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 Susan was cool as a fish and knew just what to do , and by morning Jims was all right . That child is a cross between a duck and an imp . He 's a year and four months old , trots about everywhere , and says quite a few words . He has the cutest little way of calling me `` Willa-will . '' It always brings back that dreadful , ridiculous , delightful night when Ken came to say good-bye , and I was so furious and happy .
Jims is pink and white and big-eyed and curly-haired and every now and then I discover a new dimple XXXXX him .
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