"Yes, it's shocking, isn't it?" sniggered Miss Taylor, then sank into a depressed silence.
Mary tried again.
"Are you having a good concert this year, Mr. Coast?"
"About the same as usual, Mrs. Robson."
The schoolmaster frowned with disapproval upon the trumpets tied to the lower branches of the tree.
Again there was silence.
Miss Taylor felt that something must be done about it.
"Lucy Morrison is doing a lovely skirt dance," she ventured. "And the sixth standard sketch is fine. It is called 'The Bells of Christmas,' and the girls wear fancy costume."
"That will be nice. Did you make the dresses, Mrs. Coast? I know how clever you are at that sort of thing."
The schoolmaster's wife lifted a timid head and hastily denied the presumption of ever having been clever at anything. But she had helped with the costumes certainly, though Ernie had told her what to do.