Excerpt from Home Spun Yarns In the big house on the hill, two small pairs of hands had trimmed the chimney-piece with holly and mistletoe, and hung the windows with wreaths and crosses, all in hopes that their absent father would return in season to see it, and wish them a merry Christmas. It was lonely enough for little Guy and Elsie in the big house. Only servants to keep them company since their old grandfather died; for their mother was dead, and their father had long been travelling in foreign lands. They were not much better off before their grand father died. He was not an affectionate grandfather, but an irritable old man, with moods of tenderness, it is true, but so generally out of humor that the children feared rather than loved him. It was said that he was not always so unlovely;-'that it was only since his daughter Margery ran away from home, and married against his wish her music-teacher, that he had be come so morose. He disowned her, and would never look at the pleading letters she sent begging his forgiveness. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.