Sir John French was superseded by Sir Douglas Haig and Susan dubiously opined that it was poor policy to swap horses crossing a stream , `` though , to be sure , Haig was a good name and French had a foreign sound , say what you might . '' Not a move on the great chess-board of king or bishop or pawn escaped Susan , who had once read only Glen St. Mary notes . `` There was a time , '' she said sorrowfully , `` when I did not care what happened outside of P.E. Island , and now a king can not have a toothache in Russia or China but it worries me . It may be broadening to the mind , as the doctor said , but it is very painful to the feelings . '' When Christmas came again Susan did not set any vacant places at the festive board . Two empty chairs were too much even for Susan who had thought in September that there would not be one . `` This is the first Christmas that Walter was not home , '' Rilla wrote in her diary that night . `` Jem used to be away for Christmases up in Avonlea , but Walter never was . I had letters from Ken and him today . They are still in England but expect to be in the trenches very soon . And then -- but I suppose we 'll be able to endure it somehow . To me , the strangest of all the strange things since 1914 is how we have all learned to accept things we never thought we could -- to go on with life as a matter of course . I know that Jem and Jerry are in the trenches -- that Ken and Walter will be soon -- that if one of them does not come back my heart will break -- yet I go on and work and plan -- yes , and even enjoy life by times . There are moments when we have real fun because , just for the moment , we do n't think about things and then -- we remember -- and the remembering is worse than thinking of it all the time would have been . `` Today was dark and cloudy and tonight is wild enough , as Gertrude says , to please any novelist in search of suitable matter for a murder or elopement . The raindrops streaming over the panes look like tears running down a face , and the wind is shrieking through the maple grove . `` This has n't been a nice Christmas Day in any way . Nan had toothache and Susan had red eyes , and assumed a weird and gruesome flippancy of manner to deceive us into thinking she had n't ; and Jims had a bad cold all day and I 'm afraid of croup . He has had croup twice since October . The first time I was nearly frightened to death , for father and mother were both away -- father always is away , it seems to me , when any of this household gets sick .
But XXXXX was cool as a fish and knew just what to do , and by morning Jims was all right .
Christmases England Jem Russia Susan Walter croup flippancy murder toothache