Jock were deep in
preparations.

As is the way with most things, the looking forward and preparing were
the best of it. It meant weeks of present-making, weeks of wrestling
with delicious things like paints and pasteboard and glue. Then came a
week or two of walking on tiptoe into the little spare room where the
presents were stored, just to peep, and make sure that they really were
there and had not been spirited away, for at Christmas-time you never
knew what knavish sprites were wandering about. The spare room became
the most interesting place in the house. It was all so thrilling: the
pulling out of the drawer, the breathless moment until you made sure
that the presents were safe, the smell that came out of the drawer to
meet you, an indescribable smell of lavender and well-washed linen, of
furniture polish and cedar-wood. The dressing-table had a row of three
little drawers on either side, and in these Jean kept the small eatables
that were to go into the stockings--things made of chocolate, packets of
almonds and raisins, big sugar "bools." To Mhor a great mystery hung
over the dressing-table. No mortal hand had placed those things there;
they were fairy things, and might vanish any moment. On Christmas
morning he ate his chocolate frog with a sort of reverence, and sucked
the sugar "bools" with awe.

A caller at The Rigs had once exclaimed in astonishment that an
intelligent child like the Mhor still believed in Santa Claus, and Jean
had replied with sudden and startling ferocity, "If he didn't believe I
would beat him till he did." Happily there was no need for such extreme
measures: Mhor believed implicitly.

Jock had now grown beyond such beliefs, but he did nothing to undermine
Mhor's trust. He knew that the longer you can believe in such things the
nicer the world is.

The Jardines always felt about Christmas Day that the best of it was
over in the morning--the stockings and the presents and the postman,
leaving long, over-eaten, irritable hours to be got through before
bedtime and oblivion.

This year Jock had drawn out a time-table to ensure that the day held
no longueurs.

7.30 Stockings.
8.30 Breakfast.
9 Postman.
10-12 Deliver small presents to various friends.
1 Luncheon at the Jowetts'.
4 Tea at home and present-giving.
5-9 Devoted to supper and variety entertainment.

This programme was strictly adhered to except by the Mhor in the matter
of his stocking, wh