Free Christmas at Stony Creek by Stephanie Greene Page B

head even lower.
    The rest of them stared at their mother, astonished.
    Mama never raised her voice to them. Never.
    “If anyone says another word about food, I don’t know what I’ll do,” she said. Her voice was shaking.
    No one said a word until Finny started to cry. The sound unfroze them all.
    Mama scooped Finny out of her high chair and carried her from the room. Pip stood up quietly. “Let’s do the dishes,” she said.
    Will pushed his chair away from the table and limped into the living room without looking back. Nan, Nibs, and Kit followed Pip into the kitchen.
    When the dishes were washed and put away, Pip helped the little girls into their nightgowns and read them a book. Then she went into her own room and shut the door. Her walking stick was lying in its placeon the floor beside her bed. Pip picked it up.
    It was her special stick, long and straight, with a fork at the top like a Y . Uncle Hank had helped her make it last summer.
    He had shown Pip how to peel off the bark to reveal the slippery, silky wood underneath. How to sand it over and over again until the sharp knots became smooth humps and the stick was as smooth as glass.
    It looked delicate, but it was strong. Uncle Hank said there wasn’t another stick like it.
    “It’s hickory wood,” he told her as he turned it over in his gnarled paws. “Nothing’s stronger than hickory. This stick will come in mighty handy, you’ll see.”
    He was right.
    It had saved Pip from falling into Stony Creek when she slipped on Twig Bridge during the flood. It was the perfect thing to use when she played the proud king in games with Nan and Nibs. It had helped her scare off nasty Badger when he poked his nose into her hiding place during a game of hide-and-seek.
    One sharp rap! had sent him running.
    Uncle Hank never knew how right he had been, but Pip thanked him silently each time she felt the stick’s smooth strength. She ran her paws along it now as she thought about what Kit had said at dinner.
    She knew where she could find more food, too.
    At Land’s End. The people had built it lastsummer, cutting down trees and destroying the homes of countless animals to make room for it.
    Pip had never seen it, but she’d heard stories.
    The people who lived there had more food than they could eat, everyone said. They covered their tables with food. What they couldn’t eat, they threw into huge metal cans with locks.
    It was hard for Pip to imagine such riches. Having so much food you would throw some away.
    Uncle Hank and Will had gone up there to see it for themselves. When Will came back alone, Mama had made the rest of them, including Papa, promise they wouldn’t go near it.
    Promising had been easy for Pip. She never wanted to see Land’s End as long as she lived. But inthe quiet of her room, holding the stick that gave her strength, she knew she might have to break her promise.
    If she didn’t go, Kit would.
    Pip couldn’t bear it if something were to happen to her other brother because she was afraid. If her father didn’t come home soon, she knew she would have to go.

chapter 4
Two Days to Christmas
    T he sleet had stopped during the night. The morning sun ricocheted off the thin coat of ice that covered the ground, the rocks, the trees. The whole world glittered.
    Christmas was two days away. Pip didn’t know how they could celebrate it without Papa.
    “We have to, Pip,” Mama told her after lunch, while the twins and Finny were taking their naps. Pip and Mama were baking cookies with the nuts Mamahad saved for Christmas sweets. “The twins would be so disappointed if we didn’t. Imagine what Papa would say.”

    Mama’s voice was firm. “We’ll go ahead and decorate the tree. We’ll plan a wonderful day. Papa will be home just in time, you’ll see.”
    She took Pip into her bedroom and showed her the acorn rattle filled with pebbles she had made for Finny. And the rag dolls for Nibs and Nan.
    Their button eyes didn’t match, and their