six o'clock
While Mrs. Lee was helping Nora prepare the dinner the children put the finishing touches to their costumes and with much whispering arranged the stage for the play . The little tree around which the play must be acted had been put at one end of the long living-room ; the door close to it on the right , leading into the hall , would serve as a stage entrance . The only property needed was a rock , and by covering it with a strip of gray awning , the piano stool would look very real . At six o'clock Aunt Cora and Uncle Tom , Marian and Ted arrived ; a little later all the Pennys . Eighteen sat down at the table that creaked with the good things Mrs. Lee and Nora had prepared . Everyone talked at once . Keineth , looking down the length of the room , decked with the holly the children had fastened over doors and windows , thought that nowhere could Christmas be merrier than right there at the Lees !