noon
Not a word had been sent to notify them of their arrival , but the last two hours in Washington had been given up to the purchasing of gifts , and Kit had looked positively dazed when the Dean handed her twenty-five dollars with the remark : `` You 'll want to buy a few little things too , my dear . '' A few little things . Kit wondered if he had any idea at all of how little cash had figured in the purchasing of home gifts at Greenacres the past two years . They arrived at Nantic a little past noon , after leaving Washington on the midnight express . There was no stop-over at New York in the morning , the train going straight through to New England , and here they found the first snowstorm . `` There are the old gray rock walls , bless them , '' exclaimed the Dean , delightedly , `` and the evergreens . The west may keep its towering white pines , but give me the old hemlocks and junipers , with the birches and oaks behind them . ''