I 've been wanting for years to make up with Linda . And now the chance has come , thanks to that blessed blundering boy , I mean to make the most of it . Mind , Hannah , you never whisper a word about its being a mistake . Linda must never know . Poor Linda ! She 's had a hard time . Hannah , we must make some more pies , and I must go straight down to the store and get some more Santa Claus stuff ; I 've only got enough to go around the Smithsons . '' When Mrs. Grant and her family arrived at the yellow house next morning Miss Cornelia herself ran out bareheaded to meet them . The two women shook hands a little stiffly and then a rill of long-repressed affection trickled out from some secret spring in Miss Cornelia 's heart and she kissed her new-found old friend tenderly . Linda returned the kiss warmly , and both felt that the old-time friendship was theirs again . The little Smithsons all came and they and the little Grants sat down on the long bright dining room to a dinner that made history in their small lives , and was eaten over again in happy dreams for months . How those children did eat ! And how beaming Miss Cornelia and grim-faced , soft-hearted Hannah and even the absent-minded teacher himself enjoyed watching them ! After dinner Miss Cornelia distributed among the delighted little souls the presents she had bought for them , and then turned them loose in the big shining kitchen to have a taffy pull -- and they had it to their hearts ' content ! And as for the shocking , taffyfied state into which they got their own rosy faces and that once immaculate domain -- well , as Miss Cornelia and Hannah never said one word about it , neither will I . The four women enjoyed the afternoon in their own way , and the schoolteacher buried himself in algebra to his own great satisfaction . When her guests went home in the starlit December dusk , Miss Cornelia walked part of the way with them and had a long confidential talk with Mrs. Grant . When she returned it was to find Hannah groaning in and over the kitchen and the schoolteacher dreamily trying to clean some molasses off his boots with the kitchen hairbrush . Long-suffering Miss Cornelia rescued her property and despatched Mr. Palmer into the woodshed to find the shoe-brush . Then she sat down and laughed .
`` XXXXX , what will become of that boy yet ?
Claus Cornelia Grant Hannah Palmer afternoon hairbrush rill schoolteacher years