Explore "Colonel Carter's Christmas" by Francis Hopkinson Smith on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The day before Christmas was a never-to-be-forgotten day in Bedford Place. Great preparations were being made for the event of the evening, and everybody helped.
Little Jim under the tutelage of Chad, and in hourly fear of the promised thrashing -- it had never gone beyond the promise since the Colonel's talk -- had so far forgotten his clothes and his dignity as to load himself with Christmas greens -- one long string wound around his body like a boa constrictor -- much to the amusement of the Colonel, who was looking out of the dining-room window when he emerged from the tunnel. Aunt Nancy went all the way to the grocery for some big jars for the flowers I had sent her (not to mention a bunch of roses of the Colonel's) and brought one of the pots back in her own hand; and spoke in so low and gentle a voice when she purchased them that everybody in the place ceased talking to listen.