Betty and Percy sat up until eleven o’clock that Christmas Eve. It was such a merry time!

They saw the men bring in the Yule log. It was so big that it took three men to carry it, and then they had to bring it in on their shoulders.
three men carrying log

At one end of the hall was a large fireplace. I think you never saw one like it. Pots and kettles hungdecoration64decoration over the fire, and on each side were seats where the children could sit and eat apples and tell stories. You see, it was a very big fireplace.

The men rolled the Yule log into the fireplace and lighted the fire. How the sparks flew! How the fire roared up the chimney!

It lighted the great hall. It shone on the oak table where the supper was laid.

On the supper table were two wax candles. These candles were almost as tall as you are. They were wreathed with holly.

These were the Christmas candles and they burned the whole evening. The hall was trimmed with holly and mistletoe. The holly had bright green leaves and red berries, and the mistletoe had white berries.

A big bunch of mistletoe hung down from the ceiling before the fire. If anyone happened to stand under the mistletoe, she was kissed.

How many times Betty was kissed! First her father caught her under the mistletoe, then Uncle Edward, and then Grandpa.

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At eleven o’clock Nurse said that Betty and Percy must go to bed. They did not like to go one bit.

There was a fire in the fireplace in Betty’s bedroom, but it was very cold. In Great-Great-Grandma’s time there were no such things as stoves and furnaces.

Nurse undressed Betty, and then the little girl climbed up the steps into her bed. It was so big and high that she had to climb up five steps to get into it.

Then Nurse drew the curtains of the bed to keep out the cold.

Betty was almost asleep when she heard the Waits singing. The Waits always sang under the windows on Christmas Eve.

“Open the lattice, please, Nurse,” she said.

So Nurse opened one of the windows. It opened like a door, and had panes of glass which were small and diamond-shaped.

The house Betty lived in was very, very large, and was called a castle.

This is what the Waits were singing:—

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“God rest ye, merry gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ our Saviour
Was born upon this day.”

Betty did not hear the next verse, because her eyes were shut and she was fast asleep.

When she waked up in the morning, the first thing ............