Noel's Christmas tree

A small boy with close-cropped brown head and dark eager eyes was drumming with his fingers on the windowpane. He turned his head over his shoulder as he spoke, and his tone was...

The next week seemed full of delightful bustle to Diana and Chris. Their mother was very busy shopping and arranging about their new home; so she did not see much of them in the...

Old Mr. Sharpe insisted upon the children coming into the cottage and having some refreshment. It was too early for tea, but he produced some home-made ginger beer, and some cur...

Chris was delighted to have an excuse to go out in the rain. He sped away, down the garden, but there were no signs of Noel, then into the churchyard. When he got there, he foun...

"Ted wrote it," said Diana. "He said it to me when I went over to see him, so I made him write it down, and Chris and Noel have been learning it as fast as they could all the af...

"I've run away, and I mean to stay away. They all hate me, and I hate them. And Julia is the worst of all. She's a murderer; she drowned my puppy and held my hands tight when I...

On Monday afternoon Inez appeared just before three o'clock. Miss Morgan was just taking Diana and Noel out for their daily walk, but Mrs. Inglefield said that as Inez had come...

Chris, Diana and Noel were taking a walk together. It was the following Saturday, and Mrs. Inglefield, who encouraged independence in Chris, assented gladly when he told her tha...

Miss Trent's car arrived at three o'clock on the following Monday afternoon. Noel was dressed in his best white sailor suit, and was immensely pleased to go off on his own. He s...

Noel stared at Inez as if he could not believe her words. Then he kicked and banged at the door with all his might. But the door would not move an inch.

For the first few days things went well. The three children were on their best behaviour. One day was spent at the Rectory, and Inez joined them there. Ted was out in the garden...

It was three o'clock in the afternoon. The children were feeling rather tired: were all under the shade of the big tree on the lawn. They had had their paper-chase, and now Inez...

Then she told her children of the treat that she proposed to give them. She had ordered a car to come for them all at ten o'clock, and they were going to drive away to the sea,...

The house was full of the chatter of the children. Chris had come home from school the previous evening, and he was in the best of spirits, for he was head of his form, and his...

Long before light the children were examining their Christmas stockings, which were bulging with all kinds of presents from every one. Of course Noel's was the biggest; and ther...