Inhaltsangabe
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887. Excerpt: ... STAND AND WAIT: A STORY OF CHRISTMAS. CHAPTER I. CHRISTMAS EVE. "npHEY 'VE come! they 've come!"--This was the cry of little Herbert, as he ran in from the square stone which made the large doorstep of the house. Here he had been watching, a self-posted sentinel, for the moment when the carriage should turn the corner at the bottom of the hill. "They 've come! they 've come!" echoed joyfully through the house; and the cry penetrated out into the extension, or L, where the grown members of the family were, in the kitchen, "getting tea" by some formulas more solemn than ordinary. "Have they come?" cried Grace; and she set her skillet back to the quarter-deck, or afterpart of the stove, lest its white contents should burn while she was away. She threw a waiting handkerchief over her shoulders, and ran with the others to the front door, to wave something white, and to be in at the first welcome. Young and old were gathered there in that hospitable open space, where the side road swept up to the barn on its way from the main road. The bigger boys of the home party had scattered half-way down the hill by this time. Even grandmamma had stepped down from the stone, and walked half-way to the roadway. Every one was waving something. Those who had no handkerchiefs had hats or towels to wave; and the more advanced boys began an undefined or irregular cheer. But the carryall advanced slowly up the hill, with no answering handkerchief, and no bonneted head stretched out from the side. And, as it neared Sam and Andrew, their enthusiasm could be seen to droop, and George and Herbert stopped their cheers as it came up to them; and before it was near the house, on its grieved way up the hill, the bad news had come up before it, as bad news will,--" She has not come, after...
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