces.
Nurse undressed Betty, and then the little girl climbed up the steps into her bed. It was so big and high that she had to climb up five steps to get into it.
Then Nurse drew the curtains of the bed to keep out the cold.
Betty was almost asleep when she heard the Waits singing. The Waits always sang under the windows on Christmas Eve.
“Open the lattice, please, Nurse,” she said.