In the evenings after dinner they sang Christmas carols. Flip had taught them her favorite, _The Twelve Days of Christmas_. She had loved it when she was very small because it was such a long one, and when she was told that she could choose just one more song before bedtime, that would be it. So she loved it for its memories and now for its own charming tune and delicate words, from the first verse, _On the first day of Christmas My true love sent to me A partridge in a pear tree,_ to the twelfth verse when all the twelve gifts are sung with a glad shout. On Christmas Eve Georges Laurens stirred himself from his books and they all went out and climbed up the mountain and brought home a beautiful Christmas tree. Flip and Paul had been making the decorations in the evening after dinner, chains of brightly colored paper, strings of berries and small rolled balls of tinfoil; and Flip had carefully painted and pasted on cardboard twenty delicate angels with feathery wings and a stable scene with Mary and Joseph and the infant Jesus, the kings and shepherds and all the animals who gathered close to keep the baby warm. When the tree was trimmed they sang carols, ending up with _The Twelve Days_. Paul took Flip's hand and threw back his head and sang, "_On the twelfth day of Christmas My true love sent to me Twelve drummers drumming Eleven pipers piping Ten lords a'leaping Nine ladies dancing Eight maids a'milking Seven swans a'swimming Six geese a'laying Five gold rings, Four calling birds Three french hens Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree!_" 4 On Christmas morning they sat in front of the fire and opened their presents. Paul saved his gift to Flip till the last and then held out the small square box shyly. Flip opened it and lifted out of pale blue cotton a tiny silver pear on a chain. "I couldn't find any of the gifts from the carol," Paul said, "but this is a pear from the tree the partridge was in." Flip looked up at Paul's eager face and her own was radiant. She wanted to say something to express her happiness but she couldn't, so she just flung her arms wide as though she wanted to embrace them all. "Why Miss Philippa," Georges Laurens said, "I never realized before what a little beauty you are. We should have Christmas every day!" "Do you like the pear?" Paul asked. Flip, her eyes shining, whispered, "More than anything." 5 Towards the end of the holidays Flip persuaded Paul to stop off at the school chalet one day when they were skiing at Gstaad. She felt that perhaps it wasn't very nice of her to want to show Paul off, but she couldn't help wanting it.