`` Well , I guess we 'll leave the pig alone ; but since you have reminded me of it , the chicken may as well go in . I can make room . '' Lucy Rose , in spite of her prejudices , helped with the packing and , not having been trained under Aunt Cyrilla 's eye for nothing , did it very well too , with much clever economy of space . But when Aunt Cyrilla had put in as a finishing touch a big bouquet of pink and white everlastings , and tied the bulging covers down with a firm hand , Lucy Rose stood over the basket and whispered vindictively : `` Some day I 'm going to burn this basket -- when I get courage enough . Then there 'll be an end of lugging it everywhere we go like a -- like an old market-woman . '' Uncle Leopold came in just then , shaking his head dubiously . He was not going to spend Christmas with Edward and Geraldine , and perhaps the prospect of having to cook and eat his Christmas dinner all alone made him pessimistic . `` I mistrust you folks wo n't get to Pembroke tomorrow , '' he said sagely . `` It 's going to storm . '' Aunt Cyrilla did not worry over this . She believed matters of this kind were fore-ordained , and she slept calmly . But Lucy Rose got up three times in the night to see if it were storming , and when she did sleep had horrible nightmares of struggling through blinding snowstorms dragging Aunt Cyrilla 's Christmas basket along with her . It was not snowing in the early morning , and Uncle Leopold drove Aunt Cyrilla and Lucy Rose and the basket to the station , four miles off . When they reached there the air was thick with flying flakes . The stationmaster sold them their tickets with a grim face . `` If there 's any more snow comes , the trains might as well keep Christmas too , '' he said . `` There 's been so much snow already that traffic is blocked half the time , and now there ai n't no place to shovel the snow off onto . '' Aunt Cyrilla said that if the train were to get to Pembroke in time for Christmas , it would get there ; and she opened her basket and gave the stationmaster and three small boys an apple apiece . `` That 's the beginning , '' groaned Lucy Rose to herself . When their train came along Aunt Cyrilla established herself in one seat and her basket in another , and looked beamingly around her at her fellow travellers .
These were few XXXXX number -- a delicate little woman at the end of the car , with a baby and four other children , a young girl across the aisle with a pale , pretty face , a sunburned lad three seats ahead in a khaki uniform , a very handsome , imposing old lady in a sealskin coat ahead of him , and a thin young man with spectacles opposite .
along around as at in like of over since with