one o'clock
From Mr. Maynard , who was superintending plans for his own family and for many beneficiaries , down to the cook , who was making whole shelves full of marvelous dainties , everybody was hurrying and skurrying from morning till night . The children had completed their gifts for their parents and for each other , and most of them were already tied in dainty tissue papers and holly ribbons awaiting the festal day . Now they were making gifts for the poor family of Simpsons , and they seemed to enjoy it quite as much as when making the more costly presents for each other . Marjorie came home from school at one o'clock , and as Mrs. Maynard had said she need n't practise her music any more until after the holidays , she had all her afternoons and the early part of the evenings to work at the Christmas things . She was especially clever with scissors and paste , and made lovely scrap-books by cutting large double leaves of heavy brown paper . On these she pasted post-cards or other colored pictures , also little verses or stories cut from the papers . Eight of these sheets were tied together by a bright ribbon at the back , and made a scrap-book acceptable to any child .