That morning began no differently from any morning, though it was to be the beginning of all things new for Eric. He was awakened early by Mrs. Freg's rough hand shaking him by the arm, and her rough voice in his ears: "Get up, lazy-bones! All you boys pile out, this very minute! It's six o'clock already!" Then she reached over Eric and shook the other two boys in the bed with him, repeating and repeating "Wake up, wake up! It's six o'clock already!" When she was sure the three boys in the bed were awake and miserable, she crossed the room with a hurried, heavy tread and clumped, clumped down the stairs into the kitchen.

Though it happened just that way every morning, and it had happened so this morning, this day was to be very different from any other in Eric's life. But Eric could not know that so he crawled farther down under the few bedclothes he had managed to keep to himself, and shut his eyes again just for a minute.

The night had been a cold one, and the other two boys in the bed, because they were older and stronger, had managed to keep most of the bedding wrapped tightly around them, while little Eric shivered on the very edge. So he had not slept at all in the way little boys of nine usually sleep,--that is, when they have a bed to themselves, and their mother has left a kiss with them. When he had slept, he had dreamed he was wading in icy puddles out in the street.

But it was only a minute that he huddled there, trying to come really awake, and then he sprang out, and without thought of a bath, was into his clothes in a minute. The two older boys followed him more slowly, yawning, growling, and quarreling.

About Author:

Ethel Cook Eliot the grandmother of T.S. Eliot (a sixth cousin of author Winslow Eliot an American writer, known as both Winslow Eliot and Ellie Winslow), wrote children's books (The House Above the Trees, The Wind Boy), teenage mysteries, and adult novels (Ariel Dances, Green Doors).

Many of Winslow Eliot's ancestors were also writers: she is the daughter of Alexander Eliot, former Art Editor of Time magazine, and the writer Jane Winslow Eliot. Her great-great-grandfather, Charles W. Eliot, was president of Harvard University for fifty years and revamped the American college Liberal Arts curriculum. He was also famous for establishing the Harvard Classics, a still-utilized "Five Foot Shelf" of essential books. Her great-great grandmother, Ada Davenport Kendall[17] was a leading journalist who spent several months in prison for protesting in support of women's suffrage; she is a direct descendant of Edward Winslow, who came to America on the Mayflower. Another direct ancestor, John Eliot, translated the Bible into Algonquin in the seventeenth century. T.S. Eliot is a sixth cousin.

The Ethel Cook Eliot died in 1972, so her works in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 30 years or less. Works by this author may also be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.