Tramp , all of you , and give Mother a chance to get her work done . '' Mrs. Grant got up and fell to work at her dishes with a brighter face . `` Well , we must n't give in ; perhaps things will be better after a while . I 'll make a famous bread pudding , and you can boil some molasses taffy and ask those little Smithsons next door to help you pull it . They wo n't whine for turkey , I 'll be bound . I do n't suppose they ever tasted such a thing in all their lives . If I could afford it , I 'd have had them all in to dinner with us . That sermon Mr. Evans preached last Sunday kind of stirred me up . He said we ought always to try and share our Christmas joy with some poor souls who had never learned the meaning of the word . I ca n't do as much as I 'd like to . It was different when your father was alive . '' The noisy group grew silent as they always did when their father was spoken of . He had died the year before , and since his death the little family had had a hard time . Keith , to hide his feelings , began to hector the rest . `` Mary Alice , do hurry up . Here , you twin nuisances , get off to school . If you do n't you 'll be late and then the master will give you a whipping . '' `` He wo n't , '' answered the irrepressible Teddy . `` He never whips us , he does n't . He stands us on the floor sometimes , though , '' he added , remembering the many times his own chubby legs had been seen to better advantage on the school platform .
`` That man , '' said Mrs. Grant , alluding XXXXX the teacher , `` makes me nervous .
If as before for in of on since to with