'Big snowflakes fluttered slowly through the air like white feathers and made al
l of Heavenly Valley smooth and white and quiet and beautiful.' So here we are o
n Christmas Eve, locked up in rotten Mrs Monday's boarding house with no present
s and no Christmas dinner, while all the other children have gone home for the h
olidays. I'm Nancy, by the way, and this is my sister Plum. Luckily, we're both
pretty good at making up stories about the adventures and pretty dresses that we
'd like to have, and that helps us put up with Mrs Monday and her awful niece Ma
rybelle.
