Treasures from Grandma's Attic Read Online Free

eat. Maybe we can get him to carve a wooden cookie and paint it.”
    The woods were sheltered and didn’t seem quite as cold. When we had gathered all the branches we could carry, we trudged back to the schoolhouse.
    “We’ll leave the tree and greens outside,” Miss Gibson decided. “They’d dry out pretty fast in the warm room. Let’s start working on the ornaments, shall we?”
    Just before dismissal time, we drew names for presents. Each year Miss Gibson would put all our names in a box, and we would each bring a Christmas gift for the person whose name we drew. We weren’t allowed to put a name back unless we picked our own.
    “I hope I don’t get your name,” I said to Sarah Jane. “And I’d rather not have Warren Carter’s, either.”
    “It’s nice to be included in such intelligent company,” she replied, “but I’m not exactly flattered.”
    “Oh, you know what I mean. I give you a present anyway. I don’t want you to get mine, either.”
    “I know.” Sarah Jane nodded. “I was kidding.”
    On the way home Sarah Jane said, “Well, my present isn’t going to be hard to fix. A big box of candy will do nicely.”
    “Wesley?” I guessed.
    “Right. I’ll make some chocolate fudge and some divinity. Whose name did you get?”
    “Hannah’s. I’d like to think of something to give her that would make her smile.”
    “You’ll never do it,” Sarah Jane said emphatically. “She has absolutely no Christmas spirit. Just hope she didn’t get your name. I heard her say she wouldn’t bring a gift if she didn’t get a name she wanted.”
    “Want to trade with me?”
    “No, thank you. At least Wesley can be depended upon to like what he gets, provided it stands still long enough for him to eat it.”
    “Do you think we ought to tell Miss Gibson about Hannah?” I asked. “We don’t want the party to be ruined.”
    “I don’t think Hannah would really do what she said,” Sarah Jane replied. “She likes to complain, but she’s not mean.”
    “I suppose you’re right. Anyway, this is too nice a day to worry about it.”
    “There’s a whole week of school until Christmas vacation,” I said to Ma as we got supper. “I wonder if I can wait that long.”
    “I think it’s possible,” Ma replied. “Do you want to know how to make the time seem to go faster?”
    “Oh, yes! How can I do that?”
    “Plan to get more things done than you have time to finish,” Ma said. “I know that works, because I’ve been doing it for years.”
    “I have plenty to work on,” I said. “I have to finish Sarah Jane’s gift and make something for Hannah, not to mention make Christmas presents for the family and get ready for the Christmas program.”
    “You won’t have a problem waiting.” Ma laughed. “That’s already enough activity for two weeks.”
    Miss Gibson allowed us time to work on Christmas projects and overlooked the extra noise and restlessness. The decorations for the tree were better than they had ever been. Even the first graders’ strings of cranberries and popcorn were longer and prettier.
    “Wesley,” Sarah Jane inquired one afternoon, “where are the rest of the candy canes for the tree?”
    “I guess I ate a few,” he confessed.
    “A few! There are only two here, and we started out with ten! Now what do we do?”
    “I’ll get Ma to make some cookies to hang up,” Wesley promised. “I’ll bring them in the morning.”
    “If I believed that, I’d believe anything,” Sarah Jane muttered. “You could eat a dozen cookies between your house and the road. I’ll stop by and get them myself to be sure they get here.”
    “Honestly, Wesley,” I said, “by the time you’re ready to graduate, they’ll have to roll you out of the schoolhouse.”
    Wesley grinned. “What would a growing boy be without an appetite?”
    “I don’t know,” I replied. “I’ve never seen one.”
    The week did pass swiftly, as Ma had predicted. With her help, I had made a pretty