The other girls caught her spirit and entered into the plan with enthusiasm . `` Splendid ! '' cried Beth . `` Jean , it is an inspiration , sure enough . Have n't we been horribly selfish -- thinking of nothing but our own gifts and fun and pleasure ? I really feel ashamed . '' `` Let us do the thing up the very best way we can , '' said Nellie , forgetting even her beloved chocolates in her eagerness . `` The shops are open yet . Let us go up town and invest . '' Five minutes later five capped and jacketed figures were scurrying up the street in the frosty , starlit December dusk . Miss Allen in her cold little room heard their gay voices and sighed . She was crying by herself in the dark . It was Christmas for everybody but her , she thought drearily . In an hour the girls came back with their purchases . `` Now , let 's hold a council of war , '' said Jean jubilantly . `` I had n't the faintest idea what Miss Allen would like so I just guessed wildly . I got her a lace handkerchief and a big bottle of perfume and a painted photograph frame -- and I 'll stick my own photo in it for fun . That was really all I could afford . Christmas purchases have left my purse dreadfully lean . '' `` I got her a glove-box and a pin tray , '' said Belle , `` and Olive got her a calendar and Whittier 's poems .
And besides we are going to give her half XXXXX that big plummy fruit cake Mother sent us from home .
Belle Nellie Olive by for in into of up with